The Modernist Isolation

            

The Modernist Isolation

            The ideas from the modernist minds are concepts to be seen and understood throughout contemporary society and humanity. The philosophies and words of modernist literature come to life in exceptional, yet taxing, ways. The Metamorphosis, a short story written by Franz Kafka, exposes the ills of humanity in creative ways, metaphorically and literally explaining modernism, isolationism, and existentialism. All three of these philosophical concepts and movements are in the midst of this story, shown through the one hero in its entirety, Gregor Samsa. Gregor is a character that is locked in an eternal room of isolation, not to be appreciated, recognized, or loved whatsoever. From the outside elements of the story, his family, his job, and his bedroom, he is isolated from his life and life itself. Kafka is brilliant at writing of Gregor's loneliness and emotions through the use of antagonistic elements attacking him, either mentally or physically. Without metaphor, this story is only a painfully boring "sci-fi" short story that urges on and on. Of course, Kafka's intentions are far more complex and meaningful through his use of metaphor and symbolism. Kafka's purpose of this story is to get the reader to feel empathetic for Gregor, and to more importantly realize that Gregor's transformation into a bug is the representation of all humans, and all human beings are just as ugly and disgusting as cockroaches and insects like them. The reason modernist literature is written is to express the sadness of the era and connect with the reader, but to also bring enlightenment by allowing the characters to find the inner self and what life means to them in an existentialist manner, because of the hardships and isolation they have to face. Gregor is such a character, and his body, mind, and soul, who symbolizes the isolation of the people during the modernist era, and the isolation of humanity and individual beings in a contemporary context. Kafka's modernist style of writing conveys empathy at its finest to the reader, expressing existentialism and communion, as well as vampirism, irony, and isolation. Though, out of all of these concepts, isolation is the key modernistic idea that every other element ties in with from the contextual standards of modernism.

            The first ideas that express Gregor's isolation from the body to the soul are communion and vampirism. Communion is not something Gregor has, but rather the lack of, which creates his physical and emotional isolation. The concept of communion, as Thomas Foster explains in How to Read Literature Like a Professor, can be used in several ways as long as it pertains to the gathering of people who share beliefs, trust, and an intimate connection. "...whenever people eat or drink together, it's communion... breaking bread together is an act of sharing and peace " (Foster 1). The metaphor of breaking bread comes from the Christian communion, which is the act of literally breaking and eating bread and drinking wine, the body and blood of Jesus. In contemporary terms, breaking bread is the sharing of food and trust, thus a meal. A meal is really a sacred time, as eating is personal thing, and no one wants to eat with people they're uncomfortable with or don't trust. This is because meals have communion, and communions always have intimate connection, which is nothing but trust and a peaceful relationship of some sort. When one is left out of a meal from the rest, the bystander automatically is isolated in a state of no human connection and complete loneliness. This is what Gregor lacks, and the feeling of no communion is clear to Gregor. The fact that his family eats without him every night after he turns into a bug, shows their exclusion of Gregor from their communion-full meal. Already he is isolated from his family in general, locked in his room and never to interact and have relation with them, but not being able to eat with them just adds to Gregor's emotional devastation. Then there is vampirism, which is what takes away everything Gregor loves and cherishes, which affects him in every way, of course leading to his death. The exclusion from the dinner table and every civilized and filling meal is taken from him, which includes communion, and that theft of life occurs because of his family, making his family as a whole and individually, vampires. "...it's also about things other than literal vampirism: selfishness, exploitation, a refusal to respect the autonomy of other people, just for starters" (Foster 6). The popular vision of a vampire, a blood sucking, undead man, is rather a metaphor of the real meaning of a vampire. A literal vampire people think is one like Dracula, when in fact, a literal vampire should be one who 'sucks' the strength, innocence, and life of another person. Examples of vampires in reality are rapists, or abusive family members, or any person who doesn't physically kill one all at once, but slowly exploits, hurts, and scars until eventually leading to death. This death can be referred to as the death of one's passion, love, mind and/or soul. For Gregor, it is all of these, without one to survive. Obviously Gregor physically dies, but everything he has to give and live for is taken by his family, mostly by his father. Starting with his father, Mr. Samsa, he is the first vampire. Before Gregor turns into a bug, his family makes him use all of his money to basically pay off all of his family's expenses and their lives. Gregor being an adult doesn't have to let his life be controlled by his family, but he loves them so much, he feels the need to do so. Already this shows his family as vampires, since they're taking away all of his money for their lazy, worthless lives when instead, they could be living their own lives and paying it off themselves. The taking away of anything important to one's life is an act of vampirism, which his family does. Then when Gregor becomes a bug, his family fears him, but his sister and mother still know it's him deep inside. Mr. Samsa first as the vampire, takes away his wife and daughter's trust in Gregor, and their love they have to give for Gregor. "'...I will not utter my brother’s name in front of this monster, and thus I say only that we must try to get rid of it...'" (Kafka 23). This is a classic act of a vampire, because vampires leave their victims hopeless, and in need of following their predator, in which they become vampires as well. Kafka shows this by making Gregor's mother and sister shut out Gregor, not trust that he really is Gregor, and act as vampires against him. Before, Gregor's sister Grete feeds him what she can and still believes that the bug is Gregor, but once she becomes a vampire, she thinks nothing of him, forgetting all of the love she has for her brother. Through all of the family's vampirism, all directed towards Gregor, he is completely isolated. From lack of food, communion, space, interaction, and love, Gregor is basically 'sucked dry' by his vampire family, being the victim of such cruelty. Vampirism is the main element that's out of his control in his external life that puts him in complete isolation on every level until death parts him.

