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Metamorphosis gregor compared to kafka
Gregor Samsa Symbolizes Change in Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
Alienation in the metamorphosis by franz kafka
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“What has happened to me? he thought.”(Kafka, 495) This quote is from the narrator in Kafka’s tale; The Metamorphosis, when Gregor Samsa wakes up and finds himself turned into a giant insect, and it was apparently not a dream. Gregor was a traveling salesman, he hated his job, but he was forced to stay in that business in order to pay his father’s debts to his boss, and maintain a comfortable lifestyle to his family. Kafka presents the metamorphosis event in an interesting way, when it seemed that Gregor was not shocked by the transformation, causing a little mystery, especially that Kafka did not provide any events prior to the metamorphosis scene. Several themes emerge in the story; however they all contribute to the main theme of alienation. The effect of financial pressure on social life, the struggle to satisfy family duties and the struggle for freedom; are all “secondary” themes that contributed to generate the “primary” theme of alienation.
In the average family, parents try to recognize their children and treat them all equally, but that was not the case with the Samsas, where they recognized their son Gregor no more than a source of income. When Gregor was not able to work anymore after the metamorphosis, the family rejected his existence as a bug and he was neglected and treated with cruelty. The effect of financial pressure on Gregor’s social life took place before the metamorphosis, because Gregor has devoted all his effort and time into his job to serve the family’s needs, in the meantime he ignored his social life, which lead to an extreme sense of alienation. From a personal interpretation, Kafka tries to present Gregor as a frustrated building block of the bureaucratic system, which leads to the belief that Kafka was criticizing bureaucracy and prove that it is alienating on a much larger scale than one person; rather it could alienate an entire society or even a nation.
After the metamorphosis, Gregor becomes useless to the family, he is alienated in his room where he could not be seen by anyone, and the only person who was able to go in and out of his room was his sister Grete, where she used to go in to bring food and clean the room. The family realized that their work horse does not exist anymore, so they all begin working, and therefore their interactions with each other decre...
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... “We can thank God for that!” (Kafka, 530).
Without doubts, before the metamorphosis, Gregor was alienated from many aspects of his life, including his own body; that’s why his transformation was almost no surprise to him. After the metamorphosis, Gregor was alienated from everything around him, even his room; Kafka symbolizes that by the hospital across from his window that he could not see after the metamorphosis. Kafka was brilliant in the sense that all the themes in the story led to the same outcome, which is the theme of alienation…
List of Work Cited
• Kafka Franz. “The Metamorphosis”. Short Fiction: An Introductory Anthology. Ed: Gerald Lynch and David Rampton. Canada: Nelson, 1992. 494 - 532
• “Franz Kafka.” Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2nd ed. 1998. “KAFKA, Franz.” Funk and Wagnalls New Encyclopedia. CD-ROM. World Almanac Education Group. 2000.
• “Metamorphosis by Kafka.” http://www.vr.net/~herzogbr/kafka/meta09.html
• 1st Feb. 2005 @ http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/metamorph/
Franz Kafka’s clear isolation of Gregor underlines the families’ separation from society. In The Metamorphosis, Kafka emphasizes Gregor’s seclusion from his family. However, Gregor’s separation is involuntary unlike the family who isolates themselves by the choices they make. Each family member has characteristics separating them from society. These characteristics become more unraveling than Gregor, displaying the true isolation contained in The Metamorphosis.
Hannibal is considered a monster that eats people, savoring the flesh of his victims. That he enjoys the fear that he invokes, while coming down on his victim with relish. While ingratiating himself into the lives of people he considered vulgar, he enjoyed putting them in their place. As well-known surgeon, he functioned normally. He enjoyed all the finer things in life. He believed that being the only one who knew everything, made him a superior being.
Alienation throughout the metamorphosis is conveyed to the reader time and time again through instances and circumstances subjected upon Gregor. Right from the start we get a sense of this situation as we explore Gregor’s job stasis. He is a traveling salesman. The major problem with this occupation is the fact that he is constantly moving and seeing new faces, making it virtually impossible for him to form lasting relationships (Kafka, 4). Landsberg observes that “This little experience occurs over and over again in the unstable life of a commercial traveler. It is not by chance that Kafka gave his hero this vocation, which like no other tends to render impossible any continuity in life” (Landsberg 125). Gregor is not in one place long enough to make any lasting connections so he absorbed by a state of loneliness. Adding to this is the fact that he is the only one in his family who is working (Kafka 16).So even before his transformation we see our character was alienated in his job field.
When comparing Franz Kafka and his personal life to The Metamorphosis it is obvious in more ways than one that he was writing a twisted story of his life. The emotional and physical abuse Gregor goes through are similar to what Kafka went through in real life. They were both abused and neglected by their fathers when they were disappointed with them. Kafka uses Gregor transforming into a bug as a way of exaggerating himself, trying to express his feelings and point of view. When writing, Kafka felt as if he was trapped in his room which he referred to as "the noise headquarters of the apartment". Gregor was an exaggeration of this because he could not leave the house to escape the noises and abuse.
