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Exterior Control in Metamorphosis One Day in the Life of Iva

            In The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, there are many themes depicted in both novels that intertwine with each other. One such issue is the idea of control and regulations that the main characters, Ivan Denisovich and Gregor Samsa experience. While in the confinement of the Guolog and the Samsa household, the main characters lived by regulations and controls. The controls are unknowingly placed upon them by people on the "outside". This is the case for the typical routines enforced by exterior influences that both Gregor and Ivan accept without question. Besides the obvious written control mechanisms that are used to monitor and manipulative the main characters, there are the unwritten regulations and restrictions that are followed. By comparing the controls that are placed on Gregor and Ivan, similarities between the novels will develop.
             Living accommodations in The Metamorphosis and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich are based on positions the main characters, Ivan and Gregor are put in by exterior circumstances. The vicinity Ivan occupies in the Guolog consists of a small bunk with a straw mattress located in the middle of the barracks. The Guolog is a Russian concentration camp where criminals are sent; there are numerous controls and regulations placed upon the people. Gregor is in a similar situation regarding the limitations placed on his living arrangement. He is confined to his room and the Samsa home, due to the transformation that occurs to him. Symbols of the outside world such as personal effects slowly disappear throughout both novels. For example, the slow deterioration of Gregor's room. All his personal effects such as furniture, pictures and his beloved desk are taken away from him. Gregor's mother and sister attempt to move out all the furniture from his room and Gregor resents this "They were clearing out his room; depriving him of everything that he loved- (Solzhenitsyn 35).


Essays Related to Exterior Control in Metamorphosis One Day in the Life of Iva

1. Metamorphosis

Is it how we perceive life? ... Despite this change in his appearance, Gregor maintains his human brain as insect tendencies slowly take over his day-to-day behavior. He maintains his same state of mind, memories, and inner self during his exterior transformation. ... Kafka uses these events to depict how people can become dehumanized by society and ones own family because of a difference in behavior or appearance. ... The metamorphosis of Gregor facilitates the gradual change of his entire family, demonstrating that an outside source is sometimes needed in order to push people out of...

  • Word Count: 1200
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Grade Level: High School

2. The Metamorphosis Through a Jewish Lens

Kafka's classic, The Metamorphosis, offers insight into the lives of assimilated Jews living in Prague during the late 19th and early 20th Century. ... The Metamorphosis reflects the apprehension that pervaded the mind of assimilated Jews in Prague. The book portrays Gregor, his transformation to a bug, and his alienation from his family and his work, as a Czech Jew living in the Josefstadt Ghetto, who were enclosed from outside life, lived in tight spaces, were barely fed, and were cruelly treated. ... In Metamorphosis, parallels between Gregor and the Jewish people in Prague at this tim...

  • Word Count: 704
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

3. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and The Metamorphosis

In the novels One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and The Metamorphosis,, food plays important, if different, roles. ... In The Metamorphosis, as in One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, food is an important part of human existence. ... As in all societies, mealtimes are a form of social gathering in both One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and The Metamorphosis. ... In One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and in The Metamorphosis, food plays an important role because it both gives and takes life. ... It is clear that in the novels One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and The M...

  • Word Count: 1484
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Grade Level: High School

4. Gregor Samsa in The Metamorphosis

It would even seem that this abusive environment motivates Gregor and that his fear of failing there drives him every day to same misery. ... So even if his motivation is to help his family, it is one more similar to an obligation or servancy. ... Gregor (and Kafka) believed that an exterior happiness was produced through an internal suffering, it should be noted that though Gregor was a suffering character, it was this suffering that satisfied him. ... This prevalent theme of the necessity of pain for there to be pleasure throughout the Metamorphosis indicates a bigger idea about the hu...

  • Word Count: 1323
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

5. Parallels between Kafka's life and

"Parallels between Kafka's life and "The Metamorphosis"" Many authors reflect an aspect of their life in their novels, poems, or theatre. ... This is a story of fantasy when one morning, Gregor Samsa "...found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin.". ... Day in, day out-on the road. ... What is really interesting, is that Kafka reflects Gregor's inner fears and fantasies in his exterior reality. ... It is obvious that Kafka did reflect many aspects of his life in "The Metamorphosis" and therefore, we can conclude that he did have a very tough childhood and that he is...

  • Word Count: 1062
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: High School

6. The Metamorphosis

Instead of these, however, he had only many small limbs which were incessantly moving with very different motions and which, in addition, he was unable to control." His strenuous efforts to get out of bed and to remain in control imply his struggle to remain as normal and human as possible. ... His resistance to this idea is apparent through his thoughts as he watches Grete and his mother take away his life memories. ... At least this picture, which Gregor at the moment completely concealed, surely no one would now take away." ... These events all display Gregor's fierce emotional and phy...

  • Word Count: 802
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

7. Metamorphosis

The central theme of The Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka, is modern man's sense of alienation and detachment. ... Unfortunately, Gregor cannot turn the door lock, for he has no hands, and his body is of little use and difficult to control. ... Gregor's family doesn't think about how Gregor feels about his miserable transformation; instead, they are worried about the affects of the metamorphosis on them personally, leaving Gregor isolated. Gregor is locked away in a cage, in his room with surrounding walls, similarly to a rat in a hole in the wall being tortured by surrounding noi...

  • Word Count: 311
  • Approx Pages: 1
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

8. Ma

Let us now know about one of them very close or rather my own mother. Her name is Iva Bhattacharyya, born and brought up at Kolkata (previously known as Calcutta) has done her BA in history and is an excellent cook. ...

  • Word Count: 346
  • Approx Pages: 1
  • Grade Level: High School

9. The Metamorphosis

In Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis there is an issue regarding the victimization of Gregor Samsa. ... The other author that discusses the issue of victimization in Kafka's Metamorphosis is Walter H. ... Eric Santner also discusses the issue of Gregor being a victim in his analysis on The Metamorphosis. ... It means " the condition or estate of one cast down; abasement, humiliation, degradation; rejection; that which is cast off or away" (p.159). ... He explains that Gregor's life seems as if a supreme force has controlled it to be the way it was. ...

  • Word Count: 1025
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: High School

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