The Use of Metaphors in Kafkas Metamorphosis

             In two ways, change is brought about in The Metamorphosis. The first is by allowing time and circumstances determine one's decisions. The next way is by using courage and conviction to make one's own decisions. Kafka brings about change with the use of metaphors in The Metamorphosis. The hidden metaphors are there if one can recognize and understand them. Kafka's crafty use of metaphors throughout his story includes many uses of different items. Finding the hidden and direct metaphors gives one a sense of adventure and challenge.
             The transformation of Gregor into a giant vermin is a very apparent metaphor, which can be thought of in more than one way. One may be inclined to associate "this man turned bug" as a grotesque display representing one of the lowest forms of life. Gregor's manager and family are repulsed by his unexplainable physical appearance. Stunned, the manager retreats out of the house in horror, the mother falls to the floor in grief and the father, in an attempt to get Gregor out of sight, forces him into the doorway of his room. Gregor's beetle body is too large for the doorway and he finds himself stuck and unable to move, "when from behind his father gave him a hard shove, which was truly his salvation, and bleeding profusely, [Gregor] flew far into his room" (Kafka 2314). Another way one might define the metaphor of this transformation is looking at Gregor's disassociation with the human world. A beetle cannot communicate in language; therefore there is no way for Gregor to explain his predicament to anyone. When he tried to explain to his manager why he wasn't at work on time, the manager asked, "Did you understand a word?" and then he stated, "That was the voice of an animal" (Kafka 2309). Without language and with a hideous appearance, Gregor, in his new state is cut off from communication with the outside world and with...

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The Use of Metaphors in Kafkas Metamorphosis. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 05:29, April 26, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/54149.html