Metamorphosis And Frankenstein

In Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the theme of societal fears continuously shows through the author’s vivid metaphors and language. Both novels demonstrate how people's opinions on another’s appearance drastically affect them as a whole, ultimately still connecting emotions to physical characters. Kafka conveys how Gregor feel’s as a person by turning him into a bug and this causes his family to shut him out. In Frankenstein, the hideous creature feels like he does not fit in because of his appearance, therefore he does not conform to the beauty standards of society, he becomes isolated and depressed from rejection. Therefore, these both are prime examples of fear and not being able to fit in based on appearance.

The creature has to protect himself and also adapt to society and how society treats him so he can fit in. However, the valiant actions from the creature shows how he faces societal fears throughout the book contrasting each other because of how Gregor also goes through the same thing, and slowly tries to fit in. Also both texts contrast the ideas in metamorphosis because they represent family vs. society. (Shelley 18) gives us a prime example as she states, “The world was to me a secret which I desired to divine”. The creature talks about how he enjoys wanting to figure out life and how it works, but in a way he still searches on how to fit in and live life as a creature. This overall pulls the whole idea and view of societal fears into perspective because of how the monster wants to be able to show out in the world and discover new things but he still tries to fit in/figure himself out. This also conveys the fear, anticipation, enjoyment and satisfaction of learning how to “fit in”. Another

In the Metamorphosis, Kafka convey’s Gregor’s fear of being judged and his internal reflection about how he feels through Gregor's transformation into a bug. Gregor shows not very much courage, well mainly little to none, him turning into a huge bug is foreshadowing how he feels in society. Therefore it leads to Gregore not feeling understood,“I cannot make you understand. I cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside me. I cannot even explain it to myself” (Kafka 67). He does not want anyone to feel the need to take care of him because of the way they think of him. Gregor in a way seems like he has anxiety about this which he does because he thinks he is the problem. On the other hand here is another example “Even in satirizing society, he may distance himself from the society he criticizes, but that again underscores the inseverable link between himself and his society. An individual can never be completely divorced from society” (Roye 2). This is basically saying that no matter what he does or as much as he tries to separate himself from society, there is always a way that he is going to be connected. Gregor (the creature) is consistently rejected by society, which is a sign of societal fear or just simply not fitting in no matter what he does. The whole book indicates how they kind of just throw Gregor to the side like he is nothing because of his