5.+Metamorphosis

Directions: your group is responsible for compiling and creating responses to all sections and will be graded on the completeness and accuracy of the information provided. In addition, your response must include material covered in class, not information "cut and pasted" from on-line study guides. Assignment is worth 100 points. Remember, you are helping your classmates by providing a complete response.

==== A young man named Gregor Samsa wakes up one day to find that he has been transformed into a large bug. With no friends or social life, Gregors only care in the world is that he makes it into work that day. Due to his fathers business failing, Gregor has been thrown into a hectic and stressful life of working everyday to support his family, who in return, show him rarely any praise or gratitude. With his transformation, his family realizes that they must now get jobs to support themselves. In the early stage of Gregors transformation, his sister takes care of him, though is parents (especially his mother) make sure to stay away most of the time. When they realize that Gregor will probably never transform back, and Gregor starts to leave behind his former “human life”, the family decide enough is enough. All that Gregor has become to his family is a broken wish and a burden to his entire family. Realizing that there is no hope for his family if he continues to bring them down, Gregor commits an act of suicide by slowly starving himself. When the families maid gives them news of Gregors death the family seems relieved instead of devastated. His body is taken care of, and the family finally leaves the house together on a small trip, leaving behind the memories of Gregor and their devastating pasts, eager for the future. ====
 * 1) Plot Summary (no more than 250 words please):**

Gregor Samsa- Hardworking individual who lived a boring dull life. Does not have many friends, or a life due to working almost every single day of his life. He supports his family until one day he wakes up to find he has been transformed into a bug.
 * 2) Major Characters, Description, and Relationships:**

Grete Samsa- Gregors younger sister. While Gregor is still human Grete is not looked at as very important in her family. Her parents seem to respect and adore Gregor more than her. When Gregor is transformed Grete is the person who takes care of him, feeds him, and cleans him room. By the end though, Grete has turned on her brother and orders her parents to get rid of him. Her parents now look at her as a beautiful individual and start to think of planning her marriage.

Herr Samsa- Father of Gregor and Grete. Before his business failed he was the man of the house, supporting the family. He then left the job up to Gregor. During Gregors transformation, Herr goes back to work and even conflicts pain on Gregor by throwing an apple at his exterior. Herr is an older gentleman, tired but still hardworking, and has in some way lost some of his pride due to not meeting societies requirements of a successful man.

Frau Samsa- Wife to Herr Samsa, and mother to Gregor and Grete. A very loving woman who makes a large breakfast for her family in the morning. Though she is not very healthy (has breathing problems), after Gregors transformation she pushes herself to get a job to help with the situation. Throughout Gregor's transformation Frau stayed hopeful, wishing that one day he would be transformed back and holding on to that hope. She is emotionally ruined with Gregors transformation, and cries many times when she see's him or thinks of his transformation.

3) Literary Terms discussed in class (including a brief definition and how they relate to the text):
 * a) Symbolism:** A person, object, image, word, or event that evokes a range of additional meaning beyond and usually more abstract than its literal significance. In the story, objects were used to symbolize feelings towards Gregor.

The story is split into 3 parts. These can be interpreted as birth, life, and death. It might also be interpreted as being similar to a metamorphosis of a bug: Pupal stage, chrysalis, emergence.
 * __Insect__: symbolized something that people reject/stay away from. An insect was used instead of, say, a puppy, which might evoke a different reaction than what Kafka intended.
 * __Door__: symbolized isolation from the world. The door to the house separated the family to the outside world. Gregor's door to his room separated him from the rest of the family.
 * b) Irony:** A mode of expression, through words or events, conveying a reality different from and usually opposite to appearance or expectation.
 * Gregor cares for his seemingly stagnant family, until he transforms, and need //them// to help //him.//
 * Gregor cares for Grete the most, yet she is the one who suggests the family gets rid of Gregor.
 * c) Plot Structure:** An author’s selection and arrangement of incidents in a story to shape the action and give the story a particular focus. The plot in the story shows each person in the family undergoing a metamorphosis of their own.
 * Part One**: Gregor wakes up to find himself transformed into an insect. This is his birth( or rebirth into a new form). This is also the end of the family's dependence on him, and the beginning of their new independence.
 * Part Two:** Gregor is continuing to live isolated from his family. It is taking a toll on him mentally and physically. The mother, father, and sister have all found jobs and have become independent of Gregor.
 * Part Three:** Gregor dies. The remaining Samsas are relieved and can finally leave the house together. At this point, the mother and father notice how Grete has //emerged// into a beautiful young woman
 * d) Setting**:    The physical and social context in which the action of a story occurs.    The setting in the story shows the isolation of Gregor from the family and the world.
 * Cocoon-like in its own right, the apartment cloisters the family from the rest of the world.
 * Gregor's room is dark and isolated due to the locked doors. The isolation begins to effect Gregor's mental state.

