This paper discusses how, although they accomplish the task in vastly different ways, both Franz Kafka and Marcel Proust
in the stories considered here exposit the conflict between their protagonists' internal and external realities. It shows how Kafka's Gregor Samsa is human on the inside, as it were, but externally and to those who have no
access to the world of his
thoughts, he is but a beetle. For Proust, it is more important that Madame de Breyves' subjective world was more real to her than the objective world. Though it remains true that none but Francoise has access to her thoughts, Proust implies that his title character does not care.