Ciation Exercise

The Metamorphosis is one of the most frequently analyzed works in literature. This elusive story, which chronicles the transformation of Gregor Samsa from a human being into an enormous insect , is renowned for its ability to inspire diverse, sometimes mutually exclusive interpretations. Gregor Samsa, a traveling salesman, awakes to find himself transformed into a "monstrous vermin. Initially shocked by the change, Gregor soon begins to worry that he will miss his train and be late for work. This is the fundamental crisis that Gregor, as so many human beings in the modern age, must face. This crisis is the conflict between freedom and one's responsibility to oneself on one side, and guilt and the demands posed by society and family on the other. If escape from this predicament is impossible, then Kafka, with his metamorphosis, provides an impossible escape. By becoming an insect, Gregor gains both his freedom and the right to avoid guilt, since his freedom is forced on him. Gregor dies at the precise moment when the sun comes up. He sees the first light of dawn and dies, echoing the beginning of the second chapter. Gregor's death is the result of his discovery of his identity. At the moment when love, freedom, and art are combined within him, he recognizes the need to finally leave his family to pursue their future. He was driven only by his sense of duty and then guilt, but since his guilt had no real cause, he also could not cling to it for his identity. The Metamorphosis has tended to focus on the psychoanalytic and symbolic, or allegorical, nature of the story.