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Symbolism in Franz Kafka's metamorphosis
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In The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, the style enhances the nightmarish quality of the work. Kafka's detached tone makes the phrase “from the burning pain he felt that the lower part of his body might well, at present, be the most sensitive.” seem uncaring. The story contains a lack of empathy or remorse and, in a sense, it makes the reader feel isolated from the story as if what is happening to Gregor is a strange dream. Additionally, Gregor is obviously struggling physically to maneuver in his new transformation “But it became difficult after that, especially as he was so exceptionally broad.” Kafka makes no attempt to soften this sentence in any way, he states everything literally. The fact that nothing is 'cushioned' or 'sugar coated' as
most novellas of this nature tend to be is very unnerving to the reader. In a sense, the style Kafka uses turns the story into something much more real, it turn a harmless story into an atrocious nightmare.
In The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, the style enhances the nightmarish quality of the work. Franz wrote in section one paragraph one “He lay on his armour-like back, and if he lifted his head a little he could see his brown belly, slightly domed and divided by arches into stiff sections. The bedding was hardly able to cover it and seemed ready to slide off any moment. His many legs, pitifully thin compared with the size of the rest of him, waved about helplessly as he looked.” Franz describes the changes to Gregor’s body so well that you can picture a large vermin squirming around on a bed. Franz also wrote “There was no sound of the door banging shut again; they must have left it open; people often do in homes where something awful has happened.”
Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis is so strikingly absurd that it has engendered countless essays dissecting every possible rational and irrational aspect of the book. One such essay is entitled "Kafka's Obscurity" by Ralph Freedman in which he delves down into the pages of The Metamorphosis and ferrets out the esoteric aspects of Kafka's writing. Freedman postulates that Gregor Samsa progresses through several transformations: a transformation of spatial relations, a transformation of time, and a transformation of self consciousness, with his conscious mutation having an antithetical effect on the family opposite to that of Gregor. His conjectures are, for the most part, fairly accurate; Gregor devolves in both his spatial awareness and his consciousness. However, Freedman also asserts that after Gregor's father throws the wounding apple, Gregor loses his sense of time. While his hypothesis certainly appears erudite and insightful, there really is no evidence within the book itself to determine whether if Gregor has a deteriorating sense of time. If Freedman had only written about Gregor's spatial and conscious degradation, then his entire thesis would be accurate.
Thesis: The similarities between Gregor Samsa's physical transformation and my chronically ill uncle, how both experienced the inability to communicate with family members, all of the changes that occur in their lives, with their family, jobs and physical appearance after the transformation. Gregor Samsa and my uncle Carlos, went to bed and woke up different physically and mentally without a clear explanation of why this happened.
The story, Metamorphosis, is an unusual story to say the least. The very first sentence one meets the main character, Gregor Samsa. This sentence really shows how different this story is when compared to other books in this class. Throughout the story the author, Franz Kafka, wants the reader to sympathize with Gregor. ‘When Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from troubled dreams, he found himself changed into a monstrous cockroach in his bed’ (87), is the first sentence, and already the author wants the reader to feel sympathy for Gregor. This is no dream either, he is really a bug, and Kafka makes sure there is no confusion. This is just one of many examples that I will discuss where Kafka wants the reader to sympathize with Gregor.
In The Metamorphosis Kafka illustrates a grotesque story of a working salesman, Gregor Samsa, waking up one day to discover that his body resembles a bug. Through jarring, almost unrealistic narration, Kafka opens up the readers to a view of Gregor’s futile and disappointing life as a human bug. By captivating the reader with this imaginary world Kafka is able to introduce the idea that Gregor’s bug body resembles his human life. From the use of improbable symbolism Kafka provokes the reader to believe that Gregor turning into a bug is realistic and more authentic compared to his unauthentic life as a human.
Kafka is known for his highly symbolic and oblique style of writing. It is no surprise that several of his pieces contain the same major themes, just in different settings. The fact that he repeats his styles only makes the message that he is trying to convey much stronger. In both “The Metamorphosis” and “A Hunger Artist”, the main characters are similar in the way that they are both extremely dedicated to their work. In “The Metamorphosis”, Gregor Samsa wakes up one morning to find himself transformed into a bug. Oddly enough, Gregor does not question how this transformation happened or even why it happened. He is more concerned about getting to work (Metamorphosis 4). Similarly, in “A Hunger Artist”, the main character is completely dedicated to his job. In fact, he is so dedicated that he actually thinks of ways in which he can improve himself. At the end of a fast he asks himself, "Why stop fasting at this particular moment…why stop now…?" (Bedford 637).
The story The Metamorphosis revolves around Gregor Samsa, a devoted son and brother who works tirelessly to provide for his family, waking up finding out that he has been transformed into a larger than life insect. Franz Kafka enlightens the readers to how being dependent on one person can lead a family to being weak when that support system is ripped away from them. The situations that Gregor is put into knocks him down from the head of the family into nothingness while at the same time boosts his family from that nothingness into being a strong support system for each other. Gregor 's transformation, his dependency on his sister for food, his injury, the family choosing strangers over him, and ultimately his death are all things that lead to this downfall, or metamorphosis.
