The Metamorphosis Imagine yourself awakening to find that you simply aren’t; aren’t yourself that is. Such a situation happened to Gregory Samsa when he woke from uneasy dreams one morning to find himself changed into a giant bug. The story of Gregory’s misfortune begins with a climax, the transformation from human to insect and then slowly descends from there to Gregory’s ultimate death. The author, Franz Kafka, born in Prague grew up with a pressuring father, driving him to be a business man.
Kafka not only pursued his fathers’ dreams but also his own. He states in a journal entry “at the office I fulfill my obligations outwardly, but not my inner ones, and every unfulfilled inner obligation turns into a misfortune which does not find its way out of me. ” (Kafka, 1388) Somehow Kafka managed to succeed at both endeavors. The writings of Franz Kafka audaciously explore the fear and frustrations of like in the modern age, how it feels to be manipulated by large institutions and betrayed by family and friends.
Organized in sections, the novel offers great detail of Gregory’s life before the condition, during the condition and after he dies. Each part of the novel further explains and leads you to understand this chaotic and dehumanizing event that has taken place. For example in Part 1, Gregory wakes to find that normal human things such as rolling over onto his back is near impossible but the human world that he views is still the same. Underwood translates “his room, a normal human room except that he was rather too small, lay peacefully between the four familiar walls. (Underwood, 1391) As the story progresses in Part 2 we learn that Gregory’s sister Grete and his mother are the only family members that show him any sympathy. She puts table scraps on the floor to feed him and when Gregory is done she comes in a sweeps up the remains. Gregory finds that he likes the moldiest of foods but defies the freshest of vegetables. Also in this section is when things change drastically, Grete decides to move furniture out of his room so that he has more space to roam openly.
The Business plan on Human Resource Management part 1
Human Resource Management Introduction The aim of this paper is to examine the concepts of Human Resource Management and Personnel Management. Both effective Personnel Management and Human Resource Management techniques are very important for success of any business organization. Since HRM and PM are the threads by which Human Resource and strategic goals of the company are interrelated, the aim ...
Only when Gregory’s mother enters the room to help and she spots him hanging on a picture frame does she panic and pass out. Here is a scene of dehumanization. Gregory’s father finds out about the incident taking it as he has attacked his mother and forcefully throws fruit at him eventually lodging an apple in his back. “The last thing he saw was the door of his room being wrenched open and his mother rushing out past his shrieking sister…” “… but Gregory’s sight was already failing him at this point- her hands cupping the back of his father’s head, begged him to spare Gregory’s life. (Underwood, 1412)
In Part 3, things within the family begin to fall apart, everyone turns against Gregory. Also in this section Gregory learns that the family is selling off jewelry to bring in money and they are also allowing three lodgers to move in. This is when one of the lodgers discovers Gregory and threatens to move out and not pay rent. Grete tells her parents that they have to stop believing that Gregory is a bug and has to get rid of him. Gregory hears the family’s conversation and gets beside himself. He scuttles back to his bedroom and by day break he has died.
With that begin said, The Metamorphosis is a great literary work written by Franz Kafka that expresses the fear and dehumanization of that era. The Metamorphosis is just another piece of work that places an everyday, ordinary world side by side with extraordinary phenomena. (Kafka, 1389) It begins with Gregory Sama’s discovery that in his physical form he has been turned into a beetle-like vermin. Gregory’s condition corresponds to the psychological state of an individual who awakens to the full scope of being trapped in a sense of helplessness and alienation in his or her everyday life.
The Essay on The Theme of Alienation in Franz Kafka’s “Metamorphosis”
Metamorphosis is a change in physical form or structure. In The Metamorphosis, there is a literal change in the protagonist, Gregor Samsa’s, physical form from a man to an insect. This metamorphosis brings to light one of the major themes in the novel; the theme of alienation. Today’s society demands conformity to its norms and any individual who refuses to accept these faces ...
Gregory’s misfortune ironically forces his family out of their passive dependence; has they detach themselves from his suffering; they appear to take charge of their own lives and make plans for the future. As a part of the literature world, Franz Kafka did a great job writing this novel and making it grab the reader’s attention. Through his descriptive words and interesting scenes he demonstrates how heartless people can be when there dependency is upon you. The Metamorphosis demonstrates the demeaning, dehumanizing distance that is found within the home and family, here parents and their children live together without caring for one another. Kafka does a great job running the characters parallel to human reality- from helpless to authoritative, from fearful to assertive, from unaccompanied to together. It’s definitely an interesting piece of work and grabs my attention as he depicts the struggle of human life through the eyes of a “bug.
