Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis

Franz Kafka was born on July 3, 1883, in Prague, the capital of what was then, Bohemia, (a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire), to two upper middle class Jewish parents. After studying law at The University of Prague, he worked in insurance and wrote in the evenings. In 1923, he moved to Berlin to focus on writing, but died of tuberculosis shortly after. Before he died Kafka asked Max Brod to destroy all of his writings after his death, but Brod didn’t comply with his wishes. Over the course of the 1920s and 30s, Kafka’s works were published and translated, instantly becoming landmarks of twentieth-century literature. His emphasis on the absurdity of existence, the alienating experience of modern life, and the cruelty and incomprehensibility of authoritarian power reverberated strongly with a reading public that had just survived World War I and was on its way to a second world war. Today, people use the word Kafkaesque to signify senseless and …show more content…
He is unable to leave the room he’s staying in, becoming a claustrophile, attached to closed-in spaces. Since he can no longer support his family, they all begin working again. Grete, Gregor’s sister, becomes his caretaker after the metamorphosis. The relationship begins cordially and cooperatively but deteriorates to a passive aggressive state when Grete leaves the room to spite Gregor. She dreams of attending the music conservatory to play the violin, a dream that Gregor’s been working towards, and hoped to announce on Christmas Eve. Instead, Grete begins working as a salesgirl. Mr. Samsa, Gregor’s father, returns to work too after the metamorphosis. He is unkind to Gregor, while Mrs. Samsa struggles between her fear and revulsion of Gregor’s new form and her motherly instincts. Eventually, his own family rejects him and Gregor retires to his room where shortly later, he