...Through much of Franz Kafka’s writing, the reader can see how his personal experiences and viewpoints are clearly worked into his many stories. One of which stands out is his story A Hunger Artist. In this story Kafka speaks through the hunger artist of the alienation and isolation he feels in his own body, as well as the emptiness he feels as a result of the disconnected relationship he and his father share. Ironically this emptiness manifests itself quite literally at the end of Kafka’s life, when he dies as a result of tuberculosis of the larynx, which causes him to literally starve to death, just as the hunger artist in the story. It was said about his writing “the early manifestations of authentic originality were nurtured in solitary confinement, with his readiness to see the world through his own eyes.” (Pawel 160) This comes across clearly in A Hunger Artist as someone who is in a self-imposed solitary confinement seeking meaning to his life, much like the hunger artist being locked in his cage. Thus, Kafka uses A Hunger Artist to speak of himself and his experiences. A Hunger Artist is a short story about a once popular spectacle staged for the entertainment of a pleasure-seeking public: the exhibition of a professional “hunger-artist” performing in a cage of straw, his stunt of fasting. The hunger artist spends his fasting performances, and therefore most of his life, in a cage, on display before a crowd of people. His spectators see him as a trickster and common...
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...KAFKA MARX COMBO _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Kafka wrote about the contradictions and anxieties of his time but the central theme of his works, indisputably, is the theme of alienation. Alienation is a complex subject which is linked with its vast historicity from the Judeo-Christian beginnings. To understand alienation in Kafka’s works, it is essential to understand its foundation within a socio-economic context of the modern society. In this regard, Karl Marx and his theory of alienation can help steering our way. The human society, as Marx had stressed in the Grundrisse, “does not consist of individuals; it expresses the sum of connections and relationships in which individuals find themselves”. Human beings therefore cannot exist independently of the society but are shaped by the society they live in. Human lives are dominated by natural and impersonal forces that control society to a great extent. While studying the nature and functioning of the capitalistic form of production Marx had discovered the uniqueness of human labor: “At the end of every labor-process, we get a result that already existed in the imagination of the laborer”. This physical and intellectual labor of man has resulted in the collective development of the productive forces and subsequently became capable of producing a surplus. By taking over control of the means of production, a particular minority class of people adroitly...
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...Bryant English 1302 Spring 2012 Kafka’s Dream World In his short story “The Metamorphosis,” Franz Kafka tells the story of Gregor Samsa, a traveling sales clerk whom one day awakens to find himself transformed into a giant insect. His state prevents him immediately from living the type of life he would otherwise have been leading, causing a series of reactions from himself and his family that would eventually lead to his demise. Not only is the this short story a precisely worded, tense modern fairy tale that shows Kafka’s imagination, but it also acts as a vessel of analysis of not only Kafka’s personal life, but how he felt about his life and the times that he lived in. In “The Metamorphosis,” Kafka creates a dreamlike parallel between the world he has created and his own reality, historically and symbolically, and uses this to criticize himself and the world around him. Kafka connects the reality of his life to the fiction of his story to create a sense of reality in the dreamy feel created by the text of “The Metamorphosis.” Dr. Ianc Lulian writes about the many of the commonalities between Kafka and the character Samsa, especially around the time of Kafka’s life in which he wrote this particular story. (424) Kafka worked a job that he considered a waste of time, much like he describes the dead-end sales clerk position Samsa worked, according to Lulian. (424) Kafka works at the sacrifice of himself, much like Samsa, to provide for his family that he even lived in a...
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...Morrison fleshing out how slavery perpetually de-humanizes slaves by denying their free will. Franz Kafka uses the same language to describe how the institution of modernity de-humanizes its participants. Kafka explores how modern society only values the person monetarily. By comparing modernity to slavery, Kafka reveals how society depends on the willingness of its participants to be dehumanized. Morrison’s use of characters like Sethe and Paul D reveals how slavery ignores the humanity of a person, whereas Kafka uses Gregor to explore how...
