The Metamorphosis and modernis
Franz Kafka published a relatively small amount of stories in his lifetime. Almost all of them are autobiographical in nature. In this way, his novella, The Metamorphosis, could be considered an allegory for his own life. The whole idea of a "metamorphosis" seems to come from Kafka's life. This story was written at a time when he felt he had just found his mature style as a writer. Kafka wrote in his journal on January 3, 1912, about the time that he wrote The Metamorphosis, "My development is now complete." He felt that he would now focus all of his attentions on writing, knowing that all the other areas of his life would suffer. Kafka wrote the following in his diary the next day, "...everything rushed in that direction and left empty all those abilities which were directed towards the joys of sex, eating, drinking, philosophical reflection, and above all music. I atrophied in all these directions." This is basically what happened to Gregor. Once he transformed into an insect, where Kafka matured, all aspects of his life suffered and he was cut off from everyone else around him.Kafka was born in the Jewish ghetto of Prague in 1883. He was an outsider from the very beginning. Jews were out of place in Prague because
they spoke German in a Czech city, and they were neither Czech nor German. Moreover, as he never fully accepted the teachings of Judaism, he was outsider within his Jewish community. Kafka did not even feel at home in his own family. His father was a man of a large build who was entrepreneurial and socially upwardly mobile. Kafka's harsh father made no secret of his disapproval of his slighter son's passion for writing, often pointing out that Franz was a disappointment. This left Kafka feeling like an outcast in all aspects of his life, similar to the way that his character Gregor felt in The Metamorphosis. Guilt is Gregor's most powerful emotion. When he is transformed into an insect, Gregor is made unable to work by circumstances beyond his control. Although this metamorphosis is not his fault, he is racked by guilt every time that the family mentions money. He is also overcome by guilt when he when he thinks about the pain he has caused them by losing the ability to support them. The descriptions of Gregor the insect give the reader the idea that he is not an attractive sight. This is probably an earlier form of the mental picture Kafka formed of himself in the quote above. Gregor's guilt seems to have destroyed him to the point where he has become pathetic. Franz Kafka had to live with his fath
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Approximate Word count = 892
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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