The protagonists in Franz Kafkas The Metamorphosis and J.D. Salingers The Catcher in the Rye, are both outcasts in their very small worlds.

International Baccalaureate World Literature

Liscio

“The Downfall of the Protagonist in The Metamorphosis and The Catcher in the Rye”

The protagonists in Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis and J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, are both outcasts in their very small worlds. Living his days supporting his family by being a travelling salesman, Gregor wastes his life away. Then, “One morning, when [he wakes] from troubled dreams, [he finds] himself transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin” (Kafka 5). From this moment on, he exists only to be shunned and ignored by his whole family. Similarly, Holden is cast out of his third prep school: Pencey. Instead of returning home, he loses himself in New York City where he tries to discover where he fits in. He knows he can not return home because his family views him as a failure and has no place with people his own age because he lacks the social skills to maintain their friendships. By looking at the responses of the protagonists in The Metamorphosis and The Catcher in the Rye, we can see how society and its expectations can force an unusual individual to become suppressed and shunned as an outcast. This is important because their experiences as the outcasts shine a light on problems in society that affect everyday people.

Gregor Samsa’s plight of turning into a vermin shines a bright light on how deformed and unusual people are treated. The word means ‘vermin’ in German. This is the term to refer to Gregor in his bug like state. It is not his fault however, that he wakes up turned into a monstrous vermin. Even though Gregor is debatably still a human on the inside, his family does not understand the transformation and cannot bring themselves to see Gregor as a thinking human being any longer. For example, they proceed to lock him in his room and allow for his room to become a dustbin, assuming that only thinks like a bug and will not mind the filth. There can be seen “Streaks of dirt [running] along the walls [and] tangles of dust and garbage” all over the floor and surfaces (Kafka 55). Not only do they force him to live like a bug, they treat him like one when they are face-to-face. Grete, who was once his doting sister, cannot stand the sight of him and only brings him food when Gregor is under a sofa. Then, when Gregor emerges from his room, “his father his father pick[s] up a large newspaper from the table and, stamping his feet on the floor, he [drive] Gregor back into his room by waving the cane and the newspaper” (Kafka 24). “His father [also] had decided to bombard him [with apples, and] one drove into Gregor’s back really hard” (Kafka 48). The treatment of Gregor by his family is so extreme, that they virtually destroy their only son and past bread winner. This shows that regardless of previous worth, when a person diminishes in quality or appearance they will not receive the same treatment as when they were in their grander state. This extends to all levels of society. Appearance and quality of action determines the level of treatment by surrounding individuals.

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At the beginning of his end, Gregor accepts his plight and just tries to adapt. The only curiosity he expresses of his current state is by thinking, “What’s happened to me” (Kafka 5)? He disregards the natural urge to panic. His family however, does not accept this transformation and so they shun him. Due to this inhumane treatment, he proceeds to deteriorate mentally and physically. “From day to day he perceive[s] things with less and less clarity and [cannot] believe that from his window he [is] peering out at a featureless wasteland” (Kafka 37). At one point he crawls on the walls, but when the apple is lodged in his back, he can barely move and spends endless minutes moving only feet. In the end, Gregor’s “entire body [aches] “and “he [can] no longer move at all” (Kafka 67). Then, “without his willing it, his head sinks down completely, and his last breath flows weakly from his nostrils’ (Kafka 68). Gregor Samsa stays a human up until his last moments when he “[thinks] back to his family with emotion and love” (Kafka 68). His family however, cannot see this compassion; all they can see is a wretched, monstrous, bug that wastes away in their house. As this deformed man and outcast (Gregor) is found dead in his room, the family is relieved. Mr. Samsa even says “let’s give thanks to God for that” (Kafka 69). The inhumane and unfair treatment of a creature that cannot control what happens to him shows how unforgiving society can really be. Appearance and performance is the only important element in society, and when one cannot appear well or perform to their maximum capacity, they are treated as thus: diminished and worthless.

Holden Caulfield, an emotional and sensitive sixteen year-old, cannot seem to fit in anywhere. At a time in his life where many young adults struggle with the fundamental issues facing them in an adult world, Holden is shut out of his school, banned from home, and friendless. His only form of true comfort is his sister Phoebe, whose childish innocence provides his only form of consistent happiness. Holden does not fit in with the people at multiple prep schools, which may be the reason he flunks out consistently, and he makes strangers feel uncomfortable. (example) He is unable to cope in a grownup world, and is diminished in the eyes of others, just like Gregor Samsa is. So sensitive, he holds everything in, including the anger he feels to his roommates: Stradlater and Ackley. Stradlater, like many popular, attractive, and rich prep boys, has an active sexual life - one, which Holden envies with fervor (quote). In a teenage world, a boy is measured by his performance with girls and with fellow classmates. He cannot perform sexually with females or in brotherhood with boys, showing yet another of his many failures. These failures make him worthless in the eyes of his peers, causing his treatment to be hurtful and hostel (quote). For example, during his only chance of having a sexual encounter with a prostitute, he refuses to have sex with her and tells her to leave (quote). Not only does he obsess over women and make a fool out of himself by talking like a pig to a guy at a bar, he cannot even go through with the act when he is confronted with it (quote). Here, he literally fails in an action that might define him as a man in the closely approaching adult world that he is to be soon thrust into. This action gives society yet another reason to shun him. Society says that those who cannot blend in and fit into an adult world should not exist and should not be accepted.

Holden resides solely in the world in his head. The rejection that he experiences all his life causes him to turn inward and dread the thought of having to live on (quote). He cannot turn to his parents because they see him as trouble, and he cannot turn to his friends because he has none. Holden is a suppressed and depressed young man whose only comfort is the sheltered world he once felt as a child, void of sexuality and responsibility. The world wrongs him; they push him aside and tell him that he can never succeed - with friends, women, and school. Holden’s anguish and mental suffering shows readers how great an affect that negative actions have on even the most obscure individual (quote). Holden is lucky in his fate however, for he does not die due to his suffering. He rises up out of his misery by taking the hand of his ten-year old sister that shows him there is still hope and innocence in the world.

Society’s increasing judgment of differing individuals has not helped to improve those individuals that are being judged. ‘Different’ people are the target of most judgment and this has only helped to hinder and destroy them. Gregor and Holden are classic examples of both ways people are judged in everyday society. Gregor is stripped of any and every semblance of humanity, while Holden is so mentally detached from the world around him that no one can understand him. Society’s only form of self defense it to shut those out who do not belong. Therefore, Gregor and Holden do not belong. The suppression Gregor’s family puts him under causes him to lose many of his human thoughts as well as his ability to move. He simply wastes away until he dies. After his death, his family is happy to see him go. Holden is similarly alienated from those around him because he lacks the social skills to fit in and make himself happy enough to stay in school. Due to his ‘different’ way of thinking, he is cast out and becomes depressed to the point of wanting to kill himself. The downfall of both of these protagonists shows how great an affect treating someone with disdain and ridicule can have. In this instance, it kills one individual and mentally scars another.

Works Cited

Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis. Filiquarian Publishing, LLC., 2007.

Salinger, J. D.. The Catcher in the Rye. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 1991.