Kafka, Eliot and Me

Thanks to 'The Metamorphosis' as well as 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock' I have spent countless sleepless nights pondering about the correlations between the two texts. Now you might be thinking 'how many correlations are there really between these two texts?' as well as 'how many nights exactly?'. Well to answer both of those quesitons, 1) there are a quite a few linking themes between the two texts and 2) not even one. But jokes aside and nonetheless, let's get into the similarities between the two texts.

The Metamorphosis

Published by Franz Kafka in 1915, the novella 'The Metamorphosis' often makes us think 'What does it mean to be human?'. Well, this question will be answered shortly, but first, let's find out a bit more about Kafka and perhaps why he wrote this novella with themes based on alienation and isolation.

Franz Kafka was born on the 3rd of July in Prague and grew up in a large family with 5 other siblings. Kafka often remarked that he did not have a very good relationship with his father and his father did not repsect his writings. The fact that Kafka was not loved and respected may have made Kafka feel like he did not belong in the family, which he then used as inspration to write the novella 'The Metamorphosis'. In my opinion, when Kafka writes about Gregor (the main character in 'The Metamorphosis'), he is simply reflecting the way he felt in his family as he grew older. This brings us back to the question I posed ealrier. What does it mean to be human? In order to answer this, let's look at how Gregor is seen to become less and less human as the novella progresses.

Throughout the beginning of the novella, Gregor is slowly but constantly being transformed into a cockroach. He starts off with all his human emotions and he is able to speak like a human, but he simply has the body of a cockroach. Unfortunately, due to his transformation, Gregor's mind begins to change along with his body.

As the novella progresses Gregor seems to become less and less human. Due to his dehumanization, his family treats him worse and worse due to them thinking that the Gregor they know no longer exists. This can be seen when they feed him food “unfit for human consumption” since he likes it more. The the rotten food which he gets fed symoblizes his full transformation from a human to a cockraoch. This is one of his transformations which Kafka put great emphasis on because it shows the first time that Gregor's mind changes even though he doesn't mean for it to happen. Next, Gregor also becomes more and more isolated because his family don't want to spend time with him and eventually see him as more of a burden than a family member.

Later, towards the end of the novella, Gregor gets ignored by his family to a point where Gregor does not feel the need to live anymore. He eats less until he eventually dies, which the family seem to respond happily by going on a walk and discussing his sisters marriage plans.

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

This brings us to Pruckrock. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock was also published in 1915, but instead by T.S Eliot. Similarly to 'The Metamorphosis', this poem also tends to make us to wonder "what does it mean to be human?" and also being up the ideas of isolation and alienation.

In the love song, J. Alfred Prufrock, Prufrock is desperately in love with a woman to whom he wishes to propose. The story starts of with him walking through narrow streets comtemplating whether or not he should propose and what other people will think of him. He feels very alone and isolated because of his lack of self-confidence. The poem later progresses to him getting closer and closer to a room where his love is sitting, but he cannot manage to make himself go into the room and propose.

Throughout the entire poem, Prufrock constantly degrades himself and asks himself why the woman would choose to marry him over another man. He feels very inferior and as a result he becomes isolated and chooses to stay that way. Different from Gregor, Prufrock is not alienated/isolated by his family, but rather by himself.

At one point in the poem, Prufrock thinks of himself as fog, representing the movements of a cat. This figurative cat then rubs its cheeks along the edge of the room he wants to go into, showing interest in the room, but eventually curls up outside and goes to sleep. This in my opinion is similar to Gregor, because after a while Prufrock simply decides to give up. He does not try and improve his situation, and therefore cannot find the courage to succeed.

Overview

This brings us back once againt to the question of what it means to be human. In my opinion, being human usuaully revolves around feeling emotions towards other people and having relationships between friends, family and loved ones. This is exactly what Gregor seems to experience less throughout the novella. He becomes less loved and he starts to feel less emotions towards his family memebers especially at the end of the novella. As a result of his family not caring for him anymore, he becomes completely animalistic and gives up on trying to feel anything, ultimately leading to his death. Being human also revolves around how you interact with others. Although Gregor might still have loved his family, he did not show his emotions due to his family being scared of the way he looked.

Overall, I believe 'The Metamorphosis' and 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock' both contain themes based on alienation and isolation. Although both characters could have tried to improve their situation and continue with their lives, they chose to give up and in the end they are the cause of their own downfalls.