Gretes Transformation in The Metamorphosis by Kafka Essay -- essays r

Kafka wrote The Metamorphosis in 1912, taking three weeks to compose the paper. While he had verbalized earlier satisfaction with the work, he later found it to be flawed, even calling the ending unreadable. Whatever his own opinion may have been, the utterly story has become one of the most popularly read and analyzed works of twentieth-century literature. Isolation and alienation are at the heart of this surreal story of a man transformed overnight into a kind of beetle. In contrast to much of Kafkas fiction, The Metamorphosis has not a sense of incompleteness. It is formally structure into three Roman-numbered parts, with each section having its own climax. A number of themes run through the story, but at the center are the family relationships affected by the swell change in the storys protagonist, Gregor Samsa. Grete,Gregors sister, undergoes a transformation parallel to her brothers.The relationship between Gregor and his sister Grete is perhaps the most unique. It is Grete, after all, with whom the metamorphosed Gregor has any rapport, suggesting the Kafka intend to lend at least some significance to their relationship. Gretes significance is found in her changing relationship with her brother. It is Gretes changing actions, feelings, and speech toward her brother, coupled with her accession to adult female that seems to parallel Gregors own metamorphosis. This change represents her metamorphosis from adolescence into adulthood but at the same time it marks the final demise of Gregor. Thus, certain symmetry is to be found in The Metamorphosis. While Gregor falls in the midst of despair, Grete ascends to a self-sufficient, sexual woman. It is Grete who initially tries conscientiously to d... ... express lost human reality go bad than dreams do of animal satisfactions (Thiher 44). Grete Samsas changing actions, feelings, and speech toward her brother, coupled with her accession to womanhood, parallel Gregors own metamorphosis.Works Ci tedKafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis. Philadelphia Chelsea House Publications, 1988.Nabokov, Vladimir. Lectures on Literature. Orlando Harcourt Inc., 1980.Ryan, Michael P. Samsa and Samsara Suffering, Death, and Rebirth in The Metamorphosis. The German every quarter 72. No.2. 1999. Literature Resource Center. Gale Group Databases. Davis Schwartz Memorial Lib., Brookville, NY. 5 Dec.2006. .Thiher, Allen. Fiction Refracts Science Modernist Writers From Proust to Borges. Columbia University of Missouri Press, 2005.