Help with essay on the theme of alienation within the work of Franz Kafka

As the title says really...

Any help with notes, sources, even just your own personal opinion on the matter. Any help would be greatly appreciated. The writing of the essay is not the issue I need help with, I'm just struggling to find a large enough amount of appropriate resources on the subject (don't get me wrong, there is a large amount I've found. However 'large' simply won't suffice, I need as much as possible).

Thanks very much in advance.

J

I'm only in high school, but I'd like to try and help you out with your research.

Since you've said that you've found a decent amount of information on the subject, I'm going to assume that you've read Kafka's Metamorphisis and the letter to his father (it can be found in the additional sections of the novel). In Metamorphisis, it's quite apparent that the general theme of the novel is alienation. Once Gregor Samsa, who used to be a successful businessman, turns into a gross vermin, his family changes their behavior towards him. Instead of being considerate of Gregor's condition, they isolate him from the outside world by locking him up in his room and practically starving him. Obviously, this act alone counts as alienation.

My Literature teacher told me that this novel isn't literal but sort of an allegory. I suppose you could argue that Samsa actually represents Kafka, and his transformation into a vermin represents Kafka's decision to become a writer and defy his father's intentions. Then the treatment towards Samsa could signify how Kafka was treated when he wasn't socially-acceptable or whatever.

To gather more information on this subject, I would suggest citing certain significant lines in Metamorphisis that prove the alienation theme and to also go into the mindset of Kafka himself and note how his mental state has changed while writing each novel that contains the theme of alienation. I think you could also pull some information from Kafka's diary entries, which you can get glimpses of here: scribd . com/doc/2223565/eBooktxt-Franz-Kafka-Diaries-1914 and here: en-us.kilibro . com/books/9780805209068-the-diaries-of-franz-kafka

I don't know if you've reviewed this study or not, but it seems like it could be helpful for your research: textroad . com/pdf/JBASR/J.%20Basic.%20Appl.%20Sci.%20Res.,%202(2)1600-1607, %202012.pdf

I hope I helped.

Thanks very much :)

I'm already well aware of the alienation theme's prevalence in the metamorphosis, in fact the bulk of the essay will indeed focus on that particular story. I've read all of his short stories, novels and the letters to his father, but a number of things popped up in the links you posted that I haven't read so that should be very helpful.

This is exactly the kind of help I'm looking for, any other references you may find would be much appreciated, thanks.

J.