Alienation

In our society, how you look can determine your status and how much power you have in society. If someone is aesthetically unpleasing, it can affect their social status, how people see them, and even cause them to become alienated. In The Metamorphosis and District 9 the main characters, Wikus van de Merwe and Gregor Samsa, become isolated and lose their social power after they go through their metamorphosis and the aliens were isolated and didn’t have social power from the start. Before their metamorphosis, both Wikus and Gregor had relatively good statuses in society. Compared to Gregor though, Wikus had a lot more social power since he was chosen to lead a head investigation for District 9 for MNU. He exerted his power on the aliens anyway he wanted sometimes aggressively. An example is when some of the aliens refused to move from their homes in District 9, he was rude to the aliens and told the army to force them out and use violence if necessary. He even found some of the army’s unnecessary methods funny such as when they incinerated a nest of baby aliens. After his metamorphosis, his social power dropped dramatically. The MNU went after him because they wanted him as a test subject. They even tortured him with electric tasers in order to force him to fire an alien weapon. His wife, friends, and family shunned him when he tried to ask him for help. The public became scared of him because they didn’t want to become contaminated. Also a result of this isolation, he had to do to the only place where he could “fit in”, District 9. Unlike Wickus Gregor wasn’t in a high postion from the start. He was just a normal employee, a salesman to be exact, but he was the provider of his household because he was the only one who made income. His dad stayed at home all day and slept most of the time, while his mom and sister did housework. He didn’t have that much social power in society as a whole since he had a strict boss who would get mad when he was late, but he did