Alienation due to rejection of society and the Metamorphosis
In the novel, The Stranger by Albert Camus and The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, the main characters in the novels have differences that cause people to reject them from society. In The Stranger, the character Meursault had social differences such as Meursault had a lack of emotions due to his sole acknowledgement of the physical world. In The Metamorphosis, the character Gregor had physical differences, which was his bug like appearance that was brought about by his metamorphosis. Examples such as both characters were both put in an isolated area to hide them from society, they both die from being hated in society, and they were both push away from people in society. Shows that even though the main characters faces different dissimilarity such as social or physical it causes them to become isolated and alienated from society in both a social and physical way due to society’s inability to accept them. In both novels the main character both were put in an isolated area to hide them from society. In the Stranger, the main character Meursault was put in jail because society couldn’t accept …show more content…
him for his social difference in lack of emotions. “A few days after I entered prison, I realized that I wouldn’t like talking about this part of my life” (Camus, 73). Meursault was consoled and isolated in prison in a social and physical way due to society’s inability to accept him as a person.
In the Metamorphosis, the main character Gregor was isolated in his room because his family couldn’t bear to see him. “But it seemed to him as if he had been aroused by a hasty footfall and cautious locking of the door that led to the hallway” (Kafka, 24). Gregor’s family was able to accept Gregor after his transformation which causes them to lock him in the upstairs. From this Gregor suffers from physical and social isolation for his physical difference. This goes to show that even though the characters suffer through differences such as social or physical they are put in an isolated area to hide them from society which they suffer from social and physical isolation from
society. The novels are both similar in the way that both the main character dies from being hated in society. Such as the character Meursault was persecuted for his difference to cultural norm and then sentence to die at the guillotine. “I didn’t have time to, because the presiding judge told me in bizarre language that I was to have my head cut off in a public square in the name of French people” (Camus, 107). Meursault was hated by society who causes a force upon death which affects him in a social and physical way because they couldn’t accept him and believe that he was bad for society. This is somewhat similar in Gregor’s situation because he was hated by society in terms of his family and died on his own accordance because he believed it was best for his family. “Then his head involuntarily sank down altogether, and his last breath issued faintly from his nostrils” (Kafka, 49). Thus, due his family inability to accept as part of the family Gregor sees how burdening he was and chose to die to his own accordance which affect him socially and physically From these two novels it shows that Meursault and Gregor both suffer from physical and social difference that causes society to outcast them and be hated in society because of their inability to accept them. These two novel are both similar in away that the main characters Meursault and Gregor are push away from people in society for their difference. Such as for Meursault he