The short story, Axolotl, by Julio Cortázar shares a distinct connection to the short novel, The Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka. Both stories use the plot device of a human being transformed into an animal or bug, while still retaining their human sentience. Both authors use this device to frame the idea that the human soul is, in a way, imprisoned within a physical body that restrains the soul to an elemental, animal-like, existence.
In Axolotl, after the narrator comes to the realization that his consciousness is trapped within the body of an axolotl, he is horrified by the fact that with his “human mind intact, buried alive in an axolotl, [he is] condemned to move lucidly among unconscious creatures.” Immediately after this realization,
Just like the spies in the book, people who seemed to just be servants reported Alvarez’s father for revolting against Trujillo and they had to flee to avoid persecution. Many people felt like the oppressive dictatorship had been in place for too long and they would start revolutions and fight to overthrow the dictator. Alvarez wrote, “A national underground is forming. Everyone and everything has a codename. Manolo is Enriquillo, after the great Taino chieftain, and Minerva, of course, is Mariposa. If I were to say tennis shoes, you’d know we were talking about ammunition. The pineapples for the picnic are the grenades. The goat must die for us to eat at the picnic.” (142) Alvarez writings about the revolutions and the fights to overthrow
In Identity, Julio Noboa Polanco uses foreshadowing and tone to show how being a weed is better.
The art of Fernando Botero is widely known, revered, paraphrased, imitated and copied, For many, his characteristic rounded, sensuous forms of the human figure, animals, still lifes and landscapes represent the most easily identifiable examples of the modern art of Latin America. For others, he is a cultural hero.To travel with Botero in his native Colombia is to come to realize that he is often seen less as an artist and more as a popular cult figure. In his native Medellín he is mobbed by people wanting to see him, touch him or have him sign his name to whatever substance they happen to be carrying. On the other hand, Botero's work has been discredited by those theorists of modern art whose tastes are dictated more
Additionally, Ovid writes about many animal transformations in Metamorphoses that happen with humans and gods alike. Often times, being turned into an animal is a way of divine punishment such as Arachne being turned into a spider by Minerva. Other times, humans are transformed into
story. While he had expressed earlier satisfaction with the work, he later found it to be flawed, even calling the ending "unreadable." Whatever his own opinion may have been, the short story has become one of the most popularly read and analyzed works of twentieth-century literature. Isolation and alienation are at the heart of this surreal story of a man transformed overnight into a kind of beetle. In contrast to much of Kafka's fiction, "The Metamorphosis" has not a sense of incompleteness. It is formally structured
"Outside, my face came close to the glass again, I saw my mouth, the lips compressed with the effort of understanding the axolotls"(15). How can the boy be seeing through the axolotl's eyes? Later, the narrator says "what was his obsession is now an axolotl" (15). How can a person's obsession turn into a living thing? However, the characters do not question the story. "No transition and no surprise, I saw my face against the glass, I saw it on the outside of the tank, I saw it on the other side of the glass" (14).
Francisco Pizarro was a conquistador born in Trujillo, Spain in about 1471. His father, Gonzalo Pizarro, was an infantry captain and he taught Francisco how to fight at an early age. Francisco Pizarro never learned to read and write but he was full of adventure.
Rene Descartes believed that the mind and body are separate entities (Lieberman, “The Mind-Body Illusion”). This idea is reinforced in the stories “The Secret life of Walter Mitty” by James Thurber; a short story about a man who lives his seemingly boring life in exciting daydreams, and “Mirror Image” by Lena Coakley; a segmented short story about a girl who undergoes and survives a brain transplant, and continues to live her life in a new body. In the two short stories, the protagonists’ minds can only try to adapt to situations so much before their physical body takes them back to reality.
Metamorphosis is a concept we are all familiar with, normally using the word to refer to the changes insects go through, specifically butterflies. (Hook) However, there is another idea of metamorphosis, that does not involve a caterpillar creating a cocoon. Humans experience metamorphosis throughout their lives, changing the way they act and behave. Metamorphosis is also experienced in the form of disguises, which can be used to serve many different purposes. (Discussion) This idea of metamorphosis is an important aspect of identity in mythological texts. (Thesis) In the Odyssey, Homer uses metamorphosis on the character Athena to help her fulfill her role as a mentor. Ovid’s The Metamorphoses also uses metamorphosis of the characters Io
The novella by Franz Kafta, named The Metamorphosis, can be compared to and contrasted with the poem Call of the Wild by Mark Woods. They both contain themes surrounding the topic of society, and compare that to nature. These two pieces of literature share common themes but differ in just about every other aspect.
Finally, after what appeared to be an eternity, I regained my thought faculties and the ability to move about. After such experience, I realized just how painful it must have been for the proto-humans to move into an astral body. Due to the astral body’s characteristics, the immortal mental body has become a mere reflection within the consciousness of the astral
However the central theme of the masterpiece “The Metamorphosis” is change. The novel illustrates the idea of change and transformation through its main character Gregor Samsa who transforms into a large insect. The real
Many people have sometimes found themselves in some really terrifying situations, only to wake up shortly after and realize that they were dreaming. In “The Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka, the main character Gregor Samsa is a traveling salesman who had devoted his life to taking care of his mother, father, and sister. That is, however, until he woke up one morning and found himself transformed into an insect. At that point, he became useless to his family and had to come to terms with his new identity as a bug. This, of course, was a totally different life to have then the one he previously held. Identity is an issue that most people encounter at some time or another, so the “metamorphosis” is somewhat a day-to-day occurrence for these individuals.
The Metamorphosis and the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Franz Kafka, and Robert Louis Stevenson respectively, center around two protagonists who encounter some physical and mental transformations, and confusion of identities. While Kafka’s novella shows the innocence and noble traits hidden in Gregor Samsa, Stevenson’s novella suggests that Dr. Jekyll is motivated by the darkness of his soul. Both protagonists escape their realities through transformations, in which Dr. Jekyll seeks to find an exit from the judgment of society , and Samsa desires a life that does not take away his individuality. Although Dr. Jekyll owns an evil dark spirit, and is motivated by immoral deeds, Gregor Samsa owns a soul of purity and desires
William Blake and Anna Letitia Barbauld both constructed various works that dealt with the concept of human life. From thought being the source of life, and therefore the death of an individual, to a human containing the same soulful potential of a common animal. “The Fly,” a work by Blake, embarks on the interpretation that human existence is based upon thoughts; “The Human Abstract,” also wrote by Blake, uses imagery to transforms human emotions into the nature that surrounds us all; and “The Mouse’s Petition,” illustrated by Barbauld, helps express how humans are connected to nature, and the animals lurking in it. Humans are connected to nature, along with what lies upon it. A fly or a mouse, a person is still connected by thoughts and basic freedom. Emotions can change, much like the weather in the atmosphere. What is felt, along with the thoughts that follow, keep people connected to nature, as they develop their roots.