In this article I choose to talk about the theme of Identity or The Self present in Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha and Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis. Hermann Hesse was a German poet, novelist and painter. He was born in 1877 in Cawl, Germany. In most of his works he explores the individual search for authenticity, self-knowledge and spirituality. Franz Kafka was a German-language writer of novels and short stories. He was born in 1883 in Prague, Czech Republic. Kafka greatly influenced genres such as existentialism. When we talk about The Self, the question of Identity automatically emerges. In my opinion the Self is something that can only be felt, something that is not physical; it is an essence that can only be felt. The book Siddhartha is about the search for this Self. «And where was the Atman, where did it dwell, where did its eternal heart beat, if not in the Self, in the most intimate, in the eternal that each person carried within himself? him? But where was this Self, this intimate?” At the beginning of the novel, in the first chapter itself the author describes how Siddhartha realizes that “the love of his father and mother, and also the love of his friend Govinda, always make him happy, give him peace, satiate him and that's it." Siddhartha therefore knew that the Self was more demanding. He wanted to find his true Being, which he believed he was doing, by finding the Self. So we can say that he identifies his identity with the Self. In Kafka's Metamorphoses, the book begins with the author describing: “One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking from anxious dreams, he discovered that in bed he had been transformed into a monstrous verminous insect.” It is the body, the form that has transformed and no...... middle of paper ......I should not feel bound by anything or anyone and do what my inner voice tells me otherwise it would be too late because I can be who I want to be, like Gregor, who failed to realize that he had his own identity and was free to go and live his own life. But the question still remains open: will one ever be able to assert one's true self in a society? Well, humanity might simply accept individual identities, but what about social institutions? I think not. We will always face this internal conflict of asserting our identity or being identified by society. Works Cited Hesse, Hermann, Siddhartha, New Delhi: Rupa Publications, 2003 Franz Kafka, Metamorphosis, Project Gutenberg, http://www.gutenberg.org /files/5200/5200-h/5200-h.htm, accessed 23 March 2016.