In Franz Kafka's novella "The Metamorphosis," he reveals that alienation can be shown as a path to find truth. He demonstrates this through the usage of diction, imagery, and sentence structure. Kafka utilizes these methods in order to convey a message of self-discovery and a kind of hope that people can grow from that process. He targets everyone, to explain how the effects of alienation can be used to one's advantage.
Diction can be a very convincing way to get a point across. When Grete was playing the violin for her family and rooming visitors, the glorious music led Gregor, determined to find the "unknown nourishment he longed for", into the living room. (Kafka 49). Although he was no longer human, but an animal, he was attracted to this wondrous sound he always knew and loved. The question is whether he became more human in this new form. Before, he was a blind worker, taking everything at face value and working because he thought he had to. Then after his transformation, he slowly became aware of his surroundings and was able to see the pain he caused his family and selflessly gave himself up; whereas throughout Gregor's transformation, "the other characters show themselves for what they are" (Honig 140). His father turns into a rough, slave for work and his mother expresses no genuine understanding behind her compassion.
Imagery provides a solid base, of which to have something to relate to. When Gregor woke up one morning, he found himself "lying on his back as hard as armor plate, his vaulted brown belly, sectioned by arch-shaped ribs, to whose dome the cover" could hardly cling (Kafka 3). He simply woke from an unsettling dream; therefore this was his new reality. Kafka introduces Gregor to a "form that is quite alien to him" a form that "threatens his rational existence in an incomprehensible manner" (Emrich 122). He illustrates that through this new, foreign body, Gregor must learn to understand his innermost thoughts.
