Summary of The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

Description

Though he lived and died in obscurity, Franz Kafka (1883– 1924) managed to become one of the most influential authors of the 20th century. Capturing his own feelings and fears on the page, his intensely personalized stories prefigured the focus on the individual and his or her relationship to society, a sentiment that dominated the latter half of the 1900s. While The Metamorphosis predates the era when totalitarian ideologies attempted to harness the individual to the needs of the collective, Kafka clearly saw how modern life demanded a submission of the will to the demands of the group – both through the need to earn a living and to maintain social conventions. By the 1960s, his depiction of the crushing weight and ultimate futility of being a good son and brother became a banner for youth trying to create a better world based on individuality, creativity and spontaneity. While the mechanisms of conformity have changed, the story still resonates today among readers left empty by a substantially richer but ultimately oppressive existence.

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Sujets

• Classics
• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: GetAbstract AG
• Date de parution: 21 octobre 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9798887270883
• Langue: English

Extrait

The Metamorphosis
Franz Kafka•First edition: Leipzig 1916

Novella
Modernism

Take-Aways In The Metamorphosis , the alienating effects of modern society become tangible when Gregor Samsa wakes up with a new body. One morning, traveling salesman Gregor Samsa wakes up as a hideous bug. He continues in a state of denial and keeps worrying about how to support his family. At first, his sister brings him food, cleans the room and shows some concern for him. But soon his physical state deteriorates, and the family loses patience. After his father severely injures him, Gregor decides to stop burdening the family and dies. The parable is in part based on Franz Kafka’s troubled relationship with his own father. Yet the story touches on a much wider range of issues: debilitating depression, disgust with one’s own body, and the suffocating nature of social and family norms. The story’s horror evolves from the tension between the absurdity of the situation and the narrator’s dispassionate tone. As a German-speaking Jew in majority Czech-speaking Prague, Kafka was twice a stranger in the society in which he lived. The Metamorphosis was a commercial flop when it was published in 1915. In his will, Kafka ordered his friend Max Brod never to reprint The Metamorphosis and to burn the rest of Kafka’s manuscripts. Brod ignored his friend’s wish. Today, Kafka is considered one of the most influential 20th century writers. His style gave birth to a new term: “Kafkaesque.” “One morning, when Gregor Samsa woke from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin.”

What It’s About
Though he lived and died in obscurity, Franz Kafka (1883– 1924) managed to become one of the most influential authors of the 20th century. Capturing his own feelings and fears on the page, his intensely personalized stories prefigured the focus on the individual and his or her relationship to society, a sentiment that dominated the latter half of the 1900s. While The Metamorphosis predates the era when totalitarian ideologies attempted to harness the individual to the needs of the collective, Kafka clearly saw how modern life demanded a submission of the will to the demands of the group – both through the need to earn a living and to maintain social conventions. By the 1960s, his depiction of the crushing weight and ultimate futility of being a good son and brother became a banner for youth trying to create a better world based on individuality, creativity and spontaneity. While the mechanisms of conformity have changed, the story still resonates today among readers left empty by a substantially richer but ultimately oppressive existence.

Summary
A Dutiful Bug
Gregor Samsa , a young traveling salesman of textiles, wakes one morning from a restless sleep to find himself transformed into a big, hideous bug. Utterly puzzled, he contemplates his metamorphosis: Rocking his domed body left and right, he looks at his many floundering legs and the strange, stiff arches on his chest.
“One morning, when Gregor Samsa woke from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin.”
Yet it’s not his transformation into an insect that worries him, but another strange thing that happened this morning. He must have slept through the ringing of the alarm clock, which was set for four o’clock as always, and now he’s frightened that he’ll be late for work. This has never happened to him before. Instead of considering the consequences of his new body, Gregor pictures his boss