Modernism in the Metamorphoses and the depiction of Modern man The modernist movement in literature began around the turn of the century and created a dramatic change in the way that authors viewed their work. The new breed of writers were extremely affected by the new perception of the world and our place as human beings in it. WW2 was on the verge of the beginning, and the literary world was expressing their fears and attitudes toward their impending doom through their writing. Modernism has a few key themes that Franz Kafka follows throughout his piece ‘The Metamorphosis”. One of the most common themes among popular modernist literature are the rejection of literary tradition through experimentation with a darker style writing. Surrealism was common among pieces which often involved the decaying of the human existence that was occurring in the (at the time) current, more face-paced, disconnected society. In this paper, my goal is to show modernism in “Metamorphoses” and highlight the factors which make Gregor, the epitome of modern man. The isolation and despair that Gregor experienced is obvious from the start. From the very first sentence of the story we notice this solitude. Gregor is lying on his bed in a shape of a gigantic insect and there is nobody around to help him. This theme of isolation is even more present in the rest of the story as we see that Gregor can't depend on anyone for support. He locks himself in his room when he is at home or on the road for business and doesn't go out to meet people. He doesn't have a girlfriend nor does he has friends to rely on in times of need. Instead he isolated himself from society. His job engages him for the maximum time and he used to think about his family members all the time. He says:
“Besides I also have my parents and sisters to worry about. I am in a tight spot, but I’ll