Kafka's The Metamorphosis presents the reader with many different themes throughout the story, including the significance of entrapment versus escape, as well as dependence. At first glance it can be seen as a simple story of a young man who wakes up one morning as a vermin, yet Kafka makes sure to highlight the changed relationships between the family members after the metamorphosis takes place, showing the intricacy/depth of the story. The story takes place during a time very demanding of people in society, and Gregor Samsa is a man trapped in this society, working hard at a job leading him nowhere. However, when the metamorphosis takes place, everything revolving around Gregor changes, especially his family members. The change within the members of Gregor's family is significant in showing the change from entrapment to freedom, while also emphasizing the main theme of dependence. All the characters in this story are dependent on one another, and as a result, are presented as disgusting/morbid either literally or symbolically. Through the relationships portrayed in this story, Kafka shows that dependence is dehumanizing for both parties and independence is a necessity to the human condition. .
Before his metamorphosis, Gregor is a grown human capable of making his own decisions and taking necessary actions, yet he never once "takes action", showing lack of confidence in himself and in his decision making skills. Gregor had to work full-time as the sole provider for his family, and in thinking about it, he says to himself, "it will probably take another five or six years [to get] the money together to pay off my parents" debt to him (the boss)" (4). Gregor is given complete responsibility to care for his family [and get them out of debt], and as a result, his family becomes entirely dependent on him for money [and a sense of security]. Due to Gregor's continued care for his family, they quickly grew accustomed to the incoming money, and were no longer fazed by Gregor's accomplishments, "although later on Gregor earned enough money to meet the expenses of the entire family and actually did so.
This in context of the entire book is the actual opening line of Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis. ... Franz Kafka's theme of isolation is very thick in this novel. ... There are additionally some themes of materialism in Metamorphosis. ... Kafka's tone in this novel is decidedly calm. ... Metamorphosis contains quite a few interesting literary devices. ...
And one of his best-known books was The Metamorphosis. The Metamorphosis is a short story that was first published in 1915. ... In the story The Metamorphosis, Kafka describes the dull, gloomy and humid environment that foreshadows the decay and deterioration of Gregory's life. ... In The Metamorphosis Franz Kafka reflects upon many negative aspects. ... When you compare Kafka's life to The Metamorphosis is it very clear that in many ways he was writing about his distressed life. ...
Kafka's classic, The Metamorphosis, offers insight into the lives of assimilated Jews living in Prague during the late 19th and early 20th Century. ... The Metamorphosis reflects the apprehension that pervaded the mind of assimilated Jews in Prague. ... In Metamorphosis, parallels between Gregor and the Jewish people in Prague at this time can be drawn. ... "Dirt streaks stretched all along the walls; here and there lay balls of dust and flith" (Kafka, 54). ... Throughout Metamorphosis, Gregor's family is portrayed as the Germans and Czechs during Kafka's time period. ...
In my opinion, "The Metamorphosis" is autobiographical of Franz Kafka's life. ... Throughout many of his stories, especially "The Metamorphosis," we see how Franz Kafka portrays his own father into the personality of his characters. Franz Kafka's shows in "The Metamorphosis," through the character of Gregor Samsa, how his very own father extremely wounded him. "The Metamorphosis" is mainly about a man's feeling of inferiority and loneliness. ... It seems as though the father in "The Metamorphosis" is Franz Kafka's very own father. ...
(Kafka 87) In his letter to his father, Franz dealt with many issues referred to indirectly in The Metamorphosis. ... Many believe that these life story facts inspired Kafka to write The Metamorphosis. ... Kafka shows not only a metamorphosis in Gregor, but also in his mother, father, and sister as well. ... In The Metamorphosis, Kafka's character comments on how his family should have encouraged him as he tried to open the door to his room, a difficult task for a beetle. ... Kafka referred to the picture twice in The Metamorphosis, showing this first clue to its significance. ...
The author, Franz Kafka's purpose of "The Metamorphosis" is to make people understand more about human condition. ... The Metamorphosis World Literature, Revised Edition 1998. ... "The Metamorphosis." ... Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis. 21 Feb 1998. 22 February 2002...
The short story, "Hills Like White Elephants" by Ernest Hemingway, and the novella, "The Metamorphosis" by Franz Kafka, both contain covert alternate meanings that emanate from the authors' literary style preferences. ... Additionally, Kafka's writing in "The Metamorphosis" was translated from German into English and many have speculated, including the translator, in the 2014 edition, Susan Bernofsky, that the translation impacts the story because of a lack of English terminology to directly covey Kafka's ideas (Kafka 122). ... The notion of leavi...
Kafka's "The Metamorphosis" Franz Kafka once stated that a book should be used as "an axe to break up the frozen sea within us," and his short story, "The Metamorphosis" does not stray from doing so. In "The Metamorphosis" Kafka tells the tragic and absurd tale of a working-class man who is transformed into a bug and the overall isolation and rejection he receives from his family and the rest of humanity. Kafka uses the symbolism of the man's metamorphosis to perpetuate the theme of isolation among people and their unending enslavement to the work world by forces of materialism...
Fantasy in Kafka Kafka's "Metamorphosis" is a story of despair and futility in the life of Gregor Samsa. ... Having never lived for himself and always for others suggests that Kafka rejects the Christian tradition and ideal that insists upon being dead to self and having contempt for worldly things. Kafka's disassociated tone in this story (as well as his others) increases the horror and the isolated feeling. Perhaps it is this tone that places Kafka's works among the fantastic, along with the reversal of motivation and resolution so prevalent in his tales. Kafk...
Though it is difficult to see a meaning that does not revolve around the aspects of old age, "Transforming Franz Kafka's "Metamorphosis" by Nina Pelikan Straus, shows the reader that there might be another meaning besides John B. Shea's "Kafka Saw The Future," talking about a specific topic relating to old age. ... It seems as though the mutual characteristic and theme of both subjects, and also the meaning of Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis, revolves around transformation and the transformation of one who is close to death, seeming as though life has no meaning a...
