Elements Of Alienation

In the modern period a common topic used amongst the arts was alienation. The notion of feeling distant from others or an activity to which one should be part of or be involved in was reflected in many pieces during the modern period. Two pieces that were fascinating to me, because of the way they utilized alienation as a part of their visual and literary arts, were “The Scream,” by Edvard Munch and “The Metamorphosis,” by Franz Kafka. Munch and Kafka both used forms of formal elements to get the emotional crisis they felt through to the viewer.

In the piece “The Scream,” by Edvard Munch, he painted a piece that evoked emotions from the viewers. He created a mysterious individual who appeared to be overwhelmed with unknown feelings. The individual was far

However, the elements that stood out to me were his lines, linear perspective and the color use. Munch uses bold and delicate lines to imply that there is a sky. The next element that stood out to me was the way he used linear perspective. The last element that caught my attention was the use of dark and warm colors in his illustrations of the sky. All these individual elements embodied

He used space to give the reader a sense of how physically close Gregory is to his family. However, emotionally Gregory seems to be very distant from them. Kafka also used point of view as one of his formal elements because the whole book is written from Gregory’s point of view. Lastly, language plays an important role in this text because Kafka chose his words carefully. For example, he chose to use the word vermin to describe Gregory’s physical state, which can be translated as an insect. Nonetheless, the language in this text plays a large role because it was what tied the idea of his family being the true vermin and Gregory the true