Tag: Alienation

Abandonment of Human and onset of Fractured family in the Novel: “The Metamorphosis”- By Franz Kafka

Devastation in a life of a Human being comes in various versions which ultimately hollows a person psychologically, emotionally, and sometimes physically too. Kafka’s one of the most popular novellas to date is  “Metamorphosis”, which is the best example of Human abandonment from their own society. This novella portrays how a human is outcasted by their own family and left to die.

A Tragic Story of Gregor Samsa –

The Novella begins with a setting of a bedroom where the protagonist is first introduced to the readers, as “Gregor Samsa”, who wakes up from his bed and sees himself transformed into a bug which brings him into a state of perplexing situation of his sudden body changes. He started to anticipate many assumptions of what had really happened to his body in one night but he failed in vain with the running thoughts.

Gregor Samsa was a salesman and a sole breadwinner who had a bunch of family responsibilities piled upon him. Even in the state of his physical transformation, he was concerned about his job and how would he be able to go to his office and catch his train at 7am.

Shock to the family –

When Gregor’s family members came to know about his physical transformation there were abashed and terrified by his transformation and avoided him mostly due to his nasty appearance. They were least bothered about Gregor, rather they were trying to avoid him by looking in this room and treating him like a real bug. Gregor’s father who never had any emotion and concern for his son only treated Gregor as someone who is paying off his debts. Gregor’s mother who loved Samsa dearly couldn’t be able to see his own son’s face as he looked disgusting and she was horrified with his appearance.

The only member who had a little bit of concern was Grete ( Sister of Gregor), who used to feed food to Samsa, but later on, in the story, she also loses interest in taking care of his own brother.

Family becomes Rebellious and Abandons Gregor :

This novella highlights the Fractured Family Relationships and the ill consequences which happened to Gregor after his transformation. His family, in particular, treated him like a disgusting insect which they wanted to get rid of, as the days were passing, Gregor who was once taking the responsibility for every member of his family now became a burden to them.

His father, Mr. Samsa even tried to kill Gregor with an apple, as he hated his own son so much. His mother though loved his son so much but never tried to visit him due to his condition.

The transformation was just a physical pain to Gregor, but the emotional and mental pain he received from his own family who was betraying him every day and alienated him in the end.

Tragic death Of Gregor:  

“He thought back of his family with emotion and love. If it was possible, he felt that he must go away even more strongly than his sister. He remained in this state of empty and peaceful rumination until he heard the clock tower strike three in the morning. He watched as it slowly began to get light everywhere outside the window too. Then, without his willing it, his head sank down completely, and his last breath flowed weakly from his nostrils.”

This quote mainly reflects the tragic death of Gregor which created a  sense of happiness for his family members. Profoundly, Grete is portrayed as responsible for Gregor’s death, but as we look into the story, we can’t blame only one character as responsible for his death, it is the whole family which should be blamed. Gregor was suffering from a state of identity crisis which brought his suicidal thoughts.

If we look into the story from a critical point of view, we can find that Gregor was depressed and was suffering from a breakdown. Unlike, other men of his age, he was different, he never enjoyed his life and never went to hang out with his friends, rather he was a workaholic and loner who used to be distant from socializing.

As we look into the story, Gregor died in his own room due to the burdensome of his own existence. His family made him feel like an outcast who should be dead and that made him demotivated to even live in this world.

His death was tragic because he died emotionally, mentally and when he was dead from inside his physical state couldn’t bear his body and left him abandoned, so he died tragically.

The ill fate of Gregor – An Alienated living being.

Gregor as a young salesman and even as a  son, brother played all of his responsibility in an admirable way, he never disappointed anyone but rather always worked hard in spite of any situations.

When his life became upside down when he became a bug and his transformation made him realize that he has no one in this real world. His family was a mirage of happiness that abandoned him in the end. All his family urged was the money. They were happy with Gregor till he was capable of earning, the day he was of no use his family changed their attitudes towards him which made Gregor feel alone.

The author tried to make understand through the situation of Gregor to his readers that, when a person is physically able, they are treated as a prominent part of the society, but when they have any flaws or deficits in their body, they are discriminated against by there looks and appearances and left alone by criticizing and judging them, which makes the person hollow from inside.

A fractured family basically lives a materialistic life where emotions and understanding are not prominent instead there is always a motive of taking advantage of each other. Gregor’s family were money-oriented people who only urged for money and not didn’t worried about Gregor’s crisis he was going through.

Metamorphosis is the best work Novella which tells about Humans and their family relationships that, if a person is dead their life doesn’t stop as like the flowing water their life moves on and people forget there past like the dawn of other days.

Intelligence Life Emerging beyond our Planet

Despite knowing when life first appeared on Earth, scientists still do not understand how life occurred, which has important implications for like hood of finding life elsewhere in the universe.

Extra-terrestrial life or life beyond earth! This sounds quite interesting right! Let us unfold this mystery together in this article. Scroll down and be ready to unfold the mystery.

