Metamorphisis

Metamorphisis Figurative versus Literal: a Discussion of Metamorphosis Can anyone wake up one morning, and like Kafka’s character Gregor Samsa, turn into an insect' Not without upsetting several natural laws of nature. Great literature, being defined as works that have withstood the test of time, is fraught with allegories and subtle implications, which are meant to provoke thought in the reader. In Kafka’s Metamorphosis, the reader watches a transformation of the main character from a man into a cockroach and his family’s reaction to it. The meaning, however, stretches beyond just the scientific impossibility of a human transforming into an insect and envelopes a criticism of societal views of the workingman and his view of himself. Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis is a classic tale embodying the existentialist condition. The reader is only given a mere glimpse into the life of the main character, Gregor Samsa, before he undergoes this drastic change. The reader learns that Gregor had been working as something of a traveling salesman since the demise of his father’s company some year before. Gregor became the breadwinner of the family; his mother was too ill with asthma and his sister was too young to work. The character feels obligation to keep metamorphosis, gregor, family, life, insect, character, kafka’s, very, reader, first, works, should, samsa, much, main, longer, job, however, feels, change, being, about, working, work, traveling, time, story, state, sokel, sister, one, man, lives, literal, kafka