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... Kassner Thurs (sec. 044) 11:00 am – 12:15 pm KJCC BSMT Kassner Thurs (sec. 045) 3:30 pm – 4:45 pm KJCC BSMT Fuchs Thurs (sec. 046) 4:55 pm – 6:10 pm GCASL 375 Fuchs Assigned Texts Sophocles, Antigone in Sophocles I, University of Chicago The Oxford Study Bible, Oxford University Press Plato, Symposium, Hackett Marx, Communist Manifesto, Norton Critical Edition Darwin, Origin of Species (includes The Descent of Man), Norton Critical Edition Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy, Cambridge University Press (contains both Birth of Tragedy and “On Truth and Lying in a Non-Moral Sense”) Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams, Perseus Distribution Thomas Mann, Death in Venice, Norton Critical Edition Franz Kafka, Metamorphosis and Other Stories, Simon & Schuster Assigned page numbers for all readings correspond to the editions specified above. It is not recommended that you use other editions that may contain different translations & pagination. Grading Policy: Final grades will be comprised of the following components: * First response paper of 4 pages length is worth 15% of final...
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...Michael Poteet Poteet 1 Professor Lesser English 116 December 8, 2011 Comparisons and Dissimilarity of Love Octavio Paz, Franz Kafka, and Anton Chekhov, despite living in different eras and locations had similar sentience while going through many different experiences in life. This fact demonstrates the value of comparison but also the ability to contrast to understand life. Through “The Lady With the Dog”, “The Hunger Artist”, and “My Life With the Wave”, the reader is able to conclude: The stories while being decidedly different in diegesis’s also contain similarities in the symbolic contrivances used throughout all three stories Upon reading “The Lady with the Dog” by Chekhov the reader cannot help but sympathize with Anna and Dmitri. Sadly the timing of the relationship is unfortunate. The characters ultimately act in ignorance, because they do not find satisfaction in the relationships with their spouses so they choose to find it somewhere else. This is where are the pain the characters are feeling is coming from. Because sexual intimacy is so powerful and brings couples together into one “person” it causes so much pain for the couple because they have felt that feeling and cannot have it. They both meet their fate in love by finding their true match in one another, but very rarely do fate and timing coincide with one another, so they are forced to continually meet in secrecy through out the story. Poteet 2 Throughout...
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...characteristics to an animal. These ideas are established in various pieces of literature, perhaps the simplest example of the fusion of human and animal is highlighted in Franz Kafka’s short story “A Report to an Academy”, which can be found in his novel The Metamorphosis and other stories. The short story essentially tells the tale of an ape, named Red Peter who was wounded and captured by members of an expedition. Red Peter was then put in a cage, on a boat headed for Europe and quickly realised that there was no chance of escape and that his only chance of survival was to stop being an ape and start being a human. The story is centred on the idea of freedom and conformity and was written by Kafka to voice his struggles during this period of his life. Six months before ‘A Report to an Academy’ was written, Kafka wrote to his fiancé that he wished for an “infinite desire for autonomy, independence and freedom in all directions.” (eNotes, 2014) However, the protagonist in the story struggles to regain his freedom after his capture and assimilation to humanism. Furthermore, the story is a satire of conformity to a superficial culture, where individuality must be sacrificed to find a sense of belonging. The story aims to reveal the beast in man, as well as the fact that man cannot reach true freedom due to humanity and civilisation. In all of Kafka’s stories, the protagonists’ are put into in-between situations and evidently, have lost their true identity, which is a result of the pre-conceived...
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...ANALYSIS OF THEME IN METAMORPHOSIS THEMES ANALYSIS The theme of "The Metamorphosis" is modern man's sense of isolation. Driven to work long hours in meaningless jobs around people who do not care about others, just like Gregor, mankind seems to live a meaningless and ineffectual existence. Although Gregor's metamorphosis is actual and physical, Kafka implies through his change that all too often mankind is forced into an insect-like existence, no better than the bugs at the bottom of the natural order. When mankind tries to rise above their insect status and connect with humanity, as Gregor did when he emerged from his room to see his sister and listen to the violin, they are cruelly driven back into isolation and alienation. Through Gregor, Kafka presents a totally tragic view of man's existence. Kafka also shows that mankind is driven by materialism, often to the exclusion of developing human relationships. Modern life demands that a person have a job to earn money to fulfill materialistic desires. The materialistic mind-set usually enslaves the individual and transforms him into a beast or insect who does not have time to care for others. Gregor is the perfect example. He hates his job as a salesman but endures it in order to provide material things for his family. In order to have and give financial security, he sacrifices a social life, companionship, pleasure, and dreams. His life is miserable, and he counts the days until he can quit his job. Ironically, the people...
