Franz Kafka: The Metamorphosis

Franz Kafka’s interpretation of language and its influences on our culture, I feel, led to the creation of The Metamorphosis. At the very core of the story, we have a human being that has it’s appearance changed, and therefore becomes different. At first the all of the family with the exception of the sister were quick to give up on the main character but over time they moved on and completely ignored him. This can be thought of as the same case with Du Bois, but to an extreme, whereas he appears no longer human at all to the family, instead of just being different by color. Gregor’s ultimate inability to be a successful person is because of his perceived difference is just an illusion produced by the system of constant exploitation, as he is no longer able to communicate the language of the society.
There are so many different levels to understanding the alienation that has occurred in this story. At the very basic level, we understand that something is telling Gregor's family what they should value as a human life. They know its Gregor, but show no compassion to him, because his physical well-being doesn't match their ideal human appearance. Even though Gregor slaved away at his alienating job so that his father could wash lots of dishes and read newspapers, his physical transformation goes against the idea of the stereotypical ideal of the nuclear family. Gregor's inability to cope with his change led for him to take his own life.
Language represents the key idea, as proposed by Nietzsche, to the education and manipulation to and by society to maintain a constant control over its people. The underlying theme is the controlling society is not a product of it’s whole, but a product of certain people which maintain power through capitalism as a tool for continued power and wealth. The language itself is the communication of accepted truths, established by society, governed by a constant system of exploitation known as capitalism in this case of these aforementioned text. The restriction of power from those who are deemed unworthy by the controlling few are really the means to which we are able to overcome certain boundaries in most scenarios.
Usually when people notice that something is wrong, if they are at a disadvantage to this system, they are more likely to promote a way of change so this disadvantage goes away. Nietzsche sets us up with the idea that language can be used in a series of ways. Who is to say that we all have the same interpretations of words that produce a given stimuli? Where can the interpretations be manipulated to the advantage of someone or something that wishes to exploit it? I am not arguing that language is a bad thing, but the means through which is can be used allow for people to be taken advantage of. Black people and the Gregor are two great examples of where language can be used as the means to exploit those who are different. Language communicates the idea that black people are inferior to white people or that since Gregor looks like a bug, he is a bug.
To conclude, through the various examples it can be seen that through language, birth is given to a political system that feeds on the ability for language to be manipulated. Stereotypes act as steroids for the growth of this system, and then create extrinsic values in people whom abide by this system. It really is impossible for some to imagine a life without stereotypes. Where does the need to be able to relate to a mass group of people get satisfied? Why should that even matter? In that case, capitalism is a system that allows for many veils, the first of which to be pointed out by Du Bois.