Kafka - The Metamorphosis
In Kafka's The Metamorphosis, the transformation of Gregor into a giant vermin is a very apparent metaphor, which can be thought of in more than one way. Kafka brings about change with the use of metaphors in the story.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'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. 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 strong push, which was a truly liberating one, and bleeding profusely, [Gregor] sailed far i
Sustenance is apparently something that the whole family is in need of. Gregor describes the dining room table as having "The breakfast dishes laid out lavishly on the table, since for his father breakfast was the most important meal of the day, which he would prolong for hours while reading a number of newspapers (Kafka 20). Gregor is injured by one of the apples that embed itself in his back racking him with "unbelievable pain" (Kafka 38). Kafka certainly uses the apple, it seems, as a metaphor for original sin and the pain of the punishment imposed by God on Adam and Eve when they disobeyed. Without language and with a hideous appearance, Gregor, in his new state is cut off from communication with the outside world and with his family. Kafka's story reflects the tragic metamorphosis of a seemingly everyday person, who, without the ability to speak and be understood is shut off from not only the world, but his family as well. This in turn educates and fills the void one might feel by being cut off from the 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" (Kafka18-19). By providing the mind with the information and text, one is also fulfilling a physical need.
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