Franz Kafka uses his writings and characters, for instance Gregor Samsa, in his novel The Metamorphosis, to reflect the work, family, and personal issues, that isolated Kafka. Both Gregor and Kafka work time-consuming jobs they are not fond of, as they give them a miniscule amount of time to spend with other people. Samsa is a traveling salesman, while Kafka works as an insurance salesman, along with helping out at his family's shop and writing. Kafka’s differing views on topics, such as religion
In the novel, The Metamorphosis, Kafka writes about a man who one day transformed into a bug. Kafka’s own feelings of nothingness caused this story to shape into this unique story. Kafka writes, “The dream reveals the reality, which conception lags behind. That is the horror of life – the terror of art” (qtd. In Kennedy and Gioia 299). Kafka said this as a rebuttal to a friend trying to pry information out of him about The Metamorphosis. Kafka meant that the true burden of art is that a person’s
free will. Franz Kafka uses the same language to describe how the institution of modernity de-humanizes its participants. Kafka explores how modern society only values the person monetarily, and nothing else. Kafka compares modernity to slavery by revealing how modern society depends on a form of dehumanization to survive, one in which the participants are willingly dehumanized. Morisson’s use of characters like Sethe and Paul D reveals how slavery ignores the humanity of a
Creativity,” by Katherine Lindemann it said, “Kafka deliberately did most of his intellectual work at night. This hyperarousal, tendency to worry excessively about sleep, and anxiety suggest that Kafka could have suffered from psychological insomnia.” (Perciaccante) Antonio Perciaccante is an Italian doctor who answered questions about Kafka’s insomnia, he gave his own opinion on what he thinks was going on. Perciaccante was asked what was Kafka’s “power” that allowed him to access inaccessible thoughts
Losing track of his self-narrative, he's forgotten his life as an Ape describing it as a "gentle breeze which cools my heels" (Kafka, "Report" 1), barely there at all and impossible to grasp or return to. He has also lost the ability to experience the emotions of an Ape, comparing his experience to be as distant as any man's in the audience (Kafka, "Report" 1). It is not clear as to if this loss disturbs him at all. He reports that he is satisfied with his progress and found the "way
Kafka is considered one of the most influential litterateurs of the 20th century, despite not being a professional writer. He was a lawyer, wrote in his free time, and most of his works were published posthumously. That alone, besides his works, makes him an extraordinary personality, who also died young at the age of 41. A very kind gentleman, but wrote stories which were amazingly depressing, depicted brutal situations, strange transformations, etc. His works are written in German and difficult
Existentially, I had a very basic understanding when it concerned the book. Of course, it was obvious that Kafka wrote the book in such a straightforward manner to illuminate the fact that turning into a vermin suddenly was not a big deal. This lead to the inference that, because it was spoken of so casually, things do not happen for any reason, or at least not any reason that matters as Kafka does not go into an explanation for why things happened to Gregor. However, Kafka’s views on existentialism
clerk from Gregor’s employer is sent to investigate the reason for Gregor’s missing the train, his entire family is quick to offer an excuse in his defense. At the sight of the chief clerk, Gregor’s mother blurts out, “He’s not feeling well” (Kafka, Franz Kafka Metamorphosis and Other Stories), and defends her son by claiming how his job is her son’s primary concern. Once Gregor’s condition is discovered, events take a turn for the worse; the chief clerk flees, and his mother, repulsed at the site
The misunderstandings, the confusion, the despair that permeate Kafka's writing is derived from a vision of disintegration. Although the symbolic images in which Kafka expresses these visions allude, often simultaneously, to man's relation to himself, to society, and to God, it is the psychological perspective that provides the core from which the sociological and theological implications are refracted. What emerges from Kafka's descriptions of his struggle to live an authentic life is a dynamic
Kafka consistently writes in a style that requires one to read moreso inbetween the lines than with the actual lines. This is very clear throughout much of his writing where the meaning isn't given but found, giving his stories a near parable typology comparable to the bible. In The Trial Kafka tries to tell the reality of the oppressive government that rules over the people who unknowingly feed into it. This story is arguably the one that gave rise to idea of the Kafkaesque, something that is unnaturally