The Perimeters of Familial Affection: Examples with 'The Metamorphosis', 'The Sooterkin', And 'A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings

This literary analysis---of Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis, Tom Gilling's The Sooterkin, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings"--- asserts that unconditional love is not possible without a supernatural impartation, because all humans have their limitations. To further this claim, I dissect the most sacred of interpersonal dynamics, society's subgroups---the family. The four guiding perimeters of affection are societal influence---its opinion of a person; money, financial prospect; communication aptitude, whether verbal and physical speech that is understood or enjoyed; and, lastly, aesthetics: are they nondescript or pleasant to the eye? These variables determine how long a person will stay in a family's domestic space or their proverbial rolodex. These three texts have numerous similarities, most apparent is their each having a weird character interrupt a family's domestic life: hyperbolic contingencies that highlight the causes of limited or temporal affection.