The "alienation" of man has always been an important theme in Kafka's work. The Metamorphosis is one of the representative works that embody Kafka's theme of "alienation". It tells the absurd story of the protagonist who "alienates" into a big beetle under the dual oppression of society and family.
For a long time, Gregor has been in a state of contradiction between taking on the responsibility of the family's economic life and personal aspirations. However, in order to pay off his parents' debts, he had to suppress his desire to get rid of this forced labor and his yearning for freedom, and labor became a force that suppressed individuality and drove him to alienate. As a result, these desires in Gregor's heart, which were usually suppressed by the sense of family responsibility, finally led to the deformation of the body.
Metamorphosis is Gregor's renunciation and banishment of the self, a cryptic image of the subconscious mind that abandons himself in the human circle; insectification is Gregor's predilection, and he voluntarily identifies with the animal world.
But Gregor, who has turned into a worm, is not willing to be alienated, and he still wants to help the family take on the responsibilities of being a human being, thinking about paying off the family's debts, thinking of sending her sister to the music school of her dreams. However, when he became a beetle, could no longer go to work to earn money, and could no longer provide financial resources for the family, the love of family ethics ceased to exist, and the so-called family affection revealed its falseness. Although Gregor was unwilling to give up his "humanity", under the disgusted attitude of the family, he had to be "alienated" little by little. Compared with the disgust and disgust of his family, Gregor still maintained the purity and warmth of the human spiritual world after insectification.
At the end of the novel, Gregor uses his life to fight the final game of being "alienated", he has paid his life but finally been liberated, at least he has not been completely "alienated", he has achieved his goal of rebelling against family and social oppression, and it is also a victory.
Kafka has a strong sense of fatalism, and even if people struggle desperately, they will end up in vain. His characters are all weak and small, lonely and helpless in the survival of the situation, they live under external pressure, although they have resisted, but failure is always the final result of the struggle.
Kafka was also acutely aware of the futility of man's struggle in this world, but he did not give up his efforts and give up the struggle. He is pessimistic, but not world-weary; he is desperate, but he does not give up; his Gregor, although in a desperate situation, is still diligently searching for life, and living to death is the most touching place for Kafka's protagonist. Although Gregor eventually died alone, he resisted alienation, and the underlying intent of rebellion against the world had made his transformation extraordinary.
Resources:
Alienated Society The Struggle of Fate - Kafka's Metamorphosis Interprets a Kind of Wang Jiayin
Metamorphosis: An Escape from Alienation – A Commentary on Kafka's Metamorphosis by Ren Weidong
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