Paradox In Bartleby And Bartleby

At first glance, there is not much in common between F Kafka’s The Metamorphosis and H. Melville’s Bartleby the Scrivener. Kafka’s novella, first published at the beginning of the 20th century, recounts the story of Gregor Samsa, a young man who works hard to support his family that suddenly and inexplicably is transformed into a huge bug. Melville, on the other hand, published the short story of Bartleby at the mid of the 19th century and as the title suggests, it’s the narration of Bartleby’s story, a scrivener in an office of the Wall Street. The common underlying factor in these two stories is an element of absurd.

Kafka is not shy; he introduces the factor of paradox in the first line of his work. “One morning, when Gregor Samsa woke

Kafka uses the third person narrative mode, an all knowing, neutral stranger as the storyteller. This gives the narration a feeling of immediacy as it presents the different points of views of the characters, their feelings and their thoughts. Kafka’s writing is unique, at times autobiographical. The main character of the story, which often represents a feature of Kafka’s own life, is the only one who is presented distorted struggling inside an otherwise realistic environment. In this instance, the distortion is the transformation of Gregor, which is deeply symbolic. Gregor’s metamorphosis changes him from the main provider of his household to a burden for his family and heralds the alienation of the individual person even from his closed ones. Kafka’s diction is simplistic, avoiding using verbose language and expressions. Instead he introduces vagueness and grotesque, the two elements that are to become his signature writing. His simplicity though is only superficial as his words are rich in subtle allusions. The Metamorphosis is set in a middle class neighbor in a central European city and takes place almost entirely within the Samsa family apartment. For the most part Gregor is confined within his room, where he wakes up to find himself transformed. “His room, a proper human room although a little too small, lay peacefully between its four familiar