Running Head: THEME OF ALIENATION.

The theme of Alienation.

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Gregor’s transformation highlights his isolation and alienation before his metamorphosis.

Gregor worked very hard and tirelessly to meet the family’s financial needs. As a

salesman, he used to walk very long distances from home to his place of work. Despite many

challenges that the family underwent, Gregor worked extremely hard to ensure his beloved

family had something on the table to put into their mouth. He dutiful devoted himself for the

sake of his family members (Gradesaver, 2020). Working from the evening and even extending

to overnight to increase hi finances to meet all household requirements. He successfully manages

to make all family members happy and satisfied by giving all he had worked for. Nobody dared

to utter a word of thanks just for appreciation (Prithivirajan, 2020). This indicated that the family

had taken him for granted. He feels that nobody appreciates his efforts in sustaining a financially

staggering family.

Secondly, Gregor feels shame and alienated by others. his dutiful submission led to the

judgment he was subjected to. Gregor was a selfless member of the family. Before

metamorphosis, we see him selflessly helping every member of the family ensure their happiness

is sustained. The aspect of selfless made Gregor thinks more of other than himself. In a nutshell,

Gregor estranged himself from others to make ends meet. Nobody in the family bothered to

empathize with him as he moiled and toiled for the betterment of his household (Axelrod-

Sokolov, 2018).

Worth noting is the lesson we learn about Gregor and his sister’s ambitions to study

music. Despite many challenges of traveling long distances, bed problems, hardships, and

feeding on irregular meals, Gregor is determined to continue working to raise enough money to
THEME OF ALIENATION 3

meet his sister's expensive admission and tuition fee. He wants to see his sister happy, yet he is

suffering a lot- he isolates himself from happiness at the expense of others (Prithivirajan, 2020).

References

Axelrod-Sokolov, M. (2018). The Madness of Marginalization in Kafka’s The

Metamorphosis. Madness in Fiction, 41-58. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-70521-7_3

Gradesaver. (2020, July 17). The Metamorphosis Chapter 3 Summary and Analysis |

GradeSaver. Retrieved from https://www.gradesaver.com/the-metamorphosis/study-

guide/summary-chapter-3

Livesay, L. (2007). Kafka’s The Metamorphosis: Gregor’s Da-Sein Paralyzed by

Debt. Temporality in Life as Seen Through Literature, 367-393. doi:10.1007/1-4020-

5331-2_24

Prithivirajan, S. (2020). Absurd Transformation in Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis. SSRN

Electronic Journal. doi:10.2139/ssrn.3608332