The Theme Of Human And Animal Transformation English Literature Essay

The Theme Of Human And Animal Transformation English books Essaythroughout history, animals puzzle held and important place in literature, they crook as symbols and representations of society, political economy and world kindreds. Franz Kafka was born in Prague in 1883 to a upper-middle sort out Jewish, German family. Although his come was loving she was somewhat secondary to his lift and his passing domineering father was both emotionally and physically abusive. Throughout his life, Kafka always felt somewhat of an outsider as healthy as existence plagued with guilt about his hatred for his father who he perceive as a giant of a man, my father, the ultimate judge, coming to die me in the middle of the night1 As an adult, Kafka lived a double life, engagework forceting(a) as a clerk by day and writing by night, something that was highly disapproved of by his father. He never married or had children and worn out(p) most of his adult living with his parents and sister s omething that one rotter contain reflected in the metamorphosis.Metamorphosis, is fundamentally a fantasy romance however, it represents a really real scenario. By looking at the refreshing from a bolshie perspective one can see a proletarian being abandoned by his employer and family after fitting un satisfactory to work and swear them financially which is representative of the proletariat, bourgeoisie struggle described by Marx. Kafkas Metamorphosis is an illustration of a capitalist society dominated by economics and the abandonment of those uneffective to provide for themselves. If one studies the novel from this perspective we can see that the protagonist Gergor represents the proletariat and his manager the bourgeoisie.Gregor, the protagonist of the novel represents the proletariat, he is forced to work in a job that he hates as a travelling sales man as he is exhausting to obtain his family and pay off his fathers debts. Gregors social status would be specify by Marx and Engels as a member of the class of modern earnings labourers who having no means of production of their own are decreased to change their labour power in order to live2. At the get-go of the novel we learn that Gregor has transformed into an insect. The identity of this creature however, is never discoer this is because the characteristics of the insect are relatively unimportant in understanding the conflict and class struggles that are occurring within the novel. Instead the transformation signifies Gergors new softness to work and provides a focus on Gregors value as a labourer rather than a person and how this diminishes when he is no semipermanent able to go out and earn money or support his family.If Gregor is representative of the proletariat his m petulance symbolises the bourgeoisie he is an example of the class of modern capitalists, owners of the means of social production and employers of wage labourers.3 The manager is not given a name which signifies h is lack of humanity and acts superior as a solving of his advanced economic position. Kafkas portrayal of the manager makes him highly unlikeable, if anything the lector is lead to empathise to a greater extent with Gregor as an insect than his human manger.The first to abandon Gregor is his manager who leaves as soon as he realises that Gregor is unable to work and therefore has no value to him. As the worker Gregor is work nothing more than his labour to his manager he is likewise expendable as the manager knows that he will be able to find a replacement worker. However, one Gregor becomes unable to support his family financially they to abandon him. Marx claims that the bourgeoisie has torn away from the family its sen fourth dimensionntal veil and has reduced the family relation into a mere money relation4. Kafkas metamorphosis is a clear example of this, Gregor worked in a job he hated for years trying to support his family who abandon his the minute he is unable to contin ue. His father is the most emotionally unattached and deals with Gregor in the harshest manner. Gregors presence seems to anger his father as he clenches his fists and throws fruit at the insect5. Although his mother and sister Grete are initially upset and sympathetic towards Gregor his sister brings him intellectual nourishment and cleans his room- this affection dwindles over time as they cease to receive any financial support from Gregor. Grete even begins to refer to her pal as it and states that if the badger was really Gregor he would have realised long ago that it isnt possibly for human beings to live with such a creature and he would have gone away of his own free will6. Her indifference towards her brother shows that as a result of his transformation he has ceased to exist to her. The relationship of the family was based on shared wages and once Gregor could no chronic contri savee to that he no longer existed within the family relation. This is further support by t he fact that as a result of Gregors inability to work his father and sister have to start earning a living. His father takes over as head of the household and his sister flourishes in her new occupation, becomes more beautiful and earns the respect of her parents. Even his mother becomes stronger and starts to work more almost the house. It seems that Gregors transformation forces the family into working for themselves and not being reliant on their son.The eventual(prenominal) conclusion to the Gregors story is his inevitable death, once he transformed and was no longer able to feed himself his life depended on the charity of his parents who considered him unusable and a financial burden and locked him away. However, rather than being upset at their sons death, his family appear relieved their economic needs superseded any emotional shackle that the family had to Gregor and therefore they could not love him once he became a contour on the family. Following his death Gregors fa mily travel to the country, they plow the economic benefits of not having to support Gregor and then move on to talking about Grete. They discuss her marriage and the financial benefits of this, it appears that while Grete is financially useful to the her parents she is welcomed as circumstances of the family but the novel ends with a subtle warning that if she started to become a burden she could have the same outcome as Gregor.Pig Tales by Marie Darrieussecq was published in France in1996 more than 50 years after the exit of The Metamorphosis. However, like Kafka Darrieussecq the transformation of an animal to provide a critical analogy of society. In this case our protagonist, an unnamed narrator living in genus Paris slowly turns into a pig, which the reader is encouraged to believe is a result of her amoral lifestyle. Her gradual transformation into an animal is reflective of the changes occurring in the society she lives which is becoming more righteousness wing as a resu lt of consumer capitalism. The novel follows the life of this nameless girl and begins with her being interviewed at a pith store where the director tells her that The important thing is to look lovely and well groomed at all times7. Pig Tales was highly self-made and very popular amongst adult readers, Sallie Muirden argues in her essay on the novel that this success could be because of the way that Darrieussecq channels contemporary female animosity about the patriarchy in a post-feminist era, in particular the continue control over what women do with their bodies.8 Through her book, Darrieussecq is articulating experiences and feelings that the modern day female reader will be able to relate to. She dealing with issues concerning the womens automobile trunk and womens rights but in a post-feminist manner, as she is arguing that one may not have an issue with selling their body and may in fact enjoy working as a prostitute. Although this may be criticised by early feminist a s being degrading to women I think what Darrieussecq is really fighting for is that we dont see her protagonist as a victim but rather as women making her own choices and decisions with visualise to her body. Equally, Darrieussecq is not condemning the women in this novel, rather, she is criticising the social circumstances the narrator finds herself in which is most like a result of her lack of education which makes it hard for her to concentrate9. Her inarticulateness and naivety make it easier for those around her who are corrupt (mainly the men in the novel) to take advantage of her which is shown at the beginning of the novel when she is sexually assaulted by the director during her interview The director of Perfumes Plus was holding my right breast in one hand and the job contract in the other10. As a result it takes her a long time to realise that it is her participation in this corrupt act that are causation her apparent transformation and that she must resist form amoral behaviour in order to remain human. However, there is still something about the narrator that makes the reader empathise with her, she is very sincere and has much emotion for others which can be seen in her relationships with Yvan the werewolf and her lost pig babies, I licked the little mites as carefully as I could. When they grew cold, I felt as though I couldnt go on. I curled up in a ball and didnt think about anything any more11. present her response is protective and tender which supports my belief that she is inherently good but living in society that is corrupt.