After some initial shock, the family simply accepts him as a somewhat unorthodox and reclusive member of the family.
In terms of the meaningless, Gregor's adjustment and life as an insect is described in grim and often somewhat graphic detail. His family's interactions with him evolve according to his new status as insect, and are similarly described with great attention, as if it an important plot element. This can be compared with Marquez's detailed descriptions of Erendira's servitude, where both her cleaning and her sexual slavery are described in painstaking, but emotionless detail.
Death in Kafka's novel can be contrasted with Erendira's grandmother's death scene. Her death is violent and described in great detail, although the narrator's objectivity is retained throughout the violence. In Gregor's case, he simply and quietly dies, to be discovered by the cleaning woman the morning after the event. There is no death bed scene, and the family is not even aware of his passing until they are told that he is dead. In this way, two of the most important events in his life; Gregor's transformation and his death, remain described as if they are unimportant, everyday events. The family and even Gregor himself treat them in this way as well.
The freedom theme is also addressed in Kafka's novel. Gregor's transformation has created a sense of captivity for the family. Although they apparently...
Franz Kafka "The Trial" Franz Kafka's possibly unfinished novel, "The Trial," is one of the great mysteries of modernist literature. It was at once an astute, even prescient critique of modern power structures as well as a novel that does not quite make sense from a literary perspective. Left on the shelf by Kafka in 1915, the book was published in 1925 during the tense interwar period, which was, not coincidentally,
Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka Why did Vladimir Nabokov -- a brilliant, respected and often-quoted novelist, best known perhaps for his classic novel, Lolita -- do a razor-sharp editing job on Kafka's The Metamorphosis? And what is the meaning and the motivation behind Nabokov's intervention into the classic Kafka short story? This paper reviews Kafka's iconic short story and delves into the way in which Nabokov has editorially changed the direction and
He is taken outside, where the fresh air revives him. In this Chapter, K. suffers two types of defeat; first the defeat of his aborted sexual conquest that would ultimately be a victory over the Magistrate, and secondly the defeat of the air making him unable to go the Court offices. He is physically unable to be in the vicinity of the Court, and therefore unable to attempt to
Gregor's change definitely represents anger from many different angles. Perhaps Gregor's anger is the most defensible in that his family has not undergone the most horrific changes imaginable. Gregor is justifies for feeling frustrated because he took care of his family for so long. His "rage at the way they were neglecting him" (768) deserves merit. Sheldon Goldfarb maintains, "Gregor's transformation has a double meaning: it is both an
Her persona and life have become dependent on what other people said about her, and she was not given the chance in the story to assert her true self. Thus, through the third-person voice, Faulkner showed how Emily had been and continued to be suppressed by her society, being a deviant single woman who kept to herself rather than mingle with her neighbors. Despite Emily's defiance to the community's
Specific events in the story reflect this posthuman and postmodernist change in form and thought of the individual, characterized by Samsa. The first incident of posthuman change and acceptance was when Samsa's family had just discovered his metamorphosis. While Samsa questioned his transformation at first, after some time, he felt comfortable with the change himself: "…for the first time that day, he began to feel alright with his body…and he
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