literary crticism

p Symbolism in Kafka 's Metamorphosis

Name

Date

The Metamorphosis is a wild ride from cover to cover . The novel begins where most novels end , at the climax . This unique use of narration by Kafka is a literary device which is not often used but central to the plot of this novel . It allows the reader to focus fully on the most important aspect of the story - the insect . The narration takes two paths . One is the personalized version of Gregor . It tells his intimate thoughts , troubles , aches , and pains . The

other narration is from a very objective point of view . The speaker is almost robotic telling the audience just the facts with no emotions . As they both speak , it is slowly revealed to the reader what has really happen to poor Gregor Samsa . He has been transformed into an insect . The story is full of symbolism which help develop the theme that society is killing humanity leaving behind the only things that can survive in an emotionless world lacking warmth and love - insects

Willa Muir , in Selected Short Stories of Franz Kafka , states " Gregor Samsa awoke one morning to find himself changed into a gigantic insect it is a mistake to think that by means of this bold stroke Kafka intends to call into question the laws of nature . What he calls into question rather , is the convention that the laws of nature are at all times to be observed in fiction (Muir xi . The story begins much differently then most stories too . There is very little rising action especially if the reader believes that the change from human to insect is the climax . As the audience reads more they realize that the transformation is just the beginning . Muir continues

The clerk 's metamorphosis is a multiple symbol of his alienation from the human state , of his "awakening " to the full horror of his dull spiritless existence , and of the desperate self-disgust of his unconscious fantasy-life , in which the wish to displace the father and take over his authority in the family is annulled by the guilt-need to suffer a revolting punishment for his presumption (Muir xii

Martin Greenburg , in The Terror of Art : Kafka and Modern Literature explains the untraditional form of the novel The Metamorphosis produces its form out of itself . The traditional kind of narrative based on the drama of denouement - on the "unknotting " of complications and the coming to a conclusion ' Greenburg continues that because it is just exactly the absence of denouement and conclusions that is his subject matter (70 . His story is about death , but death that is without denouement , death that is merely a spiritually inconclusive petering out

A Womanly Escape

Gregor Samsa is man who has very little hope . He is in a position in life where he is very unhappy . His family is suffocating and his father is dominating . His family decided that the should be a lawyer and Gregor is forced to go to law school . His position within the...