Society seems to see companionship as a necessary part of being human.

Without loved ones society

sees a person as a stranger and rejects them. Perfume, by Patrick Susskind and The Metamorphosis by

Franz Kafka both use a number of different literary features to reinforce the distance or the isolation

between the protagonists and the people around them. The ways in which each writer describes the

characters and the people around them assists in characterization. Through characterization, the writer

can make the reader either support the protagonist, or cheer their demise.

Both writers make use of different pronouns in order to illustrate the characters disconnection form the

people around them. In Metamorphosis, Kafka refers to Gregor’s family as “the”. Gregor’s mother is

“the mother”; his sister is “the sister”. By referring to Gregor’s family as “the” rather than “his”

illustrates to the reader that Gregor’s family no longer see him as part of the family. Despite Gregor’s

attempts to show consideration towards his family, they still see him as merely an “animal” or a

hindrance. Furthermore, although there are frequent displays of the family’s intolerance and fear

towards Gregor, his mother recognizes his consideration when the Narrator refers to her as “his

mother”. Interestingly, the pronoun “his” only occurs once in the passage illustrating a brief but limited

understanding between Gregor and his mother. Unfortunately, this understanding quickly disappears,

as his mother becomes overwhelmed with Gregors external appearance and refuses to see him as her

son. The narrator does not use the pronoun “his” throughout the rest of the extract, signifying Gregors

final expulsion from the family. In contrast, the passage from the outsider repeatedly uses the pronoun

“I”. The lawyer says, “It is true I killed a man” when he defends Meurault. The lawyer, by referring to

Meursault as “I” tries to give Meursault the humanity he lacks, and through this, Camus is highlighting

the fact that the Jury tries Meursault, for not only his crime, but also his lack of emotion or connection

with people around him. Furthermore, the unusual way in which the lawyer speaks to the jury,

reinforces the distance between Meursault and any honest human connection. Meursault will not fight
for his own life, so the Lawyer must do so for him and by doing so Camus establishes Meursault as the

indifferent person he is.

Moreover, the writers’ diction in both extracts helps to characterize both the protagonist and the people

around them. In Metamorphosis, when Gregor’s sister finally decides that Gregor has to be gotten rid

of, Kafka refers to her decision as a “conviction”. The connotation of the word “conviction” implies

Gregor is a criminal or immoral person. However, the notion of Gregor as immoral is far from accurate,

as Gregor keeps his filial duties at the front of his mind when Kafka writes, “Gregor did not have any

notion of wishing to create a problem”. Despite Gregors consideration, his family fails to recognize him

as part of the family or even human. Through Gregors description Kafka, characterizes the family as

shallow and reinforces Gregors dilemma. Moreover, In the Outsider, Meursault’s perception of the trial

establishes his indifference towards the whole ordeal, and more generally, a physical world governed by

emotion. In the passage, Camus puts words such as “soul” and “proceedings” in speech marks, almost

as if to say they are nonexistent or irrelevant ideas. Camus further develops Meursault indifference

when Meursault describes the trial as “futile”. Moreover, the people around Meursault reflect his

personality and views of the world. Camus describes the journalist in the courtroom as “grey and

robotic”. Both the words “grey” and “robotic” create a dull mood as they connote something lifeless

and emotionless. The connotations of both these words reflect both Meursault’s lifeless personality and

his perception of the world as a robotic existence.

Both Kafka and Camus are able to manipulate the reader’s perception of the protagonist by the

description of them and the people around them. The reader feels sorry for Gregor because of the way

his family sees him, despite his attempts at demonstrating care. In contrast, the reader does not feel

sorry for Meursault, as he himself does not show any emotion. Through the empathy the reader feels,

both writers are able to achieve something greater through the death of their characters. The reader
does not only witness the deaths of each protagonist, but witnesses the way society treats people will

not or cannot adapt to social norms and responsibilities.