{"content":{"sharePage":{"page":0,"digests":[{"id":"3265923","dateCreated":"1205496891","smartDate":"Mar 14, 2008","userCreated":{"username":"hugbubbles","url":"https:\/\/www.wikispaces.com\/user\/view\/hugbubbles","imageUrl":"https:\/\/ssl.wikicdn.com\/i\/user_none_lg.jpg"},"monitored":false,"locked":false,"links":{"self":"https:\/\/vahlebchs.wikispaces.com\/share\/view\/3265923"},"dateDigested":1532128765,"startDate":null,"sharedType":"discussion","title":"The Metamorphosis","description":"Hey everyone's part is included with the exception of Amanda due to some personal conflicts....she assured us that she will post her part ASAP.
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\nCaitlin Chase
\nAmanda Fisher
\nJames Holmes
\nSean Potts
\nMetamorphosis Group Novel Assignment
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\n1) Author: Franz Kafka
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\nDate Published: 1915
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\nBackground: Kafka was born in Prague in 1883 to middle class Jewish parents. He grew up with feelings of inferiority, alienation, confinement, and resentment. His style resembles the structure of a dream or nightmare, and his stories appear as disembodied and mysterious allegories.
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\n2) Main Characters:
\nGregor Samsa\u2014Gregor exists as the sole breadwinner for a family that has come upon economic stagnancy and instability. He unexpectedly transforms into a large vermin (most likely an insect) while sleeping. Gregor becomes a pariah within his family and is banished to his room.
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\nGrete Samsa\u2014Grete is Gregor\u2019s energetic and caring younger sister. She has a great talent for playing the violin and dreams of going to the conservatory of music. She alone continues to care for Gregor after his death.
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\nMr. Samsa\u2014Gregor\u2019s sluggish father has been out of work for years when his son transforms. Mr. Samsa refuses to accept Gregor\u2019s new form and demands his son\u2019s confinement. When Gregor does confront his father, he falls under attack.
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\n3) Minor Characters:
\nHousekeeper\u2014A haggish hired assistant who cleans the house once Grete must go to work; she knows of Gregor\u2019s presence and does not fear him.
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\nBoarders\u2014Three men who come to rent a room of the Samsas\u2019 house; they are each very rude and demanding.
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\n7) Kafka spends most of the novel using short, concise sentences in order to help establish his purpose- the shortness and bleakness of life. Each simple sentence serves to add to the bleakness of Gregor's situation. That bleakness is one of the main elements of the existentialism of the novel, and presents Kafka's beliefs in a very strong way.
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\n8) As mentioned before, existentialism is one of the main philosophies of the novel-- in addition, nihilism is very prominent at the end of the work, as Gregor, no longer with the will to live, simply dies. The fact that Gregor can die of nothing is very nihilist, and the very unfeeling reaction on his family's part adds to this element.
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\n9) Our group focused heavily on the philosophy of the Metamorphosis, and how that philosophy affected the story and the interpretation of this work. As a prominent existentialist, Kafka's beliefs, displayed in this novella, comprise a large division of philosophical thought today. Our group discussed the modern interpretation of existentialism\/nihilism, and how this related to Kafka's existentialism.
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\n10) How exactly did Gregor become a bug?
\nDo you believe the family will ever truly move on?
\nCan you think of any other ending that would have brought positive results for everyone?
\nShould Gregor have run away from his home once he became a bug?
\nWhat do you believe is Kafka\u2019s message through this novel?
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\n11) \u201cThe father, furiously shaking his fists as if willing Gregor to go back in his room, looked uncertainly around the living room, covered his eyes in his hands, and sobbed with great heaves of his powerful chest.\u201d (p.17)
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\n\u201cIf only the father would quit that infernal hissing! It made Gregor completely lose his head.\u201d (p. 20)
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\n\u201cGregor was fed twice daily in this way, once in the morning while the parents and the maid still slept, and once after dinner was eaten while the parents napped for a short time and the sister could send the maid on some errand.\u201d (p. 24)
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\n\u201cYou have to try to stop thinking that this is Gregor. Our true misfortune is that we\u2019ve believed it so long.\u201d (p. 47)
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\n12) 1978: In Kafka\u2019s work \u201cThe Metamorphosis,\u201d Gregor Samsa undergoes a pivotal change which provides a new wave of realization upon the family.
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\nBody 1:
\n -Everyone must make own goals and life in a cruel world
\n - changes forces family to rethink their life
\n - work to better lives
\n -self-sufficiency
\nBody 2:
\n- sometimes people must let go of a person\/ past event to gain true value in life
\n- Gregor no longer part of the family
\n- He must let go of his past as well as family
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\n1995: The alienation of Gregor Samsa in Kafka\u2019s \u201cThe Metamorphosis\u201d due to his transformation displays a harsh society as money is precious and short and also, an inadaptable society that reacts poorly to change.
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\nBody 1:
\n- little prosperity\/ harsh work standards and conditions
\n- Gregor was forced to pay off parents\u2019 debts
\n- Family develops bad living habits as they work extensively hard to maintain current standards
\nBody 2:
\n- Gregor is ignored and family does not fully adjust till his death
\n- Even though all 3 members work, 2 people must always stay home
\no Pressure on family, economically
\n- refuse to enter, clean or see Gregor
\n- no longer considered a part of family
\n- attempt to have renters while Gregor still hides in his room fails
\n- does not adapt until put into a forceful situation","replyPages":[{"page":0,"digests":[],"more":0}]}],"more":false},"comments":[]},"http":{"code":200,"status":"OK"},"redirectUrl":null,"javascript":null,"notices":{"warning":[],"error":[],"info":[],"success":[]}}