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Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis

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The Metamorphosis is a short story penned by the Czech author Franz Kafka. It is about a young man by the name of Gregor Samsa, who one morning found that he took the shape of a hideous bug. Some critics might find the short story satirical in some ways, but in truth, the author wrote the story as a means to highlight the modern tribulations that men of Gregor's position often had to go through. The Metamorphosis is a short story that details the true nature of man when they fall subject to a monotonous way of life, instead of enjoying life as it comes.

In the first part of the short story, we find that Gregor Samsa, the main character, morphs into a bug overnight. The way the author describes the physical state of Gregor reflects his true
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520 Words | 3 Pages

Gregor Samsa is a traveling salesman working to pay off his parents’ debt. One morning, Gregor wakes up and discovers he is a “monstrous verminous bug.” He thought he was dreaming, but everything in the room appeared to be the same way he left them the night before. He tries to go back to sleep but cannot get on his right side because of his abnormal shape. He wakes up again and looks at his alarm clock, it is six thirty.

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“The Metamorphosis”, written by Franz Kafka, takes place in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the city is unspecified. The protagonist, Gregor Samsa, is turned into a giant bug and struggles to regain his harmonious life as a traveling salesman. Gregor goes through both a physical and emotional change throughout the novel, from turning into a bug and then being unable to provide for his family because of his condition. Gregor has been changed into a giant bug where he is a not a pleasant eyesight to his family and isn't accepted by his father and mother but only his sister. As the novella begins,”he found himself transformed right there in his bed into some sort of monstrous insect”.

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Most notably, his reaction is extremely calmer than normal people would be. As a human, Gregor accepted the hardships he faces by his family without complaint. He is a naive and decent person. He works in anonymity without uttering words to earn money for the whole family even he did not even like this “exhausting job he’ve picked on”(p89) since his dad’s failure in business. Similarly, when he first realized he had transformed into an insect, he was not disgusted by his looking and condition, he did not wonder how he turned to an insect and how to transform back to a human.

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777 Words | 4 Pages

Gregor’s isolation and loneliness begins to toy with his composure, he becomes unpredictable and frightening to his family. Although, Gregor’s slow transformation from man to bug eventually becomes beneficial to Gregor. For instance, Gregor’s bug-like appearance allows him to be released from his family's high expectations. As for his developing bug-like qualities helps him to register his inner anger he feels towards his father. Gregor now realizes his father shows no sympathy towards Gregor and instead punishes him for something he has no control over.

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747 Words | 3 Pages

Transforming and Romanticizing a Storyline The Metamorphosis, a novella written by Franz Kafka, attracted the attention of many of its readers due to the writing framework and shocking concepts. The story depicts a man named Gregor Samsa who has befallen the fate of a cockroach- literally. After being transformed into a large bug, Gregor goes through the struggles of misunderstanding, neglect, and loss of his family relationships.

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1058 Words | 5 Pages

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.

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769 Words | 4 Pages

As the main character, Gregor Samsa, transforms from human state to that of a beetle, there are many aspects that are left unexplained and seemingly unstable. For example, in the novel, Gregor’s transformation into a beetle is left unexplained by Kafka. Kafka opens up the novel by stating, “When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from unsettling dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin” (Kafka 1). There is no scientific or physical evidence as to why this transformation occurred, but it can be ascertained that it is a psychological transformation.

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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.

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Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a pronounced German novelist and short story writer, he is very well known as one of the main figures of 20th-century fiction (Reference). His work, which vehemence elements of pragmatism and the imaginary, naturally features isolated characters faced by weird or surrealistic predicaments and unintelligible social-bureaucratic powers, and has been inferred as exploring themes of estrangement, existential concern, fault, and incongruity (Reference). The Metamorphosis is a novella by Franz Kafka 's (1916) describing a young salesman’s transformation from human being into giant creature and relating his consequent experiences within his family circle. "Metamorphosis," reflect a recognition on the part

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Many authors seek to master the vaunted art of leaving things to the imagination and still subtly deliver a message. Author Franz Kafka demonstrates his expertise in said skill through the first chapter of his novella The Metamorphosis. The main character Gregor, comatosely awakens to find himself plaintively transformed into a bug, yet his only anguish is arriving to work on time (not that he has grown four more limbs and antennae). At first glance readers brush off the nonchalant reaction and view it as a brusque plot device; however reading between the lines exposes a deeper question: Why was he so lackadaisical towards his new form, and was being a vermin that different from his current status? Kafka purposely embeds these questions into

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The short story, The Metamorphosis, written by Franz Kafka, shows a negative change that has taken place in the main characters life. When he is transformed into a vermin overnight, it is clear he is not excited or happy. Gregor says, “What’s happened to me, it wasn’t a dream?” It’s evident he doesn’t want to believe he’s been turned into a bug and wishes that it had only been a dream instead of reality.

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Kelvin Bennett Mr. Laviano English 2/Block 2 Character Analysis Due Date: 5/11/23 Changing Of the Character Franz Kafka, the author of The Metamorphosis, was born on July 3, 1883, in Prague, Bohemia, and died on June 3, 1924. He was a middle-class Jew Kafka studied law at the University of Prague; Kafka also worked in insurance and wrote in the evenings. Kafka had a problematic relationship with his parents; his mother, Julie, was a devoted homemaker who lacked the intellectual depth to understand her son's dreams of becoming a writer.

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With such a title, one might expect that this story will express the metamorphosis of a caterpillar to a beautiful butterfly, but with Kafka’s troubled upbringing, abuse and feelings of being devalued for most of his life, it’s easy to see how Kafka felt the need to symbolically dehumanize himself. Kafka’s choice of human-to-insect transformation exudes self-loathing because there’s nothing lower than a cockroach. While Gregor is the one who took on the grotesque transformation, it’s actually his family’s behavior towards his change which conveys complete hostility. Grete, for one, had enough near the end when she said, “If it were Gregor, he would have realized long ago that it isn't possible for human beings to live with such a creature, and he would have gone away of his own free will” (Kafka). It’s very disheartening knowing that his own family couldn’t handle his transformation when his first thought in the morning was getting to work on time for their

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Published in 1915, Kafka’s The Metamorphosis is a tale of a salesman named Gregor Samsa who one day wakes up to discover that he has quite literally transformed into an insect. Unable to support his family as an insect, he is only able to stay in his room and eat the rotting scraps of food that his sister brings him. Over time, Gregor’s transformation into a large bug begins to affect the lifestyle of his family, and they slowly become resentful of him. His family secretly wishes Gregor would leave, and knowing this, Gregor willfully dies in his room.

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797 Words | 4 Pages

However, people have failed to find the ultimate solution in a constant cycle. On the other hand, some people find life meaningless. These people do not seek any element in life, nor do they search for the true meaning of life. . Kafka, the author of the story “The Metamorphosis”, illustrates the concept of meaningless of life through the usage of the character Gregor Samsa, who faces a crisis where he is transformed into a bug-life figure and gradually doubts his own existence.

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