Metamorphosis Essay Outline
The following is my outline.. Hopefully there wont be too many screw ups… I am experiencing edublogs difficulties.. What’s new?!
Metamorphosis Essay Outline
Thesis
In his short story, The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka attempts to warn us of the devastating effect that slaving away for one’s job can have on a man’s life. He attempts this by telling us the story of a man who essentially ceases to exist- losing himself in his hard work-, and who wakes up one day metamorphosed into a cockroach.
Reason
One of the most expected outcomes that slaving away for a job can have on a man is obviously becoming a slave for your boss, as well as loosing most aspects of your personal freedom
Examples:
- “during his five years with the firm Gregor had not been sick even once” (Kafka, p.5).
- “even if he did make the train, he could not avoid getting it form the boss, because the messenger boy had been waiting at the five-o’clock train and would have long ago reported his not showing up”(Kafka, P.5).
- “Why was only Gregor condemned to work for a firm where at the slightest omission they immediately suspected the worst? Were all employees louts without exception [...] Really, wouldn’t it have been enough to send one of the apprentices to find out” (Kafka, p.8-9)
- “I’ve got the torture of traveling, worrying about changing trains, eating miserable food at all hours, constantly seeing new faces, no relationships that last or get more intimate. To the devil with it all!” (Kafka, p.3-4). – “ “But sir,”[…] “I’m just opening up, in a minute[…]“A slight indisposition, a dizzy spell, prevented me from getting up[...] But I already feel fine again” (Kafka, p.11).
Reason
If it wasn’t enough for Gregor to become enslaved by his work and boss, this causes yet another devastating effect. He eventually looses touch with anything related to his “self”. He never comes first, not even in the worst of situations.
Examples:
· When he first notices that he has been transformed into a “monstrous vermin”, he refers to his predicament as “nonsense”: “How about going back to sleep for a few minutes and forgetting all this nonsense?”(Kafka, p.3). This shows us how Gregor can look at becoming a beetle simply as a “negative phenomenon that disturbs his daily work routine” (Emrich, p.117).
· “If I didn’t hold back for my parent’s sake, I would have quit long ago, I would have marched up to the boss and spoken my piece from the bottom of my heart. He would have fallen off his desk! [...] Well, I haven’t given up hope completely; once I’ve gotten the money together to pay off my parents’ debt to him-that will probably take another five or six years- I’m going to do it without fail. Then I’m going to make my big break. But for the time being I’d better get up, since my train leaves at five”(Kafka, P.4)
Reason
Due to his dedication to work, before and after his metamorphosis, he doesn’t really exist to his family. He is first simply seen as the bread winner, then as a disgusting burden. He isn’t seen as a person nor as a family member at all.
Examples
· Hard cash was “plunked down on the table at home in front of his astonished and delighted family” (Kafka, P.26). “Those had been the wonderful times, and they had never returned, at least not with the same glory, although later on Gregor earned enough money to meet the expenses of the entire family and actually did so. They had just gotten used to it, the family as well as Gregor, the money was received with thanks and given with pleasure, but no special feeling of warmth went with it anymore. Only his sister had remained close to Gregor”(Kafka, P.26)
· “Not a soul had addressed a word directly to him” (Kafka, p.32)
· At first his sister would go see him and give him food “to find out his likes and dislikes, she brought him a wide assortment of things, all spread out on an old newspaper: old, half-rotten vegetables; bones left over from the evening meal, caked with congealed white sauce; some raisins and almonds; a piece of cheese…”(Kafka, p.23) – “No longer considering what she could do to give Gregor a special treat, his sister, before running to business every morning and afternoon, hurriedly shoved any old food in Gregor’s room with he foot; and in the evening, regardless of whether the food had only been toyed with or-the most usual case- had been left completely untouched, she swept it out with a swish of the broom.”.(Kafka, p.41)
· “ “It has to go,” cried his sister. “That’s the only answer, Father. You just have to try to get rid of the idea that it’s Gregor. Believing it for so long, that is our real misfortune. But how can it be Gregor” (Kafka, p.49)
