...Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka , is a story about change, as the title of the novel implies. But As we go deeper into the story, the continuous changes brings us to the root that it is the desire to existence that Gregor truly wants. In an unsettling dream, Gregor Samsa wakes up and realizes that he has transformed into a “monstrous vermin”. By examining the story, the metamorphosis of the protagonist represents his true self and his yearning of freedom from maintaining the entire financial stability of his family. Gregor’s metamorphosis and the dependence on him greatly affects Gregor’s sister, Grete. This leads to Grete’s drastic transformation from a child to a young woman and is in turn the biggest effect to Gregor's fate. Gregor’s mind never fully copes with his physical change into a bug. Gregor approaches life the same after the metamorphosis, doing almost the same routines; in fact Gregor almost completely ignores the change of his physical body, and only spends a small amount of time worrying about such a significant occurrence. Gregor becomes travelling salesman because his father loses his job, “At that time Gregor’s sole desire...
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...Trial” and “The Metamorphosis” Works from the one of the most influential author, Franz Kafka, is like trying to read hieroglyphics. Unless, of course you are Egyptian. It is difficult to comprehend someone that comes from a total different era or background. Usually an author, relates their theme of their works with simple and easy literary devices, such as symbolism. So does Franz Kafka, but on a greater scale. All of the aspects and elements of his works seem unimportant, because of the different interpretations of his works. Most of his works , depicts his own thoughts and dreams. Like some authors, Kafka focuses on a single character symbolizing himself or his life. To fully recognized and understand this method , the audience must study his background and just basic history to understand his motive. He stands out against all these other authors because he goes against the flow of the writing norms. Some of the genre's found in his works are Kafkaesque, Magic Realism,Dystopia,Fantasy,Science Fiction,Modernism,Post Modernism and Existentialism. First time reading one of Kafka's predominant novel, "The Trial" was pretty overwhelming. Personally, I have nothing to compare his works to, other than his own work, in particular, "The Metamorphosis." While these two have some obvious similarities, there are some hidden and usually inconspicuous ones that readers, like myself, don’t usually pick out. Finding some common themes in “The Trial” and “The Metamorphosis” provides a...
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...Gregor’s transformation from human to a giant cockroach is certainly a metamorphosis, but it is only physical and rather simple. But this event triggered a series of more complicated metamorphosis amount all family members. And these transformations of personality and humanity are what the book title really refers to. Before Gregor’s transformation, he is the only financial support for the entire family. The rest family take it as granted without any appreciation. Dispirited and lifeless, Gregor’s family lived like insects, dwelling around without any purpose. After Gregor’s transformation, realize their only financial support is now a giant bug, the rest family were forced to take control of their own life. Learning their full potentials in the process of become self-sufficient individuals, the family awakens with brighter future after Gregor’s death. Using Samsa family's metamorphosis,...
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...It is very peculiar -to say the least- to open a book and the first line describing the main character waking up as a life sized insect. Most authors tends to use symbolism to relate to the theme of their books, but the author of “The Metamorphosis,” Franz Kafka uses a different method. He uses a method that utilize all aspects and elements of the story to be uses of interpretation. In the novella “The Metamorphosis”, it employs symbols, imagery, and settings to emphasize that a family with equally-shared responsibilities is more effective in maintaining a positive home- loving atmosphere. In the usage of symbols, Kafka illustrates that an imbalance in family responsibility results in hatred and resentment in the end. In Part I of the novella,...
