Gregor Samsa In The Metamorphosis And Franz Kafka's Frankenstein

Somewhere in the world there are two neighboring towns. One is filled with beauty: beautiful people, beautiful animals, beautiful buildings, even beautiful plants. The people in this town are always happy, a smile tattooed across their face. This town is filled with vibrant colors and music is on a never-ending loop. Its neighboring town, however, is the polar opposite of this wonderful, joyous town. Beauty cannot be found in this town. The people are dull, walking around in grey suits, carrying briefcases, and talking in monotone. The only form of plant life in this town are weeds. There is no music, no color, no happiness. This town is quite unattractive. Which of these towns would you like to live in? Most people would prefer to live in

Both of these characters are quite unattractive. In Franz Kafka 's The Metamorphosis, the main character Gregor turns into a giant insect and is appauling to the eye. When the other characters see him for the first time since his transformation, they are disgusted. The head clerk, in particular, had a defensive response to seeing his coworker, “pressing his hand against his open mouth and backing away slowly as if repelled by an invisible and relentless force,” (Kafka 16). Even Gregor’s friends and family judged him based off his looks even though they know who he is and how he acts. This reaction shows that even someone’s closest friends can judge them for how they look at times. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the monster is also criticized for his looks. After every human isolated him, including his creator, the monster hides in the woods and watches the DeLacey 's. The family shows the monster that people can be genuine and ignore looks. However when the DeLacey’s lay eyes on the monster for the first time, “Agatha fainted and Safie, unable to attend to her friend, rushed out of the cottage,” (Shelley 165). These reactions are significant because they prove that even people who someone trusts can judge them because of how attractive they are. Everyone, whether they are strangers or not, criticize others in their heads based on

When individuals go for a checkup, they 're probably not worried about whether or not the doctor will give them the same treatment he gives to his attractive patients. However, there is still some benefits to being attractive, even in the doctor’s office. Places like school, the hospital, and court can be unfair and give beautiful people more rewards: “even justice is not blind to beauty,” (Morrison). Many beautiful people are hired for their looks. This is depicted in the cartoon attached (Moeller). Many employers, such as this one, hire for the wrong reasons. While being beautiful has its perks in the workplace, there can also be some downfalls.

Melissa Nelson, a dental assistant in Iowa, experienced her workplace to be a place where she was judged by her looks and not by her skill level. She was fired because her boss thought that she was too attractive and too threatening to his marriage. Therefore, she was fired for her appearance, not because she did something wrong (Kimmel). An article in The Washington Post expresses beauty’s role in work perfectly: just like goldilocks’ porridge, you can’t be too unattractive or too beautiful, you have to be just right (Rampell). Ms. Nelson’s experience is proof that beauty is not all it’s cracked up to be at