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The metamorphosis and life of kafka
The metamorphosis and life of kafka
The metamorphosis and life of kafka
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More handpicked essays just for you.
The metamorphosis and life of kafka
The metamorphosis and life of kafka
The metamorphosis and life of kafka
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
For most of the memoir Night by Elie Wiesel, Elie was determined to remain with his father, after being separated from his mother and sisters during the early years of the Holocaust. Elie’s father, his only remaining relative, was all he had left. Determination to keep them together very well may have been what kept him alive. Eventually, his father’s willpower deteriorated along with his health, making him more of a burden than a tether by the end of the book. Although he still loved his father, Elie no longer needed him.
He is willing to take on anyone in order to support his family, which plays into the theme of family duty. Also, Gregor’s determination and military experience (pg 12) is displayed in his plan making and strategizing to capture his manager. The loyalty to his family, displayed by working and trying his best to keep a job he doesn’t want, gives insight into Gregor’s character. The unhealthy relationship Gregor has with his family is very common for a character in Franz Kafka’s book. His own tumultuous relation reflected onto his characters lives.
In The Metamorphosis by Frank Kafka cruelty is what stemmed Gregor’s change into a large bug and subconsciously motivated him to end his life. Gregor’s new form was a depiction of how he already felt in his household, trapped, voiceless, and small. As Gregor’s metamorphosis developed so did the characters cruelty which affected both the perpetrators and the victims. The Samasa family’s cruelty was demonstrated both physically and mentally by Gregor’s father driving him back into his room, throwing apples at him and by Grete’s use of the word “it”.
"Most people don't realize this, but there are twice as many neglected children in the United States as there are physically and sexually abused combined,” (Perry, 2007). Neglect is among everyone; even Gregor in the story “The Metamorphosis.” In the story, “The metamorphosis,” by Franz Kafka, the main character, Gregor, transformed into a sizable insect-like creature. There were major outcomes that came from this transformation, one of them being neglect he faced from his family. This corresponds to the many people at this moment that are facing some form of neglect, particularly a young girl named Danielle.
In Night, Eliezer "Elie" Wiesel's shares his experience as a 15 year old boy. It is a memoir of extraordinary power: his humanity shines through every page as he stands a witness to the tragedy which befell the Jewish race at the hands of the Nazis. He calls himself a "messenger of the dead among the living" through his literary witness. The concentration camp there shocks everyone with its cruelty and coldness to life.
“From the depths of the mirror, a corpse gazed back at me,” Wiesel 109. This quote relates to the thesis by proving if something traumatic happens it's very emotionally draining as well as physically draining. The novel Night, by Elie Wiesel tells us how inhumanity affects people by being forever traumatized and losing their own humanity. Eternal traumatization is caused by inhumanity. For instance,”The look in his eyes, as they stared into mine has never left me,” Wiesel 109.
A Russian novelist, Fyodor Dostoevski, once said:“There is only one thing that I dread; not to be worthy of my suffering” (Frankl). Suffering opens opportunities to achieve something great, ultimately adding meaning to one’s life. But if one doesn’t take that opportunity, he or she will miss out the chance to do something great and will not deem worthy of their suffering. Night by Elizer Wiesel is a historical fiction book about his experience through many different German concentration camps as a Jewish Romanian during the Holocaust. Elie loses his family, suffered through considerable hardship, and lived through the worst time in humanity.
Gregor began to resent his father for throwing household items at him, squashing him like a bug. Even his beloved sister Grete began irritating Gregor by removing all of his belonging from his room, leaving him with nothing. The cruelty performed on Gregor by his own family sends him into a dark pit of despair. With nothing to live for he began to slowly end his life, making one final sacrifice for the ones he loves
Gregor Samsa’s transition from human to vermin was not the only shift that happened through the duration of Kafka’s The Metamorphosis. The novel is centered around Gregor who wakes up as a vermin, presumably a cockroach, which catalyses a series of emotionally traumatic experiences for him and his family, culminating in Gregor’s death. Yet the most significant change is, in fact, the gender role reversal seen both with Gregor and Grete, his sister, as Gregor becomes more effeminate and Grete becomes more emasculate, directly correlating with their societal and emotional transformation due to Gregor's physical change. From the moment, Gregor wakes up he has transformed. But not just as a vermin.
Both Kafka and Gregor were tormented characters facing the absurdity of their complicated situations, which brought both of them to their ruin, one by death, and the other by escaping into literary fantasies. Throughout the story I deduced the resemblance between the author, Kafka, and the main character, Gregor. There are many similarities that can be seen between both as shown above, it is as if Kafka projected his problems onto Gregor and discarded them into a fictional
Kafka uses diction and symbolism to convey the family’s dissatisfaction and the deterioration in their family ties. Each family member acquires a job to compensate the loss of Gregor’s salary. Kafka writes: “They were fulfilling to the utmost the demands the world makes on the poor: Gregor’s father fetched breakfast for the petty employees at the bank, his mother sacrificed herself for the underclothes of strangers, his sister ran back and forth behind the shop counter at her costumers’ behest... And the wound in Gregor’s back would begin to ache anew when… Gregor’s mother…would say: ‘shut the door now Grete’; and Gregor was left in the dark again” (Kafka
Franz Kafka is a German novelist who wrote “The Metamorphosis.” In the story, he uses a third person point of view narrative. The novel uses absurdum, which exaggerates and dramatize the absurdity of modern life. The protagonist, Gregor Samsa, a traveling salesman, struggles with an external factor of transforming into an insect like creature. The transformation was not under his control and now struggles with a new identity.
Gregor is the main provider within the family for the amount of income he brings, and is idolized for his role. Being raised in the 20th century, Gregor 's view on women had been the same as any other male during this time period and looked down upon women as inadequate, and, in most societies, the man provides and the woman maintains; however, this viewpoint alternates once the unexpected change in their life occurs resulting in a switch of leadership within their household. "Gregor felt very proud that he had been able to provide such a life in so nice an apartment for his parents and his sister. (21)" After his mysterious modification within his physical form, his mentality also weakened.
There are many circumstances in the book that tie to Franz Kafka’s life. Kafka was abused by his father as a child just as Gregor is abused by his father. “From the fruit bowl on the sideboard his father had filled his pockets, and now, without for the moment taking accurate aim, was throwing apple after apple” (Kafka 49). Gregor’s father is throwing apples at him just as Kafka was also abused by his father who would hurt him. The apple here is seen a weapon that later on leads to Gregor’s
Yet, she is actually exercising her authority over both her mother and Gregor. As Gregor’s mother reasons as to why not to remove Gregor’s furniture, Grete “did not let herself be swerved from her decision by her mother” (Kafka 34). Her conviction to deprive Gregor of the pieces that represent his life as a human reveals the process of her own transformation into a figure of power. Finally, Grete’s most significant show of power is her convincing of the family that the insect is not Gregor. She announces to her family that they “have to try to get rid of it” (Kafka 51), and upon hearing this Gregor retreats to his room and dies.