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...ANALYSIS OF THEME IN METAMORPHOSIS THEMES ANALYSIS The theme of "The Metamorphosis" is modern man's sense of isolation. Driven to work long hours in meaningless jobs around people who do not care about others, just like Gregor, mankind seems to live a meaningless and ineffectual existence. Although Gregor's metamorphosis is actual and physical, Kafka implies through his change that all too often mankind is forced into an insect-like existence, no better than the bugs at the bottom of the natural order. When mankind tries to rise above their insect status and connect with humanity, as Gregor did when he emerged from his room to see his sister and listen to the violin, they are cruelly driven back into isolation and alienation. Through Gregor, Kafka presents a totally tragic view of man's existence. Kafka also shows that mankind is driven by materialism, often to the exclusion of developing human relationships. Modern life demands that a person have a job to earn money to fulfill materialistic desires. The materialistic mind-set usually enslaves the individual and transforms him into a beast or insect who does not have time to care for others. Gregor is the perfect example. He hates his job as a salesman but endures it in order to provide material things for his family. In order to have and give financial security, he sacrifices a social life, companionship, pleasure, and dreams. His life is miserable, and he counts the days until he can quit his job. Ironically, the people...
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...Submission is a major theme that is displayed in Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis. According to biblical passages, ‘submission’ is defined as making a choice that results in placing others above yourself and this is exactly what Gregor does throughout the novella. In Leopold von Sacher-Masoch’s Venus in Furs, the story starts off with a man talking to the Goddess of Love about submission to female authority. She claims that a woman must treat a man like a slave and a plaything because her cruelty will secure his love and admiration. Her concept of submission illustrates Gregor’s relationship with his family. The goddess begins by saying that no northerners are able to understand the concept of love. The man argues that...
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...Each member of Gregor's family played a key role throughout the novella. Gregor's family members are his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Samsa and his sister Grete. Gregor's family was contaminated before he transformed into an insect. Mr. Samsa was not taking care of family responsibilities and decided to put the entire burden of his family on his son. Gregor not only had the pressure of supporting his family but of his father's past debts. This put Gregor in a bad situation for his life, he had to exist for his family only. Even when Gregor was confronted with the chief clerk on the other side of the door all he worried about was the future of his family. I however, do not feel his parents ever spared him. He continued to beg for the chief clerk to hear him. The chief clerk must be detained,persuaded and finally won over because the whole future of Gregor and his family depended on it. If only his sister had been there, she was intelligent; she had begun to cry while Gregor was still lying quietly on his back. Gregor's mother loved her son. However, she seemed to partly love him because of the role he played. Mrs. Samsa was the one who was in a state of panic when Gregor could not come to the door when he was transformed. She seemed to be the only one who toyed with the idea that Gregor may be ill, "Oh dear," cried his mother, in tears, "perhaps he's terribly ill and we're tormenting him." Mrs. Samsa was the first to explain the Chief that Gregor had no social life...
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...It is not hard to find an individual in society who takes advantage of another, only to desert them when they can no longer reap their benefits. In the incredibly thought provoking short story, “Metamorphosis”, by Franz Kafka, Gregor Samsa, an overworked traveling salesman who is the sole provider for his family, awakens one morning only to discover he has transformed into a disgusting vermin. Gregor’s treatment by his family before and after his transformation reveals his continuous alienation, while the way his family then perceives him, and the way Gregor perceives himself, showcases the significant identity crisis that Gregor faces throughout. The alienation that Gregor faces throughout “Metamorphasis” sadly starts far before his transformation. As the sole provider for his parents and younger sister Grete, Gregor wakes up early every morning for work and is often out of town on business; a truly overworked proletariat. After Gregor knows he has transformed into a bug, he lies in bed and thinks, “What a strenuous career it is that I’ve chosen! Travelling day in and day out…there’s the curse of travelling, worries about making train connections, bad and irregular food, contact with different people all the time so that you never get to know anyone or become friendly with them. It can all go to Hell!”(68). Gregor’s prior life as a traveling salesman kept him isolated from the outside world, and from being his own person. He was virtually trapped in a bubble of work, and...