4) How has the writer created meaning? In other words, what choices has he/she made in plot structure, point of view, character, setting, tone, style and/or symbol in order to convey meaning?:  "Yet this capital was by no means sufficient to let the family live on the interest of it; for one year, perhaps, or at the most two, they could live on the principal, that was all," (116). "Gregor's desire to see his mother was soon fulfilled. During the daytime he did not want to show himself at the window, out of consideration for his parents, but he could not crawl very far around the few square yards of floor space he had, nor could he bear lying quietly at rest all during the night, while he was fast losing any interest he had ever taken in food, so that for mere recreation he had formed the habit of crawling crisscross over the walls and ceiling," (119). " 'If he could understand us,' repeated the old man, shutting his eyes to consider his daughter's conviction that understanding was impossible, 'then perhaps we might come to some agreement with him. But as it is-' " (140).
 * a) Plot structure:** The plot structure is split into three parts in order the convey a metamorphosis (birth,life death). The plot shows how Gregor went through his changes. Gregor began the story as an insect, acclimates to life as a bug, and eventually dies.
 * b) Point of view:** The point of view is third person limited. With this perspective, the narrator can tell the story, as well as the thoughts and feelings of only Gregor. This creates meaning by allowing the reader to explore how Gregor himself feels. If the story was told without thoughts or feelings from any of the characters, it would most likely be dull, and we would not be aware of the lessons or meanings Kafka was trying to convey.
 * c) Character:** The characters, mainly the Samsas, are used to provide a personalized look at one family's reaction to a difficult situation. Kafka chose to include only a few extra characters because he mainly wanted to focus on the family itself. If he focused on many characters, then the story would be transformed into society's view on the situation. Instead, we see how one family reacts to the situation based on how //they// think society will view them.
 * d) Setting:** The apartment is used to show the isolation of characters. All of the Samsas are isolated from the rest of the world, as they do not go out all together, in fear of what Gregor might do when they're gone. Gregor is isolated from his family because of the doors to his room. The isolation creates meaning because it is one of the themes(alienation) Kafka wanted to show.
 * e) Tone:** The majority of the story carries a pessimistic tone. Gregor loses almost all contact with everything he used to know. He is just a shell of his former self. Though at times comical, the pessimistic tone is one way Kafka portrayed how he believed the world could be alienating, a concept he struggled with his entire life.
 * f) Symbol**: The symbols in the story, like the door, carry the themes of alienation/isolation.
 * 5) Themes/Motifs(at least 4): **
 * a) economic effects on human relationships:** Gregor is enslaved by his family because he is the money maker - they treat him as a source of income not a person. Once Gregor has morphed he is treated with neglect and disgust by his parents. Also, once the family begins working they seem to find difficulty communicating with one another - such as eating dinner in silence and fighting among themselves.
 * b) Family Duty:** The duties of family members to one another drive interactions between Gregor and the others. His thoughts revolve entirely around supporting his family and though Gregor hates his job he follows the call of duty his family places upon him. The family seems to only take care of Gregor as they see necessary though, they do not go above and beyond for him. By the end, the only one who seemed to really care, his sister, is waning with her patience with him. She no longer cares what sort of food she brings him or if his room is kept clean.
 * c) alienation:** Before his metamorphosis,Gregor is alienated from his job, his humanity, his family, and even his body, he barely notices his transformation. By the end, Gregor also loses his consideration for his family, he feels completely alienated from his room and environment, as a symbol of this, he can not even see out his window.
 * d) freedom and escapism:** Gregor is trapped in his job by his duty to his family, but he dreams of the day when he can finally pay off their debts and quit his job. His need for freedom from the restrictive demands of work is expressed in his metamorphosis, by means of which he escapes. This escape, however, fails to bring Gregor freedom, for he is now imprisoned by his family in his room. Thus, when Gregor works, he is enslaved by his job and, when he doesn't work, he is enslaved by his family. There is no way of balancing out freedom and duty, and in the end one is always a slave. The only means of escape turns out to be death.
 * e) Guilt:** Guilt stems from family duty, and is Gregor's most powerful emotion. When he is transformed into an insect, Gregor is made unable to work by circumstances beyond his control. Despite the fact that his metamorphosis is not his fault, however, he is racked by guilt every time that the family mentions money or that he thinks about the pain that he has inadvertently inflicted on them by losing the ability to support them. Guilt, it turns out, is deadly, as Gregor realizes at the end that his life is the only thing keeping the family from a better life. He dies for them just as he lived for them: out of guilt.
 * f) Personal Identity:** Gregor tries to rebuild the self-identity that he had lost by living entirely for others and ignoring his own needs. He cannot, however, escape from what he sees as his family duty, and continues to act only to serve his family by doing his best not to inconvenience them. Gregor's comments about his family's behavior are often tinged with resentment at the way they treat him, but he will not allow himself to recognize his bitterness. Gregor's search for his identity seems hopeless, however, because he never had an identity to start with. He finds his humanity only at the end, when his sister's playing reminds him of his love for his family. This love, coupled with his freedom, is the final ingredient he needs to establish his identity.
 * 6) Quotes from the text that capture major themes (at least 3):**
 * economic effects on human relationships:** "Now Gregor's sister had to cook too, helping her mother; true, the cooking did not amount to much, for they ate scarcely anything," (page 114).
 * Family and Duty:** "His quick-witted sister only needed to observe twice that the armchair stood by the window; after that whenever she had tidied the room she always pushed the chair back to the same place at the window and even left the inner casements open," (117).
 * alienation:** "Hardly was he well inside his room when the door was hastily pushed shut, bolted, and locked," (141).
 * Freedom and escapism:** "He thought of his family with tenderness and love. The decision that he must disappear was one that he held to even more strongly than his sister, if that were possible. in this state of vacant and peaceful meditation he remained until the twoer clock struck three in the morning. the first broadening of light in the world outside the window entered his consciousness once more. then his head sank to the floor of its own accord and from his nostrils came the last faint flicker of his breath," (142).
 * Guilt:** "Gregor wanted to help too - there was still time to rescue the picture - but he was stuck fast to the glass and had to tear himself loose," (124).
 * Personal Identity:** "Who could find time, in this overworked and tired-out family, to bother about Gregor more than was absolutely needful?" (129).

