Alienation
Alienation is one of the deepest fears of human beings. We are very social beings, even if we do not see it all the time. We like to be identified as part of a group; a group could be family, friend, religion, or acquaintances. In Dostoyevsky’s A Note from the Underground, the narrator does not live like everyone else. He lives in a dark, cramped spaced. He is isolated from everyone else who lives in St. Petersburg. It is said that he lives underground that is how he got his name In Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” Gregor is not part of any kind of group, not even his family. He is very alienated with his family and even society.
The one major theme throughout Notes from the Underground is alienation. The narrator suffers throughout the story, he does not suffer from any physical but he does stuffer emotionally and mentally. The underground man feels alienated from society, which he is. No matter what happens he always goes back to his underground life. He spent the last forty years living underground; making is isolation bigger as time goes on.
One main view of alienation is demonstrated by Gregor’s relationship with his family. With the change that happened to him, his family should still love him. Instead Gregor’s family is concerned with how Gregor will have an effect of the family. One major effect it will have on the family is with finances. At a young age Gregor finds himself for being responsible for taking care of his family. He travels from lonely hotel rooms to the next selling textiles. His family relies on him to go to work, so they do not have to do anything. It has to be on Gregor’s plate not anyone else’s.
“Of course I have myself made up all the things you say. That, too, is from underground. I have been for forty years listening to you through a crack under the floor. I have invented them myself, there was nothing else I could invent. It is no wonder that I have learned it by heart and it has taken a literary form.... I write...