Franz Kafka's "The Metamorphosis"

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that Franz Kafka's "The Metamorphosis" illustrates the idea that the love of arts is looked down upon and those that see art as important are ranked no higher than a beetle. The author points out thow the character of Gregor is seen as a parallel to Kafka's own life especially in that Kafka's father disapproved of Kafka's work in literature. The paper compares Kafka's "The Metamorphosis" to Ovid's "Metamorphoses" in that many of the characters undergo a similar transformation giving up their human form. In both works, the characters suffer a punishment at the hands of loving art by caring something so much that such a ordinary place has no choice but to punish them until they can fly above this ordinary pursuing world.

From the Paper:

"What Gregor's society, and Kafka's father as well, fail to understand is the beauty and relevance within the artistic disciplines. Just by recognizing this fact and wanting to hold on to it so much makes Gregor, Kafka and characters belonging to Ovid beautiful, even if those around them dehumanize them, literally or physically. The want for art and something more than money leads to Gregor's transformation into a lesser being just as Ovid's characters such as Pyramus and Thisbe transform from beings of the realm of the living to the realm of the un-living."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Frederick, John, ed. Ovid's Metamorphoses. Trans. Arthur Golding. Philadelphia: Simon and Schuster, Inc,1965.
• Kafka, Franz. The Great Short Works of Franz Kafka . Trans. Joachim Neugroschel. New York :Simon and Schuster, Inc, 1993.
• NNDB: Tracking the entire World. Franz Kafka. 7 Oct. 2007. <http://www.nndb.com/people/966/000024894, Soylent Communications, 2007.

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