Aiden Duncan
Professor Beth Hammet
English 1213
4/21/2024
Kafka and Loneliness
Franz Kafka, a writer known for his existentialist writings depicting the meaninglessness of life as people are forced to wade through the monotony of bureaucracy and nine-to-five life, would most certainly agree that loneliness is a social epidemic. Franz Kafka was a Jewish man with socialist sympathies who regularly wrote about his disdain for corporate labor. In his novel The Metamorphosis a salesman named Gregor Samsa wakes up one morning to find himself turned into a bug. When he awoke one of his first thoughts was how he was supposed to get to work. This scenario displays Kafka’s view of corporate work culture: that even when one’s lives are on the line people still run back to our jobs that society has forced us into. From Kafka’s perspective, this is isolating.
In the eyes of Kafka, Gregor is emblematic of society’s workforce. After Gregor had been turned into a bug, he was no longer able to work. At first, his family was unaware of his affliction and had only inquired as to why he was not on the five a.m. train. Eventually, his boss came to see why he had missed his train. Understandably, he was apprehensive about opening his door and instead had just explained to him that he would get on the eight a.m. train to work. This was unacceptable. His father and his boss both demanded he open the door; eventually, he did. Upon opening the door his family and boss saw Gregor in his new form causing his family a mixture of anger, sorrow, and fear and causing his boss to flee the home in utter fear. During the time of his disfigurement, his father grew increasingly resentful because Gregor could not work. For a long time, his sister Greta took care of him. However, even she eventually found him burdensome after a while. After suffering abuse from his father he got an infection causing his death. Instead of the despair that a typical family may feel they rejoiced that their burden passed allowing them to have a fresh start. With his father saying “now we can give thanks to god”(Kafka and Wylie 46). In Kafka’s eyes, this is what society has conditioned us to do. Rather than seeing the intrinsic human value humans all share, society only cares about people based on the value they create, hence the abuse that Gregor suffered. Seeing this, people start to value themselves based on the value they create. This can isolate them, for the creative types this method of evaluation is often irreconcilable with people who are unable to produce value. For example, artists can often not produce value because their art is not valued by society.
An example more analogous to The Metamorphosis is that of the elderly community. As people get older their body deteriorates leaving you unable to perform the job at the preferred standards leading many to retire. Once they stop working they stop being valuable and many require tending to. Eventually, people resent their elderly family members and would prefer to cast them aside. This is evident in that when people have the opportunity they will typically cast them into retirement homes, where they do not have to personally take care of them. Elderly people are also the most lonely cohort. Kafka would probably say that this is due to the social alienation they face. The elderly are like Gregor in this sense because people often quickly lose patience with them due to their inability to provide anything for us.
Kafka displays the loneliness of young people in two senses. In the first Kafka shows how work can be alienating: ” “Oh, God”, he thought, “what a strenuous career it is that I’ve chosen! Traveling day in and day out.” (Kafka and Wyllie) This is not to be misconstrued as Kafka saying that one should prefer other career paths over one as a traveling salesman, but rather that work itself may take hold over the lives of young people. Especially when they are forced to provide for their family, young people will work long hours. Society tells us that by one’s mid-thirties they should be somewhat decided and established in their career. For example, if someone were to practice law, society would tell them they ought to make partner at their law firm or else they have failed in some way. Kafka points out how alienating this can be saying “Doing business like this takes much more effort than doing your own business at home, and on top of that there’s the curse of traveling, worries about making train connections, bad and irregular food, contact with different people all the time so that you can never get to know anyone or become friendly with them” (Kafka and Wylie 3). Again, this is not expressing Kafka’s specific disdain for traveling careers; although, the career is emblematic of Kafka’s view on what people know as “corporate grind culture”. It shows that as long as it pays enough people are willing to completely sacrifice their enjoyment right-down to the food they eat. In Gregor’s case, he felt like he needed to provide. However, later in the story that this was not the case.
Kafka’s view on the matter is reinforced by the personal struggles he faced as a writer and office worker. In a letter to his fiancee said “Writing and office cannot be reconciled, since writing has its center of gravity in depth, whereas the office is on the surface of life. So it goes up and down, and one is bound to be torn asunder in the process.”(Lewin). For many writers, writing is much more than just a hobby or a profession but rather a passion. By comparing The Metamorphosis and Kafka’s personal life it is evident that Kafka views work as stifling people’s passions. Devoid of passion and social interaction one can often feel lonely. Kafka would undoubtedly say that this is due to the oppressive work culture that alienates us from our friends and family. The second sense in which work alienates young people is more similar to the elderly. Sometimes, young people cannot or simply do not want to labor away at a nine-to-five. One group of people that may feel alienated is disabled young people. Many disabled people cannot work in traditional fields and therefore may feel alienated by the rest of society looking down upon them. The second group of young people that society may look down upon is the creative type. As stated above by Kafka work and passions are incompatible; this would be isolating and would prevent you from engaging with other creatives.
Work can be isolating, but so too can the lack of work be isolating. Society often only values the value that people produce for it and once they no longer produce it society de-values us. Elderly people are often devalued because of this. However, so are young people either because they cannot or are unwilling. Even when people keep up with “grind culture” they still become lonely. In summary, in Kafka’s view valuing each other based on our labor is damaging and isolating. At a certain point, work culture only seeks to divide society.
Works Cited
Lewin, Katie “A Labor We Will Never See | Los Angeles Review of Books.” Los Angeles Review of Books, 25 Oct. 2021, lareviewofbooks.org/article/a-labor-we-will-never-see.
Kafka, Franz, and David Wyllie. The Project Gutenberg eBook of Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka. 2001, www.gutenberg.org/files/5200/5200-h/5200-h.htm.
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