...The Metamorphosis of Gregor Samsa Gregory Samsa, is the main character in the story by Frank Kafka entitled "Metamorphosis". This story, published in 1915, is a disturbing look at the seemingly pathetic life of man and how a major change affects not only him, but those around him. Gregor Samsa appears to be a hard working young man, with a strong work ethic, whose main existence in life is to provide for his family through his work. His family, likewise, seems to be only interested in the money that Gregor provides to the family, so that they family debt may be paid. Otherwise, Gregor Samsa is a lonely man who leads a lonely life. He seems to go through life with no sense of being until one day he awakes completely transformed physically. He becomes something completely unknown to him in the physical sense. However, the question remains does the physical transformation produce a transformation in the emotional sense? Does Gregor change his sense of being as a result of his metamorphosis? The story tells the tale of a man who is disconnected from society in so much as a drastic, dramatic and disturbing change in his appearance does nothing to change his emotional state. Transforming into a hideous creature, a detested cockroach does not seem to affect him in the psychological sense, it does not seem to change who he is at the core. However, what we do see is how the transformation seems to change the people around him. His family and boss respond very differently to Gregor and...
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...Literary works are often comprised of symbolisms that convey a message to the reader. In the two literary works, A Worn Path by Eudora Welty and The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost, symbolism is used to capture the nature of both pieces. They both reflect a journey through imagery and metaphors. Each literary work has its unique way of expressing its message, one through the alliteration, ambiguity and visual sensation of poetry, and the other through a short, but evocative story about an elderly woman on her journey through a long, treacherous path. The Worn Path begins with an African-American grandmother that has begun her journey to get medicine for her grandson who lives in ‘town’. Her name is Phoenix Jackson and is described as an elderly woman on a mission. The beginning of the story explains that she is making her way down a long and difficult path to retrieve a much needed medicine that will help cure her grandson’s ailment. The dialect and manner in which the story is told suggests that the story takes place in the late 19th century after the ‘Surrender’ or a reference to the defeat of the Confederate army and the victory of the Union. It also makes implies that Phoenix resides in the south, or what would be the former Confederacy. Phoenix begins her path without question; only after the exposition does she glance back to where she had first begun her path. “After she got to the top she turned and gave a full, severe look behind her where she had come. "Up through...
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...INTRODUCTION Background of the Case Study of the UNITES STATES POSTAL SERVICE The evolution of the United States Postal Service is interlaced with the history of our federal government. Today, the Postal Service is the second largest civilian employer in the United States. It has over 700,000 employees, affects an economy that employs 9 million people and represents 8% of the United States gross domestic product in a $900 billion mailing industry (United States Postal Service [USPS], 2002b). This organization reaches every United States household and its operations are often perceived as an indication of the efficiency of the entire federal government as a whole. After the historic gridlock of the Chicago Post Office in 1966, Postmaster General Lawrence O’Brien sought the political support of President Johnson for systemic change in the organization. President Johnson formed a “blue ribbon” commission of well-known business leaders and academia’s to study the Post Office Department. Their mission was to recommend how to change the Post Office Department and to also describe the best governmental organization model for its function. The President’s Commission on Postal Organization (Commonly called the Kappel Commission after its Chairman) presented the President with a plan in 1968, which lead to congressional testimony, but legislative action did not soon follow. Various factions, including the strong postal unions representing 740,000 votes, opposed the government corporation...
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...that those people are welcome. They preserve traditional arts such as dance and song. 2. How will you characterized Hatsumomo? Hatsumomo was the only working geisha in the whole house when Chiyo arrived in Nitta-Okiya. She was the only one who worked and brought an income in the house. Although she was a beautiful woman, she was very rude to Chiyo and she looks Chiyo as a threat on her future. Hatsumomo set her mind on destroying Chiyo/Sayuri’s future as a geisha. She always tried to humiliate or embarrassed Sayuri in every opportunity Sayuri could get but in the end her selfishness and hate lead her into her down fall. 3. What does Chairman Ken Iwamura convey of Japanese men? Chairman Ken Iwamura carries a Japanese men characteristic of being kind and gentleman. Kind in a way that even though she don’t even know the child Chiyo, he gave her a flavoured crashed ice and a coin together with his handkerchief, that inspired Chiyo to become a geisha because she wanted to be with the Chairman. Another is being a gentleman although he knew that Sayuri was a geisha and he loves her he did not take it as an advantage to become Sayuri’s danna. He waited for the right time to reveal his feelings. It also says in the movie that he is the one who asked Mameha to find the girl with blue eyes. 4. Why was the war necessary in the story? The war is necessary in the story because it’s just telling...
