Metamorphosis And Rhinoceros Conformity Through The...

Metamorphosis and Rhinoceros both explore conformity through the representation of animals. Eugene Ionesco once said, ‘[A]mong the authors who have influenced me the most, the one who comes to mind immediately is Kafka. I would perhaps not have written the plays I wrote if there hadn t been Kafka’ (Jacquart and Ionesco 1973: 47). This may explain why the works of Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka (1915) and Rhinoceros by Eugene Ionesco (1959) use very similar components to explore conformity. The abstract representation of animals, in the two texts, is key to understanding the correlation between conformity and loss of humanity. However, Kafka uses an insect to represent how Gregor destructs his own humanity, whereas Ionesco looks at the danger of power in the collective by representing each conformist as a rhinoceros. Furthermore, animals representing humans are crucial to the themes of alienation and resistance in these texts. Kafka uses animals to alienate Gregor from conf orming to society. Arguably, the metamorphosis is the only way for Gregor to resist conforming, showing that Kafka represents animals as a physical rejection of conformist lifestyle. Comparably, Ionesco uses animals in the opposite way to Kafka. On one hand, he portrays Berenger’s alienation as a reason for resisting conformity. On the other, Ionesco explores the protagonist’s choice to resist, if he has one. Thus, this essay will prove that Kafka and Ionesco both use the representation of animals toShow MoreRelatedAlienation As The Reason For Berenger s Resistance1278 Words   |  6 Pagesresistance, in Rhinoceros. Alcoholism is a major cause of his alienation, in Act Three, Berenger considers alcohol as the reason for his isolation and subsequent inability to transform. When conversing with Dudard, he says ‘[A]lcohol is good for epidemics. It immunizes you †¦ Jean never touched alcohol. He just pretended to. Maybe that’s why he†¦ perhaps that explains his attitude’ (Ionesco 1960: 76). This insinuates that Berenger understands why he does not transform into rhinoceros, identifying his