People want their family to love and support them during times of need, but if they are unable to develop this bond with their family members, they tend to feel alone and depressed. In the novel The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, Kafka describes the theme of alienation and its negative effect on people and their relationships with the people around them. This theme can be shown through Gregor Samsa, the main character in The Metamorphosis. After Gregor’s metamorphosis, or transformation, he is turned from a human being into a giant bug which makes him more and more distant from the people in his life. The alienation that Gregor experiences results in his eventual downfall, which could and would happen to anyone else who becomes estranged from the people around them. Gregor’s alienation and its effect on his relationship with his family can be shown through his lack of willing interaction with his family members due to his inability to communicate to them, the huge burden he puts on the family after his metamorphosis, and his family’s hope to get rid of him because he is not who he was before.
There are tremendous amount of debates that go on in this world on a daily basis. One of the most talked about debates of the century is that of animal rights and experimentations. This debate, also known in the animal rights community as vivisection, is one of the most difficult to understand. Individuals have numerous different outlooks on animals. Many individuals look upon animals as companions while others see animals as an object of advancing medical techniques. No matter what ones perception is of animals, the fact remains that animals are being exploited by research facilities and cosmetics companies all throughout the world. In spite of the fact that humans frequently benefit from successful animal experimentations, the pain, and occasionally death that often occurs is not worth the human benefit. Hence, animals should not be the use of research.
New York: Vintage International, 1988. Print. Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis. Trans.
Hibberd, John. “The Metamorphosis: Overview.” Reference Guide to World Literature. Ed. Lesley Henderson. 2nd ed. New York: St. James Press, 1995.
Hannibal certainly has quite a trail of women whom he has tried to turn into killers, but they refuse and, ultimately, live in prisons of their own design. Also, why is Bedelia the only one who knows not to believe the lies Hannibal tells? She knew he ate his sister, but poor, beautiful Chiyoh accepts this lie and believes it to be the “reason” Hannibal is the way he is. Chiyoh has kept a man imprisoned for something that Hannibal did. Thanks goodness Will was there to set her straight. “Misha doesn’t explain Hannibal. She doesn’t quantify what he’s done.” In the end, everyone who has crossed paths with Hannibal Lecter becomes a murderer.
Nursing is consider to be an important element to the safety of patients and delivery of health care and services to our community. According to (Hellerawa, & Adambarage, 2015), nurses are the pillar for doctors within any health care system and they have a very complicated workload. However, nurses are like security for the doctors and patients. The shortage of nursing influences the standard of patient care, work atmosphere and the performance of the health care institution. Nursing shortage occurred due to nurses leaving the profession because of exhaustion, job gratification and demographic factors such as aging. A system theory is a component
Aldiss, Brian W. “Franz Kafka: Overview.” St. James Guide to Science Fiction Writers. Ed. Jay P. Pederson. 4th ed. New York: St. James Press, 1996.
Using symbols, Kafka illustrates the story which is not just about Gregor’s transformation but it is more than that. The entire Metamorphosis is an allegory about Gregor changing into a vermin, symbolize that he wanted to free himself from his family obligation. “As Gregor Samsa awoke from unsettling dreams one morning, he found himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous vermin” (Kafka 7). He thought his transformation was a dream but he soon realizes that it was reality. Gregor was the source of the income for his family and was employed in a job he did not like. “What a grueling profession I picked! Traveling day in, day out” (Kafka 7). This is ironic because Gregor was forced by his father to choose the alienated career. Mr. Samsa was indebted to his boss; working as a traveling salesman he would have pay off his father debt. Working as traveling salesman made Gregor alienated socially and mentally. The word transformation does not only app...
One of Franz Kafka's most well-known and most often criticized works is the short story, "Die Verwandlung," or "The Metamorphosis." "The Metamorphosis" is most unusual in that the first sentence is the climax; the rest of the story is mainly falling action (Greenburg 273). The reader learns that Gregor Samsa, the story's main character, has been turned into an enormous insect. Despite this fact, Gregor continues to act and think like any normal human would, which makes the beginning of the story both tragic and comical at the same time. However, one cannot help but wonder why Gregor has undergone this hideous transformation, and what purpose it could possibly serve in the story. Upon examination, it seems that Gregor's metamorphosis represents both his freedom from maintaining his entire financial stability and his family's freedom from their dependence upon Gregor.
Since coming back to Iran from Austria, Marjane’s refugee experience continues to influence her through depression. Ehntholt & Yule explain how “Refugee children and adolescents who have experienced war also report high levels of depression and anxiety” (1198). Depression is typically the feeling of inadequacy and guilt often followed by lack of energy. This is shown in children and adolescents refugees as they are in their home country, they are forced to leave because of war. At times the children and adolescents may go to another country alone with no family waiting for them or seeing their family killed or be hit by atrocities of torture. Without supervision refugee kids and adolescents can lead them to depression than to the point of self-harm or worse case suicide. Ironically Marjane’s refugee experience also puts her into depression than to self-harm as she says, “I
Imagine living your entire live in a cramped, horrid environment where you are deprived of food and water. You are electrocuted and are force-fed chemicals from time to time. You are nothing more than an item of disposable laboratory equipment. This is the life of animals in laboratory. Live-animal experimentation, also known as vivisection, is not only unethical, but also cruel and unnecessary. In the article “Vivisection is Right, but It is Nasty- and We must be Brave Enough to Admit This”, Michael Hanlon claims vivisection is a moral necessity that without the use of animals in the laboratory, human would not have modern medicine like antibiotics, analgesic, and cancer drugs (1). For instance, Hanlon believes by sewing kittens’ eyelids together