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...Through much of Franz Kafka’s writing, the reader can see how his personal experiences and viewpoints are clearly worked into his many stories. One of which stands out is his story A Hunger Artist. In this story Kafka speaks through the hunger artist of the alienation and isolation he feels in his own body, as well as the emptiness he feels as a result of the disconnected relationship he and his father share. Ironically this emptiness manifests itself quite literally at the end of Kafka’s life, when he dies as a result of tuberculosis of the larynx, which causes him to literally starve to death, just as the hunger artist in the story. It was said about his writing “the early manifestations of authentic originality were nurtured in solitary confinement, with his readiness to see the world through his own eyes.” (Pawel 160) This comes across clearly in A Hunger Artist as someone who is in a self-imposed solitary confinement seeking meaning to his life, much like the hunger artist being locked in his cage. Thus, Kafka uses A Hunger Artist to speak of himself and his experiences. A Hunger Artist is a short story about a once popular spectacle staged for the entertainment of a pleasure-seeking public: the exhibition of a professional “hunger-artist” performing in a cage of straw, his stunt of fasting. The hunger artist spends his fasting performances, and therefore most of his life, in a cage, on display before a crowd of people. His spectators see him as a trickster and common...
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...Metamorphosis is a change in form, structure, or appearance. Change is a major theme throughout Franz Kafka's novella, The Metamorphosis. There is a significant relationship between the title, The Metamorphosis, and the theme of change. Kafka's main character, Gregor Samsa, undergoes many changes and his transformation evokes change in his family. Several metamorphoses take place involving Gregor. First, a physical change occurs, "When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from unsettling dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin," and after that happened, Gregor's voice changes from human into the voice of a bug. "That was the voice of an animal," Gregor's manager said, but the words seemed perfectly clear to him. Beginning to see things less and less, Gregor experiences a change in his vision. An example, found on page 29, would be Gregor seeing the hospital less and less distinctly. A mental change in Gregor occurs when he starts not caring about or having no consideration for his family. "It hardly surprised him that he was showing so little consideration for the others; once such consideration had been his greatest pride." This has is a growing problem with him in the story because of the social change that Gregor has experienced from the alienation from the rest of his family. The only thing Gregor had to look forward to at one point was when his sister would come and clean his room or the charwoman would come in and clean. This was such...
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...My First Essay My Personal Essay I walked into the first class that I have ever taught and confronted utter chaos. The four students in my Latin class were engaged in a heated spitball battle. They were all following the lead of Andrew, a tall eleven-year-old African-American boy. Andrew turned to me and said, "Why are we learning Latin if no one speaks it? This a waste of time." I broke out in a cold sweat. I thought, "How on Earth am I going to teach this kid?" It was my first day of Summer bridge, a nationwide collaborative of thirty-six public and private high schools. Its goal is to foster a desire to learn in young, underprivileged students, while also exposing college and high-school students to teaching. Since I enjoy tutoring, I decided to apply to the program. I thought to myself, "Teaching can't be that difficult. I can handle it." I have never been more wrong in my life. After what seemed like an eternity, I ended that first class feeling as though I had accomplished nothing. Somehow I needed to catch Andrew's attention. For the next two weeks, I tried everything from indoor chariot races to a Roman toga party, but nothing seemed to work. During the third week, after I had exhausted all of my ideas, I resorted to a game that my Latin teacher had used. A leader yells out commands in Latin and the students act out the commands. When I asked Andrew to be the leader, I found the miracle that I had been seeking. He thought it was great that...
