The Metamorphosis By Franz Kafka

In the book, Metamorphosis, Frank Kafka tells the story of a dysfunctional family that becomes even more dysfunctional when their son, Gregor, transforms into a cockroach. Before and after his transformation, Gregor has a variety of identity and self-esteem issues. Through his transformation, many of these issues are maximized. He begins to not know who he is anymore, and he is disgusted by the fact that he has turned into a hideous creature, both figuratively and literally. This is demonstrated when he has woken up after turning into a cockroach with an itch. After he tries to scratch his itch, he notices one of his many insect legs and is revolted by the truth. The immensity of his disgust is portrayed in his reaction to his transformation into a bug. He does not react how most people would if they woke up one morning to find that they have been turned into what most would consider the world’s most repulsive insect. Instead of waking up in a panic, he simply reflects on his life as a human and how monotonous it was. In this reflection, it becomes clear that his family is codependent on him. Codependency is a major concern, and it should be addressed.

What is betrayal actually? How do we visualize it? In what particular ways do we see it? A wide range of literature has been dedicated to the phenomenon of betrayal demonstrated in different ways. In the course of this essay two works of literature will be analyzed having regard to the issue of betrayal revealed therein. The work of art to be analyzed first will be The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. The Metamorphosis is a surreal story by Franz Kafka surrounding the tale of Gregor Samsa, who wakes up one day, reborn into a large insect. He wants to live a normal life, unfortunately, this is impossible because he cannot even get out of bed. Gregor transformation into an insect is a vivid metaphor for the alienation of humans from around the world. After losing a human form, the hero was beyond human existence. He is automatically deprived of the right to be a part of society.

Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis (1914) is about the transformation of Gregor Samsa into a giant insect. His life has been miserable due to the fact that he works to meet the standard necessities of the family after his father has lost his business. Kafka implies that Gregor’s transformation is simply a manifestation of what he was already experiencing. It is a punishment for Gregor not having attempted to engage with others. Kafka’s main theme is alienation and he explores it passionately through Gregor’s introverted life before his transformation, the metamorphosis of the family’s treatment towards Gregor after he turned into an insect, and Gregor’s behaviour after his drastic change.

In The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, the straightforward style adds to the stressful nightmare that the story revolves around. “But when he had at last got his head out of the bed and into the fresh air it occurred to him that if he let himself fall it would be a miracle if his head were not injured, so he became afraid to carry on pushing himself forward the same way”. (Metamorphosis, paragraph 11). The style is very direct and to the point, and that adds a stressful quality to the tone. The author uses very negative language such as “it would be a miracle if” and he became afraid” in this quote. This makes the writing sound worrisome, and is almost foreshadowing that something bad will happen. Another example of this is “What about if he

In the short story, The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, the main character Gregor Samsa wakes up to see that he has become a giant bug, and he and his family have to adjust to the changes that this has brought about. Kafka weaves several images and symbols through out the story, so many that writing a paper on all of them would be incredibly long. However, the thing I will concentrate on is the use and symbols of food that Kafka has placed in the tale. Just what do these symbols mean? Why are they there and what do they show about Gregor and his family and their relationship? I will prove in my paper that a piece of bread and bowl of milk can be much more than just a meal. The food in this story shows how life has changed for Gregor, and also that in some of the scenes, that it even has references to passages from the Bible itself.

In the book The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, there are many things that contribute to Gregor’s transformation into a monstrous insect that could have been prevented. One of the key contributors is that Gregor let himself take on the burden of caring for his family while they do seemingly nothing to help. In order to avoid all of the stress that is placed upon him, Gregor could have done a few things differently. The things he could have done to avoid his transformation are talking to his family about helping him with financing the household, taking time for a social life, and being involved in his father’s financial decisions.

Franz Kafka’s, The Metamorphosis, is a novella about Gregor Samsa, a man who devotes everything to fulfilling the needs of his family. Kafka’s existentialist perspective on the meaning of life is illustrated through the use of the protagonist of Gregor Samsa. Existentialism is a philosophy “concerned with finding self and the meaning of life through free will, choice, and personal responsibility” (Existentialism). Gregor is unable to fulfill the existentialist view of finding meaning in one’s life; he acted only according to what his family wanted. Kafka’s belief that there is no meaning to life and that the individual has to create his own meaning in life is entirely missed by Gregor. Kafka uses the juxtaposing mindsets of Gregor and his family members to express the importance of an individual fulfilling his own needs.