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...physical appearance to uncover who the real monster is, society; it defines what make us human. Society defines others solely based on what they see, disregarding any humane characteristics they may possess. To fully understand how society impacts the creatures in each story the reader must look at their actions before they were defined as monsters. Frankenstein’s creature wanted affection, love and attention from none other than his own creator and father, Victor. He even wanted a mate, someone to love and care for him; neither of these did he receive from Victor. The creature also possessed the curiosity as that of a small child. In chapter twelve, he describes how he learned language from the family in the woods; this is the same family that society labels as poor. But, this family serves as an example for Frankenstein’s creature; they provide the creature’s education on communication and basic values. The creature thought himself to be no different from others and he wanted nothing more than to be accepted. Similarly, before Gregor Samsa’s transformation in “The Metamorphosis”, he was a hard-working son who wanted to please his family. He worked every day, never calling in sick, only to provide for his family. Even after his transformation, Gregor’s main concern was getting to work on time. Both characters strived for genuine attention from their families. In Frankenstein, Victor wanted nothing to do with his creation, leaving him alone and shunning him from society...
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...Rhetorical Analysis The trend of tattoos in today’s society has grown into much more than just a trend. Just take a look around, there is a plethora of people with ink stained skin. Even the unexpected people may have some ink under their clothing. While tattooing is a growing industry, people have varying opinions on the subject. Some see tattooing as degrading to one’s body, harmful to our society, and just dirty and unsophisticated. Others will look at a tattoo and see art, a story, or a way of expressing oneself. In this rhetorical analysis of Ink Sessions, where Margot Miffin explores the idea that tattoos and the artists creating them are more than society gives credit for, we will analyze how effective her message is. Miffin is trying to prove that tattoos and artists are much more, that they can actually have a healing effect on a person. Miffin starts the article by introducing Roxx, a tattoo artist who owns the 2Spirit Tattoo studio. Roxx, a very unique tattooist, who works with a style not many women do, called blackwork. She turned to this form of tattooing because it is different, and she knew merely tattooing pictures on skin was not for her. Roxx has been developing her style since she was a kid. She started off learning to draw horses with her grandmother, and then moved to Amsterdam where she tattooed at a street shop. Her style gives her work life, emotion, and meaning, something that touches the hearts of her clients. She does this by getting to know them...
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...voices of the political and gender struggle tends to suppress women’s perspectives, consequently inhibiting a gender-inclusive imagining of the nation. This article argues that discourses about gender struggle in Zimbabwe’s post-2000 crisis have not sufficiently addressed the question of space; that is, the significance of the oppressed women’s physical and social space in shaping their grievances and imaginings of exit routes. Similarly, the article argues that representations of this historic period in literary fiction have accentuated the wider political and economic struggles at the expense of other (especially gender) struggles, thereby rendering them inconsequential. Using two short stories by Valerie Tagwira (“Mainini Grace’s Promise” and “The Journey”), the article explores the stories’ focalization of gender-entangled women in an urban space to understand the literary evocation of the condition of women caught up in a crisis in urban settings. INTRODUCTION The Organization for Social Science Research in Eastern and...
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...an autobiography written by Frederick Douglass and published in 1845, tells the story of a former slave. Frederick Douglass was once a slave, but has transformed into a passionate abolitionist who advocates against slavery. The purpose of the narrative is to describe the challenges Douglass has to overcome and the mental and physical abuse he suffered through. Chapter six specifically focuses on how slavery can change a person and Douglass’ central claim that the ownership of slaves can poison the most kindhearted person, leading them to be corrupted. In chapter six, Douglass describes the corruption of Sophia Auld and introduces two slaves, Mary and Henrietta, to support his central claim that the...
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...Video games today have evolved from the basic structures of Pong and Space Invaders to have complex and film-like narratives. In many ways, games and film are very similar. Despite the similarities, how do video games approach storytelling differently than film, and does this affect the audience? The critical difference between storytelling in games and movies is how each medium engages its audience. Games transform the simple observer to a grand director. With active engagement, versus passive engagement, follows a number of other differences, including interaction, variable outcome, and player agency. The horror game Until Dawn is an applicable example of how the active engagement makes a game stand out from horror films with its outstanding...
