Red Peter

616 Words2 Pages

“Perhaps it's impossible to wear an identity without becoming what you pretend to be” (Orson Scott Card). The more you begin to behave and act as someone else the more you begin to become it, thus creating what seems to be an identity. Franz Kafka's "A Report to an Academy" introduces the narrator as Red Peter, an “invite” who has come to report to an academy his transformation from ape to human. Kafka illustrates the various experiences that Red Peter encounters, from the day of his captivity to his first hello; these human experiences progress towards Red Peter obtaining to what is believed to be an identity for himself. Red Peter’s process of obtaining an identity through the mimicking of human actions causes him to adapt to his situation for survival by eliminating the internal continuity of his origins. The narrator portrays the beginning of his new life by leaving behind the “remembrances of my youth” (Kafka, 250). For Kafka, Red Peter must let go of his upbringing in order to achieve and maintain an identity that will allow him to survive in the modern world. In addition, Kafk...

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