In the last few weeks we have read and discussed three widely renowned books (Kafka's The Metamorphosis, The Stanger by Albert Camus and The Perfume by Patrick Suskind) that share similarities in themes and character profiles of Gregor Samsa, John Baptiste Grenouille and Meursault. These themes and profiles include; isolation and alienation from humanity and society, sociopathic tendencies, distorted reality, feelings of apathy towards life and others, among others. First, in Kafka's Metamorphosis we are introduced to a man named Gregor, who wakes up one day as an insect, and we see how from then on his life changes completely, until his death. Gregor is depicted as an apathetic loner, basically, whose only aspiration is to work hard as a traveling salesman to support his family financially and single-handedly. After becoming an insect, however, he becomes increasingly isolated, even from his own family. We see how he is slowly becoming more insect than human. He loses the ability to communicate and remains all day in his locked room, under the sofa. It begins to enjoy crawling around its walls and staying in the dark, like any other insect would do. He has no feeling of awareness or remorse about the burden he has become on his family, financially and emotionally. His family ends up seeing him as a mere insect and even a parasite, rather than as a son and a dear brother, and once he is dead they are flooded with feelings of relief and a new appreciation for life and the opportunities it offers. Distorted reality is one of the biggest themes of Metamorphosis, as it is the basis of the story. Gregor wakes up like a bug and his lack of reaction makes it seem like he is completely normal, ...... middle of paper ... the main scent and is devoured by a mob. Isolation is a key theme in The Stranger. Grenouille feels alienated from birth because he is odorless. For example, Jeanne Bussie, the nurse who was first assigned to care for him, rejects him because he is odorless. He even insists that he is evil and possessed by the devil. It is said that he could never be loved because human love is produced in response to personal scent, and therefore he himself never understood or felt love. His superior olfactory abilities also caused isolation, as a young man he was considered unusual and other children always kept their distance. Furthermore, on his journey to Grasse he began to travel only at night due to the absence of human smell, until he came across a cave where there was no smell from people and human dwellings and happily decided to stay there for seven long years..