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...When Mary Shelley’s mother dies of “puerperal fever on September 10, 1797, she left her newborn daughter with a double burden: a powerful and ever-to-be-frustrated need to be mothered, together with a name, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, that proclaimed this small child as the fruit of the most famous literary marriage of eighteenth-century England” (Mellor 1). Mary‘s childhood is filled with a desperate need for love and affection as her father, William Godwin “found it easy to express his obvious affection when his daughters were small, but as they grew older together he became remote and awkward, more dutiful than sensitive, unable to show what he really felt for them. They, too, had to fitted into the methodical timetable, with periods allotted when they might interrupt his writing or listen to his latest story” (Locke 217). Although Godwin admires Mary, he does not seem to feel any special affection for her and finds it difficult to express his fatherly love for her. Anne K. Mellor adds, as Mary Shelley grows into the author of one of the most famous novels ever written, Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus, “we can never forget how much her desperate desire for a loving and supportive parent defined her character, shaped her fantasies, and produced her fictional idealizations of the bourgeois family-idealizations whose very fictiveness, as we shall see, is transparent” (1). Just as Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Shelley’s childhood is filled with solitude and a desperate...
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...1. I think Christopher Plummer played the role of Professor Vladimir Nabokov very well in this film. His lecture was a straightforward summary about the story “The Metamorphosis”. His lecture helped me understand the story better by retelling the story in details. The drawings of the “beetle” help me visualize what kind of insect Gregor was and how Gregor would look out the window. The professor brought life to this story because of the way he explained it. 2. When I read the first sentence to the story I had no idea what this story would be about. The first sentence described a striking image to me when Gregor wakes up and “he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect” (pg. 428). When I first read this I kept wondering why Gregor turned into an insect overnight. I think Kafka chose an insect because insect are not species that are loved or cared for which could relate to how Gregor’s family members behaved towards him after he was transformed. At first all of the family members act sympathetic towards Gregor after his transformation but their feeling of sympathy change to feelings of disgust and ashamed. Grete becomes his caregiver and tries to figure out what kind of food he favors since his transformation but she can barely stand to be in the same room with him because of his appearance. The mother hopes Gregor will change back into his human form but she faints every time she sees him. The father shows the least sympathy and even attacks Gregor twice...
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...Metamorphosis is a change in form, structure, or appearance. Change is a major theme throughout Franz Kafka's novella, The Metamorphosis. There is a significant relationship between the title, The Metamorphosis, and the theme of change. Kafka's main character, Gregor Samsa, undergoes many changes and his transformation evokes change in his family. Several metamorphoses take place involving Gregor. First, a physical change occurs, "When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from unsettling dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin," and after that happened, Gregor's voice changes from human into the voice of a bug. "That was the voice of an animal," Gregor's manager said, but the words seemed perfectly clear to him. Beginning to see things less and less, Gregor experiences a change in his vision. An example, found on page 29, would be Gregor seeing the hospital less and less distinctly. A mental change in Gregor occurs when he starts not caring about or having no consideration for his family. "It hardly surprised him that he was showing so little consideration for the others; once such consideration had been his greatest pride." This has is a growing problem with him in the story because of the social change that Gregor has experienced from the alienation from the rest of his family. The only thing Gregor had to look forward to at one point was when his sister would come and clean his room or the charwoman would come in and clean. This was such...
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...Existentialism talks about man making himself. Man has a dream for himself to fulfill one day. These dreams sometimes get the best of people and become them. These people become isolated from society with only their dream keeping them going. Isolation is everywhere. There are different types of isolation: intrapersonal, interpersonal, and existential isolation. We see the main character Gregor Samsa going through all three types of isolation in the short story The Metamorphosis. Gregor Samsa is an ordinary man with a dream to one day fulfill. This dream or goal of his has become him. The only thing keeping him going is the thought that one day his goal will be reached. This dream has kept him running away from reality, which has led to his isolation. The first type of isolation that we see in Gregor is interpersonal isolation; this is the form of isolation from others. Throughout the short story Gregor isolates himself from his family. He overworks himself to try to maintain his family by himself. People would think that such dedication from a son would bring him closer to his parents; “but for all the work one does, one still doesn’t gain any right to be treated with loving kindness by everyone; on the contrary, one is alone, a perfect stranger to everyone, and merely an object of curiosity.” (Emrich) Gregor did not stand up for himself, he let his parents control his life; a life he despised. His parents had such control over him that he no longer was a son to them, but an...
