Week 11: Reading Response to Kafka's The Metamorphosis

Please read carefully the instructions and answer the questions below for the reading response to Kafka's The Metamorphosis (1915).

Length: About 350 words (one long paragraph in double-space)

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Writing Instructions:

Italicize (not quotation marks) the novella title, The Metamorphosis-- MLA style

Please do not summarize the plot in this reading response.

Please do not use expressions, such as "I think," "you," or "we see" in analysis papers.

Do not cite more than 3 typed lines for each quote and use an MLA in-text citation, referring to the character/narrator. Put the page number after each quote in parentheses. Do not put a page or pg. in parentheses-- (i.e.) Gregor thought, "What a grueling job" (753).

Please choose effective quotes to prove your point and make sure to add your detailed analysis after each quotation.

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*Please answer the following questions and provide effective textual examples to support your interpretation of Kafka's The Metamorphosis.

Analytical Reading Response to Kafka's The Metamorphosis (1915)

What do you think Kafka tries to convey through the change of Gregor's body into a subhuman form? What does Gregor's metamorphosis into an insect (a beetle) signify? Why is he "condemned to work for a firm" (756) and why does he feel obligated to stay on his job? What similarities do you find between the office manager and Gregor's father regarding their reactions to Gregor's changed body into a beetle, and what do you think Kafka is trying to convey through their attitudes towards Gregor? What causes Gregor's feeling of being seen as less than a human? When does Gregor feel he belongs in human society and when does he stop being treated as a human being by his family, and why? What causes Gregor to feel that "he would have to disappear" (780) and what does his death signify? In what sense do you think Kafka's The Metamorphosis represents a modern condition of alienation? Please provide at least two textual examples (direct quotes along with the page numbers) to support your analysis and add your detailed analysis after each quotation.