Isolation: A Cause of Death
In literature, the message that is seen in the text all depends on the reader. There are many point of views and styles of literary criticism which the reader can choose to follow. Each style is completely different philosophy, so thus each criticism finds different messages than the others. A philosophy that is used in literary criticism is existentialism. Dealing with human existence and condition, existentialism was founded in the 1920s, during the time when colleges were only for the scholars, and literature first moved to the universities. Existentialism is often a form of literary criticism that is overlooked. Its influence on literature is there, but hardly ever recognized. Merriam Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature gives a brief description of existentialism as "A family of philosophies devoted to an interpretation of human existence in the world that stresses its concreteness and its problematic character. The philosophers involved were Martin Heidegger, Karl Jaspers, Jean-Paul Sarte, Gabriel Marcel, and Marice Merleau-Ponty. According to the existentialist, people have the desire to act, not just know the situation. Also, the ego is not made when a person is born, but instead is shaped in a unique way for
"The Metamorphosis" is a short story written by Franz Kafka in 1915 in German as "Die Verwandlung," but then it was translated in 1937 into English. Either way, people need the choice to take action in order to feel part of society and not isolated. There is no special metaphysical meaning, but merely an account of a worker who has to support a family suddenly wakes up one day and finds out he can no longer work and becomes a burden on the family. Myerson continues to explain that a person thrives on being a part of society and a feeling of being needed. " (Spender 257) Spender defends that the plot is just what it is: Gregor's attempt to adapt to change, the neglect and disgrace of the family and his employer felt for him which ultimately led to his death. Without the existence in society, a person feels worthless and then deteriorates. However, Gregor had separated himself before then and in his mind, he had become a bug even though he had not yet woken up to having a bug's body. (Merriam Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature, 397) The biggest concepts seen in "The Metamorphosis" are subjectivity or ambiguity and isolation. In fact, Gregor even begins the isolationism by locking himself in his room during the night, despite the families fears. A person who understands that people around them have different perspectives from himself, so they cannot truly give meaning to their own life. (4) George Myerson, the author of 101 Key Ideas: Existentialism, gives an example of a dining family. In an essay written about a conversation with Kafka, Gustav Janouch, a friend of Kafka, talks about the story "The Metamorphosis" with Kafka around 1920, though exact conversation day is unknown. 'The Metamorphosis' is not a confession, although it is in a certain sense, an indiscretion. On the contrary, Kafka's expression showed that any discussion of the book was distasteful to him.
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Acceptance Essays
