Kafka's Metamorphosis: A Study of Alienation
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ScribdTranslationsKafka's Metamorphosis: A Study of Alienation
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ScribdTranslationsIntroduction:
A metaphor for life: The metamorphosis, a work written in 1915, by the hand of
Franz Kafka, a Czech writer, son of Jewish parents, who lived through the ravages of the
beginnings, as well as the peak, of the First World War.
His life was not marked by great deeds, as he was shy and antisocial; his
father exercised absolute control over him, thus distancing him from his pleasure in the
literature, which however, later managed to recover. Kafka has left us
great works—among them: The Trial, The Sentence, and America—of which
The metamorphosis is one of the most recognized, as it undoubtedly reflects its
life under the strong influence of her father, and the criticism of the regime of those years
in Eastern Europe.
The work falls within the narrative genre, constituting a tale of realism.
fantastic, with expressionist and surrealist traits. Throughout the history, the
author plasma situations not out of the ordinary; however, one aspect that it
to be part of this current is the element of the transformation that it undergoes
the main character.
The analysis of behavior and its context, as well as the apparent decline of
Gregor and the frequent presence of a temperate, dark environment, devoid of
clarity turns the narrative into a hybrid worthy of literature.
The Metamorphosis.
In this novel, the author, Franz Kafka, tells the story of a young man named
Gregorio who sees how his life changes a lot after becoming a
insect
Gregorio was a traveling salesman and supported his whole family. One morning
It wakes up with the body of an insect, and scared, stays in its room without doing anything.
heeds the calls from his family. He tries to get up, but he can't control his
new body and wants to open the door to his room. When he succeeds, he gives it a
huge surprise to her boss who leaves quickly, her mother faints
scared to see her son and her father angry, she forces him to go into his room
with cruelty.
After everything that happened, Gregorio is abandoned by his family, alone.
maintains a small relationship with his sister Grete who feeds him and
she helps, but her sister is disgusted by her body.
In a cleaning of the mother and the sister, they start to remove furniture, Gregorio
he gets scared and runs away, the mother saw him and started screaming and they both got
very nervous, when the father arrives he begins to hit him with apples
making a wound.
Finding themselves poor, the family tries to make money, so they rent.
rooms. Gregorio caused some problems for his family with which
they were renting the room so he decided to stop eating to get out of the way
and to free his family from all the problems he caused.
The next day the maid finds Gregor dead and throws him in the trash.
Then another change begins for the family, but this time for the better.
Central Idea:
Reality is change, transformation or as the title of the book rightly indicates.
"The Metamorphosis" by Gregor about how he feels excluded from the world and later
rejected by society.
Areas:
Time.
Time is objective because in history they always tell you the time that has passed.
elapsed. Sometimes it is fast and sometimes slow, at the beginning the story is slow and
then it accelerates a little.
Space.
Space is subjective; the entire story unfolds in the Samsa house as
Gregorio cannot go out on the street due to his unfortunate condition.
Aesthetic.
The structure is closed because the story ends when Gregor dies. The
history is chronological because it follows a rhythm without jumping in time.
Social.
The metamorphosis takes place in an industrial era where there was a dominance of a
hard capitalism, you only had to work for your food, your clothing, and that's it. The
the difference is that now it is to accumulate luxuries, in the time of the metamorphosis it was not
there was no TV or radio or advertising, hence this historical and economic difference. And the
Gregory's concern about his job and the agony it caused him for not
escape from there.
Political.
It is the industrial era, the beginnings of capitalism, and the tough capitalism that you
I mentioned. The rest is that it is in Prague (if I'm not mistaken), maybe looking for the
history of the city you can help more.
Values:
Responsibility
Love
Loyalty
Truth
Tolerance
Sorry
Shame and the desire to maintain the dignity of the human being. Gregorio, who wanted
to remain dignified and he hid, covering his appearance so that no one would see him, he arrives
a moment when, drawn by the music of his sister's violin, he forgets about
his prejudices and he no longer cares what others say when they see him.
MAIN THEME: The main theme of the work The Metamorphosis is the
involuntary transgression of physical laws and the conviction of self-destruction
by an individual. one can understand the dehumanization to which
man finds himself submissive in capitalist society.
TEMAS SECUNDARIOS:los temas secundarios en la obra la metamorfosis son:
The terror of society towards a man caught up in his problems in his problems
and sufferings.
The abandonment. The power where the strongest impose themselves over the weak. The
abandonment of the State to humble men.
Literary Figures
The whole story is a metaphor, a dream managed with terror and suspense.
VOCABULARY:
VOCABULARY METAMORPHOSIS
1- Convex: Having a curvature that is more prominent at the center than at the edges.
edges.
2- Sill: Shelf or horizontal piece at the base of a window opening,
generally on the outside.
3- Inn: Establishment of a lower category than a hostel that offers accommodation and
cleaning and dining services.
4- Henchman: A person paid by another to threaten or carry out actions
violent actions that are ordered to him.
5- Anarchic: Relating to anarchy.
6- Upright: To raise and straighten the body or a part of it
7- Din: Very loud noise.
8- Disregarding: Stop taking into account a person or thing
Lying: To be lying down or stretched out a person
10- Engolada: It refers to a way of speaking that is unnaturally formal or overly serious.
emphatic
11- Unintelligible: That cannot be understood or comprehended
12- Jalonaban: Mark an important and significant event in the life of a
person or the development of a process
13- Landing: Flat surface that is between two sections of a staircase and that leads to
entrance to a house or room
14- Profiriendo: Pronouncing or saying words or sounds by a person, especially
when they are violent.
15- Fencing: To handle or hold a sword or another bladed weapon with intention
to attack or to defend oneself.
16- Excite: To make a person nervous, restless, or desire.
vividly something.
Lacerating: To injure, harm, or cause damage.
18- Repulsive: That causes repulsion or disgust.
Recreate: To create or produce one thing from another that already exists.
20- Mendrugo: Someone who has difficulty understanding things, even if they are
simple.
21- Superfluous: That is not necessary, that is excess or is more than needed.
22- Silently:
23- Cansinos: That shows or appears to be tired due to slowness and heaviness with
that moves.
24- Trace: A sign or indication of something.
25- Corrosive: Critiques in a cruel manner, with irony and malice.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, we could see that the character is totally chained to a
an unbearable reality whose possibility of existing progressively fades away is
a man deprived of the capacity to take his existence away, for whom to exist
to be condemned in a grotesque and horrendous corporal prison, image and reflection
of existential soul, turned into a parasite, continues living in a world
decadent, it sinks into an animal loneliness, approaching step by step to the
absurdity and the impossibility of living. He no longer struggles to escape his misfortune, he
he complies but, deep down in his being, he still struggles, he still strives to
find, in that sad room, his little hiding place under the sofa; still
searches in his walks through the room, the freshness of the walls, the shelter of his
small and dark room dressed in solitude and adorned with dust.
In the metamorphosis, we see how the author tries to show the readers a
latent social and cultural reality of its time, becoming a product of
relationship that establishes with its social environment, as Sastre says, 'the writer does not
is a synonym of creator, but almost of soldier or fighter.