Metamorphosis Analysis

Introduction

Caterpillar into chrysalis

Caterpillar’s bodies almost completely melt before undergoing metamorphosis

Caterpillars only purpose is to eat

Continuation

Chrysalis to butterfly

Butterflies have 3 main body parts

Head

Thorax

Abdomen

Butterflies have three body parts: head, thorax abdomen

Head: -contains eyes, toungue, and antenna

-allows butterfly to sense what is around them

Thorax: -is what binds wings, legs, and all other body parts together

-has everything butterfly needs to move around and fly

Abdomen: -contains reproductive system

-holds vital organs

Theme

Existentialism

Que?, Que?

Okay, I get it, but what does this have to do with Metamorphosis?

Guilt: One of the greatest emotions that has taken over Gregor is guilt, as his change has prevented him from providing for his family he feels bad for losing the ability to support them. He is reminded of this feeling every time the family mentions money or just thinking about the troubles they’ll go through by losing their breadwinner. Guilt is a part of many novels such as the kite runner where Amir feels bad for not stepping up for Hassan as Hassan is raped. Guilt is also an emotion that has been around for as long as humans have lived, in modern day it is a leading reason for such things as suicide or depression and can have a great impact on ones personal health

Believed in individual existence, freedom, and choice.

-humans define their own meaning.

Humans are free and have to take responsibility for themselves.

-Can come with profound anguish or dread.

Metamorphosis Analysis

Basically everything about Gregor’s character,

-Gregor worked so hard to make money for his family because that is something that had a lot of meaning to him, it was important.

-Gregor becoming a bug and slowly forcing the family to stop depending on him lead to his death.

-In the end when the family could depend on themselves (so Gregor’s not useful), he dies.

-When Gregor turns into a bug, he doesn’t freak out.

• Do whatever you want because we’re all going to die anyway, just be responsible about it.
• People make decisions based on what has meaning to them.
• Your existence is based on how useful you are.

Cont...

Movements within movement

Economic effects on relationships: Gregor is the source of support and income to the family. Once he is no longer able to work and provide for everyone, the family seems to fall apart, having arguments and silent dinners. This has a connection with modern day because many family’s have low income and struggle in the economy, this causes tension and could also cause a split in the family as well. The story proves that if there is a reasonable amount of income flowing in that there will be more stability in the relationship of the family.

Albert Camus

-Myth of Sisyphus

-Absurdity of the human condition

-Rejected the title

John-Paul Sartre

-Men are lonely creatures in a meaningless world

-Importance of choice and responsibility

Nihilism

-Meaning nothing

-Denial of all real existence

Humanism

-Religious movement

-Emphasis in rational beliefs

By Amelia Leon, Allison Pena, Alexandra Contreras, Kimberly Giron, Michelle Robles, Leodan Camejo, Bryan Menendez, and Genesis Asensio

Book Analysis

THE METAMORPHOSIS

Quote Analysis

Kafka

Falling Action

• Grete starts taking care of Gregor and the family
• Family starts finding jobs to support themselves without Gregor
• Family finds Gregor burdensome and useless
• Gregor dies

Rising Action

• Gregor Samsa, a traveling salesman, wakes up one day as a large insect.
• He hates his job and he was a "creature" of the boss
• Push them forward to accomplish their own metamorphosis
• Isn't appreciated by anybody, not his boss or family
• Family is living of off Gregor's money

“ In between brief pouts of asphyxia with the slightest protruding eyes he watched his unsuspecting sister sweep together with a broom not only the left-overs of what he had eaten, but even the foods Gregor hadn’t touched at all, as if those too were no longer usable; and he saw how she hastily dropped everything into a bucket, which she closed with a wooden cover, and then carried everything out. She had scarcely turned around when Gregor moved out from under the couch, stretched and let himself expand” (p. 27)

Plot

Major Characters

Symbolism

Setting

Grete Samsa ties in with Gregor’s humanity towards the whole play, like the condition of his room. We as readers can conclude that Grete and Gregor had a close relationship before the metamorphosis, and in this particular section we see her sympathy and we still feel the love she has toward her sibling. In this same piece we see her discomfort, the ways she picks all the food she had served him hastily” and he even notices, *how she discards the food which he did not even touch. This is foreshadowing Grete’s future actions, how she becomes almost cold-hearted towards Gregor, and begins to see him as a barrier into her possible new life. The more distant she is from Gregor, is parallel to the farther he is from humanity.

The picture of the woman in furs:

• symbolizes Gregor's former humanity

Vermin:

• Being vermin is an indirect expression of his selfish desire to be free of his family obligations.

Religious Allegory:

• Although the Samsa family is Christian, Kafka's Jewish background is portrayed in the story in the sense that Gregor's "exile" in his own room is an allegory for the dispora of Jews during World War II.

Gregor: protagonist of the story, traveling salesman, undergoes a strange transformation from man to insect.

Grete: Gregor’s sister and caretaker; The only person in the family to show pity for Gregor throughout most of the story; goes through her own transformation.

Father: Hopeless and bitter man, concerned mostly with money; Shows no pity to Gregor after his transformation

Franz Kafka had a difficult relationship with his parents, this influenced him to create characters that were often coming up against an over-bearing power, that could easily break their self worth.

In the Metamorphosis, Gregor's relationship with his family is quite similar, especially with his father. Kafka's father had a wicked temper and Gregor's father had a short temper which can be seen in the beginning of the book when it mentions that Gregor's father "came on, hissing like a wild man" chasing the newly transformed Gregor with a newspaper and cane.

The setting is mostly in Gregor's rooms.

• representative of Gregor's existence
• Has doors on every wall
• Has a window
• Picture of a lady in furs that Gregor loves
• Writing desk

At the end of the story, the setting changes. They leave the house and take a trolley out of the city leaving Gregor and his memories behind.