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...The Hidden Parts Everything is hidden. One watches the movies, reads the literature and even looks at the arts but does not really look at the true meaning behind all of this. The hidden theme. Alienation. “It is used to refer both to a personal psychological state and to a type of social relationship” (Kalekin, 1) Many may have heard of Marx theory. Karl Marx, a well known philosopher in the twentieth century went and pursued his calling. “[His] works inspired the foundation of many communist regimes” (“Karl”, 1). Istvan Meszaros clearly states Marx theory on the origination of alienation in a way that no man can ever forget. “It must be made equally clear, however, that such influences are exercised in the dialectical sense of ‘“continuity in discontinuity”’ (Meszaros, 1). There is very much “continuity in discontinuity” in literature, media, and the arts of today. In Mary Shelley’s book, Frankenstein, the hideous ‘monster’ that was created by Victor Frankenstein was frowned upon, fled from, and even abandoned by his own creator. This shows the inhumanity that society shows towards those who are different. “There was none among the myriads of men that existed who would pity or assist me; and should I feel kindness towards my enemies?” (Shelley, 115) The creature had merely a different look, but his emotions and desires were no different than any other human: love, companionship, and a sense of belonging. Many cast him away because his looks rang out evil. "I am alone...
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...My First Essay My Personal Essay I walked into the first class that I have ever taught and confronted utter chaos. The four students in my Latin class were engaged in a heated spitball battle. They were all following the lead of Andrew, a tall eleven-year-old African-American boy. Andrew turned to me and said, "Why are we learning Latin if no one speaks it? This a waste of time." I broke out in a cold sweat. I thought, "How on Earth am I going to teach this kid?" It was my first day of Summer bridge, a nationwide collaborative of thirty-six public and private high schools. Its goal is to foster a desire to learn in young, underprivileged students, while also exposing college and high-school students to teaching. Since I enjoy tutoring, I decided to apply to the program. I thought to myself, "Teaching can't be that difficult. I can handle it." I have never been more wrong in my life. After what seemed like an eternity, I ended that first class feeling as though I had accomplished nothing. Somehow I needed to catch Andrew's attention. For the next two weeks, I tried everything from indoor chariot races to a Roman toga party, but nothing seemed to work. During the third week, after I had exhausted all of my ideas, I resorted to a game that my Latin teacher had used. A leader yells out commands in Latin and the students act out the commands. When I asked Andrew to be the leader, I found the miracle that I had been seeking. He thought it was great that...
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...“The more you do for someone, the more that someone takes you for granted.” At the beginning of Kafka's "Metamorphosis", Gregor reveals to the audience that he has "...an exhausting profession! One the road, day in, day out" (1205). We later discover that the motivation behind his work commitment is to pay back debts owed by his parents. When Gregor's mother states " It almost worries me that he never goes out on his evenings off...his only hobby is a little occasional woodwork" (1208), we realize that Gregor has sacrificed any friendships and that he is not gaining any personal reward or motivation for his efforts. In return for his work, Gregor's parents however, were unemployed. To Gregor's father, "Breakfast was the most important meal of the day, which he liked to draw out for hours over the perusal of several newspapers" (1211). Meanwhile, Gregor had to get up and be on the early train for work on a normal basis. It appears that his father has no appreciation for all of the work and effort Gregor completes for the family. Gregor's sister, Grete, had become accustomed to "wearing pretty frocks, sleeping in late...taking part in a few modest celebrations, and above all, playing the violin (1219). These were all due to the amount of work and money Gregor contributed to his family. "They had just become used to it, both the family and Gregor; they gratefully took receipt of all his money, which he willingly handed over, but there was no longer any particular warmth about...
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