Kafka's Metamorphosis

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Fractured from Shell-shock War, a concept that has been present since the beginning of time, always changes. The changes range from the discovery of new technology, which brings about new ways for people to slaughter each other, to the philosophy that develops politics during wartime. A war has always been, “a state or period of fighting between countries or groups” (Merriam-Webster). The only question left to ask ourselves is: what could possibly go wrong? The answer, not surprisingly, is a lot of things. By analyzing one of the most unnecessary wars in history and modernistic based text, this paper will demonstrate the effects of World War I on society.
Most of the problems that arose from World War I could be rooted back to the cause …show more content…
In short, the story is about a man who turns into a cockroach that gets mistreated by the people around him. This way of seeing people could be directly translated to the way soldiers were treated. They were probably taken from their homes, hopefully by something “humane” like the draft, and thrown into a situation they have never been in before. The treatment they got was like that of a bug that got nothing but disgust and hate no matter where it went. It could even extend to the point where they return home crippled, and they are no use to the family anymore. This example directly relates to “Metamorphosis”, since the main character, in essence, becomes a cripple that cannot do anything for his family. This starts to show the divide as a little crack between the “cans and …show more content…
Dalloway, shows how World War I divided everything further. Everything within the story was broken up between different people and different viewpoints. Woolf perfectly broke it up to show different societal outlooks on life after the war. It all starts with optimism, breaks up the happy with pessimism and realism, and then breaks out the content optimism again. It shows that there are these breaks that began to form after learning almost everything was a lie. The optimism begins with a lovely tour of the streets of London that shows everyone lively and in motion. Then as soon as a slight nod to the war, such as a car backfiring, causes a character, Septimus, to start suffering (Woolf, 23). Septimus, a man who suffers from PTSD and believes that nothing he did in the war was worth it, is driven mad by the way the world wants him to believe (Woolf, 66). His views on society change, and it ends up with the real world showing its cruel fangs. Septimus ends up killing himself, and when everyone else finds out, they just blow it off. Only one character, Clarissa, considered that might be a way out for her too, but then backed out. She was too content with where she was in society and did not want to expose the cracks. The war ended and everything came crashing down, but everyone strained their necks too much looking at the greener side, and some fell because of it. They started to become accepting of the fact that something happened, but then covered
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