So without any further delay, let’s begin!

Some belief that extra-terrestrial life might evolve in alien worlds. Humans have been wondering whether we alone in the universe since antiquity.

Based on evidence that life emerged within 300 millions years of the formation of Earth’s oceans as found in carbon-13-depleted zircon deposits, which is a very fast start in the context of Earth’s lifetime. Emphasizing that the ration is at least 9:1 or higher, depending on the true value of how often intelligence develops.

So, according this assumption, if planets with similar conditions and evolutionary time lines to Earth are common, then it may suggests that life should have little problem spontaneously emerging on other planets too.

Researchers have discovered some Earth-like planets that may have the potential to harbour life. But what will happen if an alien planet hosted intelligent life that would built a technologically advance civilization? Can there be ‘techno signatures’ that this kind civilization on another parallel universe could be seen from earth?

NASA was the first to grant permission to study these ‘techno-signatures’-detectable signs of past or present technology used on other planets. Change is the permanent thing in the world and civilizations with the help of help of nature will need to find a way to produce new forms of energy. Actually there are many forms of energy present in the universe and aliens are not magical creatures. Right!

Likewise life can take many types of forms but one thing is common that it will be always based in the same physical and chemical principles that underlines the rules of universe. It will hold the same connection for building a civilization, any kind of technology that an alien civilization uses is going to based on physics and chemical properties. This proves that earth-bound scientists can use their lab knowledge to guide their thinking towards find intelligent life elsewhere in the universe.

There are two ways to detect life on another planets, according to the scientists.

  1. Solar panels: Stars are the most powerful energy generators in the whole universe. Then using solar energy is a very natural thing for other civilizations to use as we use solar energy on the earth. So if a civilization uses a lot of solar panels, the light that is being reflected from the planet will have a certain kind of spectral signature, signifying the presence of those solar collectors. The researchers will determine these signatures and might get a signal of extra-terrestrial life beyond earth.
  2. Pollutants: On our planet earth , we are able to detect chemical elements present in our atmosphere by the light the chemicals absorb. Examples are methane, oxygen, CFCs, the ones which are used as refrigerants. The signature of chemicals like CFCs, which will indicate the presence of an another industrial civilization in the universe.

So in these ways it can actually be detected how a technologically advance population and its planet may emerge and develop or rather can collapse together. Extra-terrestrial life is actually based on their ability to harness of energy created in the universe.

Hope you enjoyed reading this article. Stay connected with us for further updates. Till then have a nice day.

Karl Marx

Karl Marx was a German philosopher, economist and political thinker, usually portrayed as the father of 20th century Communism. After a brief carrier as a teacher and journalist, Marx spent the rest of his life as an active revolutionary and writer, living mainly in London and supported mainly by his friend and life-long collaborator Friedrich Engels. From Marx’s perspective, human beings distinguished themselves from other animals based on their consciousness, autonomy, and ability to be productive members of a society, which give them a sense of purpose in life. Broadly, this is what Marx referred to as human nature, which he characterized as the essence of a person, or one’s ability to control their own destiny to a certain extent.

One of the most original contributions of the Marx is his Theory of Alienation. This is contained in his early work Economic and Political Manuscripts, which were written in 1843 but were discovered nearly fifty years after his death. These Manuscripts shows that ‘early Marx’, was mainly interested in the problem of alienation.

The concept of Alienation has increasingly occupied a forefront in sociological and philosophical interest. This is mainly due to the growing awareness and concern over the negative and unexpected consequences of rapid scientific and industrial progress in contemporary life. Marx’s theory of Alienation involves the relationship between workers in capitalist society and their productive activity or the act of labour itself. Workers do not confirm themselves in their work, they experience their work as misery, their physical and intellectual capacities are stunted, their work is not freely chosen and their work belongs to another. Yes, Marx’s conception of alienation illuminates some premises of the idea of emancipation. From his point of view, this social position discouraged the labourer from taking control of their own future or pursuing ways to climb the social ladder, which put increasing distance between individuals and their human nature.

For Marx, alienation is rooted in the historical situation and its consequences. In the Capitalist society, the creation of objects or production does not help man to realize himself, i.e. to realize his potential. This inability of man to realize his potential while being engaged in the creation of objects causes alienation. Hence, alienation will be overcome when the production of objects will lead to unfolding of the human potentialities. Alienation as exists in the capitalist society has many dimensions. However, three dimensions are fundamental.

Marx developed his theory of alienation to reveal the human activity that lies behind the seemingly impersonal forces dominating society. He aimed to show how, although aspects of the society we live in appear natural and independent of us, they are the results of past human actions. Marx believed that human action could shape a future world free from the contradictions of capitalism. For him, alienation was not rooted in the mind or in religion, as it was for his predecessors Hegel and Feuerbach. Instead Marx understood alienation as something rooted in the material world. Alienation meant loss of control, specifically the loss of control over labour.