In Kafka's Metamorphosis, Gregor Samsa, whose life is controlled by his work and family, wakes up a giant insect. Prior to this metamorphosis, Gregor obsequiously goes about his life of routine, despite his hatred for his works and a complete emotional disconnect between Gregor and the family which he works so hard to support. Gregor's metamorphosis marks an important transition in Gregor's life as well as an escape from the monotony of his previous life. Sokel theorizes that Gregor's metamorphosis allows Gregor to express previously repressed feelings of rebellion while not being held accountable for his these tendencies stating "The metamorphosis enables Gregor to become free and stay "innocent", a mere victim of uncontrollable calamity."(206). While his metamorphosis does allow him to free himself from some of the suffering, it traps him in a new cycle, trapped by his families obligation to help him. Throughout his life, Gregor is plagued by a cycle of suffering caused by his families dependence on him which leads to further alienation leading to a dependence on his family's dependence. Though Gregor is broken out of this cycle in his metamorphosis he does not find true freedom until his death.
There is a theory that dream and myth are related which is conveyed through the writing of Douglas Angus’ Kafka's Metamorphosis and "The Beauty and the Beast" Tale and supported by Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis. The stories are very symbolic when conveying the metamorphosis of a human being. Unlike Beauty and the Beast, in the Metamorphosis some suggest love is received through acts of cruelty yet in actuality it appears that cruelty results in heartache. Due to being a beast, the repulsiveness requires genuine love which can achieve the “magical transformation.” This “magical transformation” is not achieved and creates a twist in the plot derived from the concepts in the “Beauty and the Beast.”
In the stories of the Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka and The Elephant Vanishes by Haruki Murakami, there are events of magical realism and marxism that occur. In the Metamorphosis, Gregor had to adapt to his new environment and also deal with the financial crisis from his family. In the Elephant Vanishes, the people in the city, had to deal with the disappearance of the town’s symbol, the elephant.
As one reads The Metamorphosis, Grete's change and development in character is evident throughout each part of the story. Through several of her actions, as well as information given by both Gregor and the author, Grete undergoes her own metamorphosis from a seemingly young, light, fragile child, to a beautiful, mature, strong woman.
The metamorphosis very possibly was written by Kafka as an outlet for his feelings of isolation and helplessness. In it, the protagonist, Gregor Samsa, awakens one morning to find himself spontaneously "transformed in his bed into a monstrous vermin." The story continues from there in a most realistic fashion: his family rejects him, and he stays cooped up in his room until he dies. Although interpretations of the story differ, my opinion is that Kafka wrote this story as a protestation, whether consciously or unconsciously, of his own inner needs not being met. Franz Kafka suffered from severe mental disorientation. This man suffered severe tragedies as a child: as the first child of Hermann and Julie Kafka, he lived to see two brothers born and die before he was six years old. Although they were eventually replaced by three new sisters, Kafka began his life with tragedies which most people do not experience until they are much older. Kafka lacked parental guidance, as he and his sisters were brought up mostly by governess. He was a Jew, and lived in Czechoslovakia, but he went to German schools. Therefore Kafka masked himself twice, at the bidding of his father. His father had made himself into a successful businessman, and expected Kafka to do the same. Most of Kafka's stories contain or center around an over-domineering, almost frightening father figure. Kafka obeyed his father. He remembered his high school education as being meaningless and dull, but, out of obedience to his father, he completed it, and passed with flying colors. This switching to a less offending option in order to offend no one characterizes Kafka very well. He possessed a wonderful mind but rarely, ...
The Metamorphosis is said to be one of Franz Kafka's best works of literature. It shows the difficulties of living in a modern society and the struggle for acceptance of others when in a time of need. In this novel Kafka directly reflects upon many of the negative aspects of his personal life, both mentally and physically. The relationship between Gregor and his father is in many ways similar to Franz and his father Herrman. The Metamorphosis also shows resemblance to some of Kafka's diary entries that depict him imagining his own extinction by dozens of elaborated methods. This paper will look into the text to show how this is a story about the author's personal life portrayed through his dream-like fantasies.
Metamorphosis ABCBC Paragraph In the “Metamorphosis” by Franz Khafka, the straight forward style enhances the nightmarish quality of the work. This means that the straight forward style or emotionless narration makes the story more scary seeming. One instance of Khafka’s straight forward style is seen in the first sentence of the story. The narrator says, “Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that in bed he changed into a monstrous verminous bug” (par.
In Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis, the straightforward delivery of the story both goes against and enhances the nightmarish qualities of Gregor Samsa’s story. This can be exemplified by, firstly, Gregor’s reaction to his transformation; “One morning, when Gregor Samsa woke from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed into his bed a horrible vermin”. Upon noticing this shocking development, Gregor begins describing his body t the reader, along with his newfound panic that arrived with additional legs. However, the horror of the situation diminishes when Gregor begins, instead, describing the room around him (as he attempts to sit upright) and reflecting on the objects on the walls and shelves. The former sense of panic further lessens once Gregor, after noticing an “unfamiliar ache”, begins chalking up the new pain to a further side effect of his job as a traveling salesman, adding to the long list of things he feels to be wrong with the position (including, but not limited to, how little his boss thinks of him, how tight his schedule is, and how much he wishes he could quit).