1. Was Gregor's transformation somewhat a good thing for everyone? In some way Gregor is now rid of his tiring life of over working himself, and how his father, sister, and mother have matured and started taking car of the family, something they had given up on. All members of the family go jobs which none of them had had before. Is Gregor's condition a wake up call for all those around him? 2. In the beginning of Gregor's transformation his sister seems caring and helps out a lot. After awhile she starts to neglect him, and after his encounter with the lodgers, begs her parents that they get rid of him. How can Gregor's sister just throw away her brother who obviously needs help? Does she have no compassion or sympathy towards him just because of what he has turned into? 3. With Gregor's new lifestyle he starts to forget of his human life, even saying, "the good intentions of the two women, whose existence he had by now almost forgotten..."(123). Why does Gregor start to forget his previous life even though he still has the capability to understand his family and acknowledge that hsi current condition as a bug is not a good one?
 * 7) Interpretive Questions (at least 3):**

8) Historical/Social/Philosophical Influences on text (include relevant author biography): Kafka lived the majority of his life in the early twentieth century. Due to childhood abuse, as well as clinical depression and anxiety, Kafka's literature often contained themes of alienation, problems with the world, and troubled individuals, much like Gregor Samsa. Kafka became acquainted with the French culture and language, and developed one of his favorite authors in Frenchman Gustave Flaubert. Kafka's lifelong friendship with fellow writer Max Brod also helped him in writing his works. Brod is credited with publishing Kafka's works after he died, despite Kafka's request not to. Kafka became influenced with Yiddish Theater as well as Judaism, both sources of inspriation for his writing. Kafka was often engaged to be married, but repeatedly broke off his engagements, as he felt that he wrote his best work when he was alone. Kafka eventually died of tuberculosis. It was not until after his death that his works were ever published. Despite most of his work is unfinished, he is still considered to be highly influential in Western literature.

Jamie did #3,4,8.
 * Lauren did #5-6
 * Nikki did #1,2,7