            Kafka uses so many metaphorical elements and symbols, plus his modernist style of writing to convey a message. In The Metamorphosis, he conveys multiple messages, some more important to the story than others, and some for the readers. The idea that, through the character of Gregor, Kafka can show the concept of isolationism and how it's derived from so many other elements that affect Gregor in this way. There is the philosophy that Gregor seems to follow once becoming something unknown and inhuman, and that is existentialism. This is a concept not concisely defined to this day, as it has more meaning than most concepts in the world. ""Existentialism", therefore, may be defined as the philosophical theory which holds that a further set of categories, governed by the norm of authenticity, is necessary to grasp human existence" (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Existentialism). This article has no set definition to define such a deep philosophy, but sections of material to interpret it. Modernism is meant for one to find the Self through empathy, experience, a journey in a way. Gregor goes through a tragic journey from the events that happen around and against him, and in his mind and soul. He realizes more than he does when he is in human form about his family and his own life, which ultimately leads to his death. Starvation is a physical factor no doubt, but the emotional devastation pushed him over the edge, and yet, he still does not act against his horrible family, but isolated himself in his final hour. His death could not be more brutal in his filthy and empty room, literally and metaphorically, and in complete isolation. "Besides he felt relatively content. True, he had pains throughout his entire body, but it seemed to him that they were gradually becoming weaker and weaker and would finally go away completely" (Kafka 25). Even though he had much more of a life to live, despite being feared by everyone as a bug, his death is the happiest moment for him, from the moment he turned into a bug until passing. This is because his life and every part of it is keeping him in the darkness and sadness of isolation, and no one wants to live a life of no freedom. His death is his freedom. The freedom to leave his family, his job, his room of darkness, and everything else he suffered from to go to somewhere better than life. From his isolation, no matter what he thinks comes after life, has got to be better than the isolation of his last life. From going through so much in such a small period of time in comparison to one's whole life, one is bound to experience something they hadn't before. No matter the realization of the drastic, dramatic, or traumatic experiences, one will have an existentialist experience. Existentialism is finding oneself, embracing nature, and experiencing the human race and life as it is. Gregor has many moments where he realizes faults of his life and his family's. "'O God,' he thought, 'what a demanding job I’ve chosen! Day in, day out, on the road. The stresses of selling are much greater than the actual work going on at head office, and, in addition to that, I still have to cope with the problems of travelling, the worries about train connections, irregular bad food, temporary and constantly changing human relationships, which never come from the heart. To hell with it all!'" (Kafka 1). Here, right from the start, the transformation into a bug confuses and stresses him out enough where he finally realizes that his job is isolating him from the life he could have. The job itself is slowly killing him, keeping him from the unknown potential of life, but now his bug form is an unknown to himself. So much of his life is unknown to him as he is trapped by his own job, family, and bug form, this gives him an existentialist moment, realizing how much bigger life can be, but also how isolated he is. Many moments such as these make Gregor fight back against his current life, for a better life. A life to be discovered for himself and embrace it for an existentialist experience. These experiences should be something everyone feels at some point in their lives, or multiple times, whether it's letting out your pain and realizing there is more life to reach, or feeling empathy and realizing how one should embrace the beauty of the life that they've got. These existentialist experiences are what make Gregor have a more peaceful death, because they make him realize the life that's out of his reach, who he and his family truly are, and the pain of the life he's living.

