The Struggle of Gregor against Alienation in Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis

Abstract

The Metamorphosis tells a transformation of a man into an insect. That man is Gregor Samsa. He has to struggle against alienation from people around him until he finally meets his tragic death. The story begins when one morning Gregor who works as a cloth salesman, found his body turned into a giant insect when he woke up. He thought it might be a dream. But as time passes and his human form does not come back, Gregor finally believes that what he experienced is not only a hallucination. Until the end, Gregor could no longer do his activities as usual. Gregor's family who felt that Gregor is now nothing but a burden, then they abandon Gregor just like that, make Gregor struggling alone to live his new life until he died because he could not stand the injury and the pressure he felt. This research uses qualitative method to find and analyze the data in the novel. The data are collected using the documentary method. There are primary data and secondary data. The primary data of the research are collected from the novel written by Franz Kafka entitled The Metamorphosis. They are in the form of facts and information about the alienation of Gregor presented in the novel. The secondary data are the information that is out of the novel such as the real socio-cultural condition of Prague in the early twentieth century and the life of the author. They are taken from the various sources for instance books, journals, literary work reviews, internets and the other sources to support the analysis. To find the ideological implication of class struggle as the structure of the text in The Metamorphosis, this research describes about the socio-cultural condition of Prague that must have an influence to Kafka in taking alienation as his theme of the story. Analyzing the structure of the novel and the real society of Prague will lead the writer to know the worldview of the author. By knowing the world view of the author, then the ideology and the reason of the author in creating The Metamorphosis can be understood. The result of this research shows (1) Gregor is alienated from people around him, his father, sister, mother, and his manager where he works. And after struggle with his miserable condition, he meets his death. His death could be the only way to free him from his alienation. (2) The social and cultural background of the people living in the novel of The Metamorphosis are reflected to the condition of society that was trapped within the slavery of capitalism caused by industrialization that was developing in Europe at that time. In addition, the alienation by most European citizens against the Jews was also the portrayal of social conditions in the story. (3) The author‟s worldview in The Metamorphosis is a thinking that believes that human existence is very important