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...handle the feelings that can occur. The short story Florianne by Daniel Woodrell is a fascinating story showing, from a father’s perspective, what a father goes through when his daughter becomes a teenager. On the surface Florianne is about a father, Henry, being upset because his daughter, Florianne, is missing. He worries that someone has taken his daughter. Throughout the story he tries to find her and is constantly suspecting everyone around him to have kidnapped her (p.40, l.21). The narrator is being worried about his daughter and blames his surroundings for the loss. In the ending of the story the father recollects the memories of the missing daughter’s mother. The girl’s mother left the father and daughter years ago. The mother gave several reasons for leaving the father, among was that he was too much the same day in and day out: “I was too steady for her taste, too regular, too much the same one day to another.” Irrespective of age almost everyone in some point in life breaks away from someone close to them to form and create their own life. The loss of the narrators daughter begun before she went missing. On page 42 there is a description of his daughters transformation from a girl to a teenager: “That meant so much to her, to finally have a figure clothes looked good on, to feel a little admired when lolling around the pool in town, wear shorts to the ballpark on summer nights” (p.42, l.9). The main theme in this short story is therefore not about a kidnapped girl,...
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...Kean Nicole Nagui Master Ho English 116-602 4/8/2014 Essay 1, prompt 2 Common grounds of “The 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...
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...The only way to know if you're afraid of something is if you do it. Fear is a kind of imagination, our fears can instantly switch to worlds of danger and disaster. Comparing how fear felt before something scary, and how it felt after is called transformation. It’s only through that comparison, again and again, that you get better at going through things like a haunted house or trail. You have to have some other feeling that you trust more than the fear. In what ways does transformation play a role in stories meant to scare us. Why do we do things such as go through a haunted house, or read a scary book, or even watch a scary movie, why? Are we curious as to how we react? Or are we looking for someplace to put our fear? If you really think...
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...Author Erich Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front is an anti-war novel that explores how the hostility and terror of war impacts the men on the Front line. Remarque does this by focusing on key stylistic conventions that transform the characters of the novel which eventually leads to a form of alienation. This approach is a somewhat reflection of Remarque’s war experiences and how he himself was changed by the elements of war. This realistic approach to the novel and its themes allowed Remarque to show how each experience and stylistic convention changed the individuals within the book. Throughout the novel Remarque uses his key experiences of war to develop themes that affect the characters of the novel. An existing theme is the theme...
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... Traditions began to fade away and what used to be the norm is evolving into a new era where men are abusive to women, and blacks began to fit into the society slowly gaining the rights other races have had all along. This is described as the New South where people are always intermingling in a diverse manner. People in the Old South speak exceptionally formal and precise, as opposed to the slang that has been picked up in the New South. There are many reasons that contrast just how different these two eras became. The decay of the old south is present in A Streetcar Named Desire, written by Tennessee Williams. Blanche and Stella’s ancestors were wealthy plantation owners. In the old south majority of people were farmers. Although Blanche and Stella inherited everything from their ancestors, they didn’t have enough income to keep it all. They ended up selling all of it besides a small portion in which their ancestor’s graves laid. During the 1940’s in New Orleans, there is a constant theme of how society and class effects Americans in this era. A Streetcar Named Desire deals with these class differences in an abnormal way. At one point of view is a disappearing Southern belle that has outdated ideals about the upper class and those “beneath” her social class or rank. Neither Stanley nor Stella, put social class into concern when regarding their relationship. Both characters are exempt from their class boundaries all together. Since Stella is a southern belle and has qualities...
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...Journal 6 Trauma and Memory Brain in a Search for the Living Past written by Peter Levine is a fascinating book that explains the fluidity of memories combined with the different ways in which they are stored. I enjoy that it is well written incorporating science in an easy to read manner. He highlights the reconstructive process stating that it is continuously adding, deleting, rearranging, and updating information. Understanding that memory is not concrete is extremely important to a counselor. Comprehending that our mood at the time of the event effects how the memory is stored increases our understanding of our clients when they relay details of the past. Helpful memories are ones we learn from and move on. Ordinary memories change over time. Traumatic memories are static. Realizing that there are explicit (conscious) and implicit (unconscious) memories were valuable because we must remember that the body knows what happened even if the client cannot remember the event consciously. This will help us to understand why a client may be reacting abnormally to certain situations. It allows us to hypothesis are they reacting to smells, touch, visual or sounds. We can then ask the client questions that may assist them to clarify. When you feel anxiety what do you notice? Is there a smell? What does the environment look like? Is there...
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