            The amount of elements that Kafka writes for The Metamorphosis is unreal, and despite all the philosophical meanings, metaphors, and depressing elements of the story, there is one big part of the writing that Kafka tried to use and that is humor. No one thinks of the story of Gregor Samsa humorous, but in fact, it's obvious that Kafka is trying to be funny and connect with the reader on that level. Empathy is a huge factor in having someone feel for the character in the story and relate it to reality, but so are referential jokes and metaphorical humors. If the reader follows the humor, it connects with one on a whole different level than empathy, but leading to the same understanding. The story of Gregor is humorous when based to reality, because it leaves out aspects and layers of reality and replaces them with fictional metaphors. "Both depend on what some communication theorists call "exformation," which is a certain quantity of information apparently removed from, but evoked by, a communication in such a way as to cause a kind of explosion of associative connections within the recipient" (Wallace 1). This taking away of certain modernist era problems and things makes the situation seem of no importance to the story. Once the writer replaces them with objects, concepts, or things contextual with story that in fact do have metaphorical meaning to the original things from reality, the scene becomes a sort of puzzle to figure out. Once one finds out what the writer is trying to get at through complicated metaphor, it makes it a literary joke, and that much funnier. "...at that moment something or other thrown casually flew close by and rolled in front of him. It was an apple" (Kafka 18). During this scene, Gregor's father is throwing apples at him. Not looking at the story in a metaphoric manner, it seems either stupidly funny that his father is throwing apples at him instead of something more damaging, or just sad that one's own father would throw stuff maliciously at them. Looking at the meaning of the apple, derived from the apples in the story of Adam and Eve, the apple can mean many things, but most importantly knowledge. When interpreted this way, Mr. Samsa throwing apples at his bug son is him throwing the information of their hatred for Gregor right at him. When the apple impales Gregor, he quickly gets the information that his family doesn't want him in their presence right when the apple strikes him and nothing else. The apple is clearly the symbol of knowledge, in the case of Gregor it is threatening, but when the reader knows of this metaphor, it almost makes it ironic or funny that the weapons of choice are the apples of knowledge. To some, this may not seem funny no matter the circumstances, but Kafka's intended humor is supposed to be of tragedy. "...tactic doesn't begin to countenance the deeper alchemy by which Kafka's comedy is always also tragedy, and this tragedy always also an immense and reverent joy" (Wallace 2). The laughing or joking of something of heartbreak may bring one guilt, but only because some form of empathy should be felt instead. Kafka uses humor in a dark way, but he still is in fact trying to convey humor to the reader. If the reader does not understand the humor, the story of Gregor may only seem depressing. As this is one of the feelings Kafka intends for the reader, the story is so bizarre, yet meaningful and saddening, that the reader should almost laugh at themselves for feeling such empathy. Connecting the story to reality, the feeling of empathy for life should be real and worth crying for. In the story itself, the metaphors and events should be of some comic, to bring life to the story and the reader in a different way, and enlighten the modernist depression of the writing. It depends on how one looks at it, but Gregor's life is one of empathy and humor, and the blend of these two elements makes a truly meaningful and compelling story of a human in isolation trapped in a bug body.

            Gregor Samsa, the man trapped in the body of a bug, is the selfless being full of love who gets none in return from his family and life itself. The Metamorphosis is a short story of modernism, involving many concepts, philosophies, metaphors, and ironies. Existentialism is a philosophy that Gregor experiences in certain situations, finding out what life is to him, how it treats him, and what is really worth living for. He goes through a major physical transformation, but his mind and soul do as well, from the drastic realizations of his life and who his parents and sister truly are. His physical suffering and emotions slowly ruin his poor life more and more, so when he feels a moment of joy or realization, it is an existentialist experience to him. Leading up to his death is a state of weakness, yet peacefulness, and this is what he treasures in the end of his life. Becoming isolated for so long from people you love and care for is like betrayal, and Gregor can only take so much isolation from love and life. At that point, death is the best and only way to get out of the isolation of his room and his soul, and is why his death is in fact the happiest turning point of the end of his life. Vampirism and lack of communion make his isolation more severe, which ultimately makes his life worse than it ever could be. When outside forces, especially from the people he cares for and trusts the most, isolate and ruin his life, it starts the downslide to his emotional death and makes him ruin his own life by the feeling of guilt, sadness, and undeserving of love when none of it is his fault. The style of modernism in the writing and the story brings all of these concepts into effect, and brings life to the meaning of the story itself. Even yet, Kafka writes the story to be humorous on a complex and standard level, but create empathy for the reader from the heartbreak of Gregor. Except in the end, everything comes down to the element of isolationism and how it affects Gregor. All the elements in this story of modernism tie in with isolationism, creating the total isolation of Gregor's life physically, emotionally, and spiritually; isolation is the most important aspect of this entire story.