In the metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, the style enhances the nightmarish quality of the work. One example of how he shows a nightmarish quality is when he stated in the book, “I cannot make you understand. I cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside me. I cannot even explain it to myself.” In this example it gives it the nightmarish feel by providing a sense of hopelessness. From this quote it shows you how alone Gregor feels insides and how he can’t express his own feeling to anyone not even his family. Another example of this straightforward style was at the end of the story where Gregor thought to himself, “But Gregor understood easily that it was not only consideration for him which prevented their moving, for he could easily

In Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis,” Gregor Samsa deals with the alienation from his family stemming from both absurd and mundane circumstances. While Gregor’s transformation into a bug is the catalyst to his physical alienation, Gregor had for years been becoming more and more isolated mentally and emotionally from his family due to his displeasure at his having to work a job he hated due to his father’s failings and the lack of gratitude he received from his family for his hard work. It was not just his family who Gregor was becoming isolated from, but it was humanity in general that Gregor had been drifting apart from, as he had not mentioned having any friends or work colleagues which leads the readers to believe he had no social life

by Franz Kafka, the style enhances the nightmarish quality of the work by giving a very normal and nonchalant tone in clearly disturbing areas of the story. This very odd style can be seen in many occasions. One of these occasions is where Gregor is looking out his window and noticing the fog outside. He says,’ Seven o’clock and there’s still a fog like this.” This is odd due to the fact that Gregor is still ,in fact, an insect. He nonchalantly cares for the weather rather than being a bug. Most people today would not give any sort of attention to the world around them if they were no longer human. Another instance of the this style is a short while after Gregor realizes he is a vermin,yet, still stresses about his career.

The straight forward style enhances the nightmarish quality of Franz Kafka’s, “The Metamorphosis”. For instance, the dialogue in the novel between the chief clerk and Gregor’s mother; the chief clerk states, “I hope it’s nothing serious. But on the other hand, I must say that if we people in commerce ever become slightly unwell then, fortunately or unfortunately as you like, we simply have to overcome it because of business considerations” (Kafka, 257-261). In this excerpt, the chief clerk shows no signs of mercy for Gregor. Unless he is on the verge of death he is expected to be at work. This heightens the nightmarish quality because it belittles the fact the Gregor has turned into a vermin and it supports the thought that Gregor is under

Scientific usage of the term is exclusive, and it is not applied to general aspect of cell growth, including rapid growth spurts. Metamorphosis is a biological process by which an animal physically develop after birth or hatching. Involving a conspicuous and relatively abrupt changes in the animal’s body structure through cell growth and differentiation. The author Franz Kafka, who relatively wrote little in his short life and who published less has been enormously influential on later writers. He is considered an export of German expressionism. The metamorphosis is Kafka’s longest story and one of his frequently analyzed works. It traces the months from Gregor Samas’s unique metamorphosis to his death from dehydration and isolation. However, the main character of Kafka’s metamorphosis, Gregor is exploited after being a fully alienated.

‘Metamorphosis’ is a novella that is written by Franz Kafka in the twenties century. The novella is about Gregor Samsa, a traveling salesman who wakes up from an abnormal dream and discovers that he is changed into a gigantic insect. It was a heavy shock for the entire family. Despite Gregor’s bad situation, the only thing he was thinking in is his family, as he is the only breadwinner for them, or at least that what he thought. The picture of the women in furs on Gregor’s bedroom wall is a symbol of Gregor’s former humanity.

There were several concepts in the book The Metamorphosis which I had trouble understanding but with the cultural knowledge from the IB orals the concepts in the book became much more clear and lead me to understand the book in a better way.

Franz Kafka was thought to have been the master of the parable. A parable is a fictitious tale in only which he could succeed. Kafka has a riveting sense of humanity and the overall tone from the actuality of human worth and desire, but Kafka’s metaphorical tongue is one spoken in morals. It is said that a parable cannot be explained in its purity because the individual will translate the emotion more clearly than the author’s full understanding of the situation. In theory, this means that, as people, a parable will reveal more about a critic than the author. With this in mind, the prompt has asked me to delve into the meanings behind Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, and arrive at an adequate interpretation for such an unobstructed inquiry. Kafka will use Gregor Samsa to demonstrate the many morals through this character’s life and death while also displaying his Jewish hardships and life through the intimacy of writing. I believe that the most important concept in the story is the realization of what you have become and the manifestation of how others influence you with their own thoughts. In this essay, I hope to defend my point of view and my selected moral from the aspects of Gregor’s family, work, and his changed sense of self.