Introducing Kafka

Metamorphosis and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Franz Kafka was born on July 3, 1883 in Prague, the largest city in the Czech Republic. He was part of a Jewish family that spoke German. The Kafka family was considered to be middle class and Kafka attended Law school and worked in insurance while writing in the evenings and late at night. People who worked with him liked him and thought well of him. He was a friendly person who worked hard and had a good sense of humor. Franz had two brothers who…

The Metamorphosis is a novella written by Franz Kafka in Prague, 1912. Kafka’s dying wish was for Max Brod to burn his stories for him. Brod ignored his request and published his work. Kafka brings us through the journey of Gregor Samsa as he transforms from being a human into a monstrous vermin. Gregor, just like Kafka is isolated from modern society and has issues with his father. “In writing about a monstrous non-being, Kafka writes about himself; but in doing so he also stays a little bit…

care for him. At this point it’s so terrible for them they completely shut it out and barely ever think about it, they don’t even consider him their son. The exception to this is Grete, who takes care of Gregor, who feeds him and cleans his room. Kafka says Grete wants to “spare them such anxieties”(109), meaning that she’s less disturbed than them by the change that has taken…

“The Metamorphosis” written by Frank Kafka is a short story about a family who was in debt and depended on their son, Gregor, to make money to pay off their debt for them while also paying their bills. It all became difficult when, one morning, Gregor woke up as a vermin and could not work anymore. This forces his family to support themselves. They eventually went insane with every passing moment, whenever they saw Gregor. The Samsa family believed that they were trapped in his shadow, and they…

In Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, Gregor is not the only one who transforms but the whole family dynamic transforms due to his metamorphosis into a cockroach. Due to that transformation, there is conflict between family members particularly between Gregor’s mother and Grete, his sister. This transformation helps the readers see another view on human nature and family dynamics. From the start of the story, Gregor is transformed into a cockroach, which leads his family into conflict about how to…

solid and things can’t pass through it easily - is outright defied by this one experience. Ironically, it is the modern writer Franz Kafka that immediately starts off The Metamorphosis by having the protagonist Gregor Samsa questioning of reality when: “One morning,…

The themes of futility and anxiety are societal woes as old as enlighten thinking itself. Both Kafka and the rest of Europe was just the unfortunate victims of a time that provoked such nihilistic and necessary thinking. In The Trial and in the modernist movement, they were just working with the only thing they had. Their own lives. The fact that…

Samsa and Franz Kafka, whose names are very similar in letter count and sound. This use of name parallel is common for autobiographical fiction, as seen in Bioshock’s parallel to Atlas Shrugged, employing the use of Andrew Ryan in stead of Ayn Rand. The family and situation depicted in The Metamorphosis mirrors that of Kafka’s real life. Like Gregor, Kafka disliked his authoritarian father, and felt compelled to work a job he disliked in order to financially support his family. Both Kafka and…

The Forever Guilt In the short story, The Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka, Gregor worked as a traveling salesman -a job he hated- in order to help his family. Unexpectedly overnight, he had turned into a bug. Although he had gone through a physical metamorphosis, his mind and thoughts had remained the same, keeping his hardworking mentality intact. Since his transformation, Gregor’s parents wanted nothing to do with him and his sister had was having a hard time adjusting to his new form. Gregor’s…

Franz Kafka is a short story that enunciates certain psychological aspects of his life and influences the life of his character, Gregor Samsa. Franz Kafka often wrote short stories such as these because that was his way of expressing his emotions that he could not express elsewhere because of his father. His father was a large, successful business man who would often disapprove of Kafka for being himself, and not being the man he wanted him to become. He forced Kafka to study law, whereas Kafka…