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...Short Essay Kafka, “The Metamorphosis”: pg.1411 beginning with “His father, however,” ending at the end of Part 2. In Kafkas “The Metamorphosis”, the question of how much of Gregor’s humanity remains makes up most of the second section of the story. As the members of the Samsa family adapt to the situation they’ve been put in now with Gregor, each one seems to form a different belief of how much humanity indeed does or can remain in him. At the beginning for instance, Grete leaves milk for Gregor, which means she is assuming that his preference for milk when he was still human continues now that he’s a bug. So maybe Grete believes initially that some part of Gregor might still be there. But then she begins to notice that Gregor’s tastes in food have changed and now likes to crawl about the walls of his room, which makes her begin to realize he is now just an insect. Grete suggests taking all Gregor’s things out of his room to eliminate obstacles to his crawling and to make more space and better for an insect. The mother, on the other hand, argues that Gregor will want his things when he returns to his former human self, and she even refers to Gregor as her “unfortunate son” at one point, saying that she still believes Gregor to be the same despite his appearance. But the father show no sympathy towards Gregor or that he is the same, and attacks him as though he were a wild animal when he escapes his room. During all the commotion Gregor hides as usual, but he becomes anxious...
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...Kean Nicole Nagui Master Ho English 116-602 4/8/2014 Essay 1, prompt 2 Common grounds of “The Trial” and “The Metamorphosis” Works from the one of the most influential author, Franz Kafka, is like trying to read hieroglyphics. Unless, of course you are Egyptian. It is difficult to comprehend someone that comes from a total different era or background. Usually an author, relates their theme of their works with simple and easy literary devices, such as symbolism. So does Franz Kafka, but on a greater scale. All of the aspects and elements of his works seem unimportant, because of the different interpretations of his works. Most of his works , depicts his own thoughts and dreams. Like some authors, Kafka focuses on a single character symbolizing himself or his life. To fully recognized and understand this method , the audience must study his background and just basic history to understand his motive. He stands out against all these other authors because he goes against the flow of the writing norms. Some of the genre's found in his works are Kafkaesque, Magic Realism,Dystopia,Fantasy,Science Fiction,Modernism,Post Modernism and Existentialism. First time reading one of Kafka's predominant novel, "The Trial" was pretty overwhelming. Personally, I have nothing to compare his works to, other than his own work, in particular, "The Metamorphosis." While these two have some obvious similarities, there are some hidden and usually inconspicuous ones that readers, like myself, don’t...
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...BEFORE THE LAW -Kafka The very title of this short piece by Kafka is one that made Derrida pose the question: Is the man trying to gain admittance into the law or into a place where law exists? The phrase, ‘Before the Law’ is circumstantially significant with respect to the situations and conditions of common man before the advent of law. Throughout the story, Kafka tries to induce into the reader, a sense of empathy for the man standing before the law, the gates of which are guarded by a keeper, whose hands in turn are vested with the power to grant or prohibit one’s entry into the law. How does such immense power come to be concentrated in the hands of a mere gatekeeper? If one draws parallels between the gatekeeper and the law, this theme can be expanded to incorporate questions regarding the immensity of the power of law. Simply speaking, the obedience of law is the reason for its authoritative power. This can be inferred from an ironical situation depicted in the story, when the gatekeeper, who does not permit the man entry into the law till his dying day, declares to him that the gates were for him and only him to enter. By way of explanation, the irony of the situation stems from the fact that the man who was meant to and could have gained access to the law, fails to do so due to the power of the gatekeeper, who assumes the same as a result of the man’s bemoaning but unquestioning obedience. The magnitude of the power in the hands of the gatekeeper potentially...
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...Name: Instructor: Course: Date: The Irony in “The Metamorphosis” by Frank Kafka It is true that anyone and everyone who writes can be considered a writer; it is not necessarily true that those whose writings follow a certain ideal structure are writers. According to Smith, what a writer openly says through his writing is not necessarily important; however, what a writer or an author whispers is what is of great importance (Morrel and Niles 128). What this implies is that anything whatsoever can be written to satisfy what readers and the audience are expected to see and feel (Anthony Collins 54). However, the messages in such writings can be continually nurtured in order to increase the power of the emotions and the images communicated if the story is relayed via a deeper message. This means that authors and writers can opt not to put a vivid face in the true significance and purport; this eventually expands the force field of their story’s meaning (Collins 34). Further, this prospers the capacity of the readers and the audience to interpret and explore; particularly, when the author employs the use of writing devices that prompt the readers to explore the writing in very different light. This is the kind of technique that Frank Kafkas employs in his novel, “The Metamorphosis”, in which he presents readers with a story of how a man mutates into a bug – a cockroach. “The Metamorphosis” is not just an intriguing tale, it is also a perfect example of an author employing various...
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