In conclusion, I think this story teaches us that life not only is work or you’ll lose yourself. We have to earn our place in this world by being us and not question others. Obtaining goals and having a promotion in work won’t make you happy. Yes, it will help for a “better life” in this world of consumerism, but your soul would be empty. Focus on yourself, because others won’t and just keep moving forward in
Franz Kafka starts his story, The Metamorphosis, by transforming his main character into a vermin, one of the most disgusting and loathsome insects. With Gregor’s transformation, Kafka is exposing a metaphorical view of how life can be shown in a tangible, physical way. Gregor’s metamorphosis consists in his insides coming out. His new state of being reflects his life and his inner thoughts. A cockroach is a tangible representation of how he feels about his life and the relationship with his family.
Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka was written in 1915, it was based on a man named Gregor, a travelling salesman who wakes up to find himself transformed into an insect. Disgusted by his appearance he tries to deal with his new condition, but he is forced to endure the rejection of his family, which is what eventually drove him to his death. Despite having two different characters, one in real life and the other fictional, there is still a correlation between both; showing the author´s feelings, ideas and even problems, that are thrown into the story in a way to express his anguish. The clearest correlation between both is the idea of the transformation into an insect such as Gregor experienced, the novella starts, “…When Gregor Samsa awoke one
On the surface, the Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka is about a man who becomes disabled from working after waking up one day to find himself turned into a monster of some sorts. Through the dynamic between Samsa and his family and their shared familial roles, as well as the relationship between Samsa and his work, Kafka seems to be making commentary on the futility of life, and how meaningless desperate actions are in the unforgiving cold world. This emptiness can be seen first when Samsa first wakes up and finds himself a vermin, and reflects on his job. It seems that his main purpose for living is to work and eventually pay off the debt his parents have accumulated. He has other goals in life as well, from sending his sister to a conservatory,
In the tale of The Metamorphosis, a man named Gregor Samsa lives the life of a giant bug unexpectedly as it rained one evening, Gregor awoke to his body being a giant bug with a white spot on his belly. This posed as no threat to Gregor because he was marked for greatness. He began evaluating his surroundings and realized the time. It seemed as if a season had passed. Gregor quickly realized he will be late for work.
While both Gregor and Grete Samsa from Kafka’s “Metamorphosis” experienced character development, it was evident that Gregor’s metamorphosis symbolized and initiated the figurative transformation that Grete underwent. From the very beginning, it is apparent that Franz Kafka would very much be focusing on character. Metamorphosis opens with the protagonist, Gregor Samsa: a traveling salesman, waking up and discovering that he has been transformed into a disgusting vermin. It is important to note that Gregor’s first thought after realizing this was how to get to work in his current state, instead of panicking or trying to remedy the situation as expected. This transformation prompts him to reflect and ponder on his depressing and pathetic life as
However, when Gregor Samsa transforms from a human to a bug, he upsets the social hierarchy of the family. This shuffling of roles as a result of the metamorphosis destroys his relationship with his sister over time. After Gregor Samsa’s transformation, Grete is the only caring person in the family who looks after him. His mother is in complete shock and cannot bear his appearance, while his father is even more hostile towards him. Grete, however, shows great admiration for Gregor because he has been the only working member of the family and has been saving money to pay for her tuition for music school.
Particularly, in The Metamorphosis, the power simply shifts from one person to another. As previously discussed, Gregor became the breadwinner of the family after his father’s business crashed, illustrating the transfer of power from Mr. Samsa to Gregor. After Gregor’s incapacitating transformation, Grete begins to gain authority in the house. She takes on the job of feeding Gregor, a task that even his mother is afraid to do. Additionally, Grete removes furniture from Gregor’s room, which on the surface may seem like a benevolent gesture to allow Gregor to move more freely.
In Franz Kafka’s ‘The Metamorphosis’, magic takes place in the form of the transformation of the protagonist, Gregor, into an insect. This literalized metaphor, a characteristic of the magical realism embodied in this novella, sets the context for Kafka to explore more ‘realistic’ thematic issues, such as the search for humanity and the familial bonds against the economic order of society, as highlighted by symbolism, irony and contrast. The magical transformation at the start of the novella, can be said to be crucial in setting into motion the needed transformation of the other characters in the story, most evidently presented in his sister, who blossoms into a young adult, and his father, who regains his authoritative role in the family.
This seems to be a logical place to start an account of a typical day in such a camp, but we must remember that several masterpieces of modern literature use the same technique for their opening scene. In Franz Kafka's enigmatic existentialist novel The Trial, the protagonist Josef K. awakens to find himself being arrested for having committed a crime which is never explained. In Kafka's story The Metamorphosis, Gregor Samsa awakens from uneasy dreams to find himself transformed into a gigantic, odious insect3 , without ever finding out explicitly for what reason. Other authors place their protagonists into this state between sleep and waking, where the character and the readers have difficulty deciding whether or not the events to follow are a dream or