The Theme of Freedom in Kafkas Metamorphosis Essay -- Kafka Metamorph

The Theme of Freedom in Kafkas metamorphosisOne of Franz Kafkas most long-familiar and most often criticized works is the short story, Die Verwandlung, or The Metamorphosis. The Metamorphosis is most unusual in that the first sentence is the climax the suspension of the story is mainly falling action (Greenburg 273). The reader learns that Gregor Samsa, the storys main character, has been moody into an enormous insect. Despite this fact, Gregor continues to act and think like any radiation diagram human would, which makes the beginning of the story both tragic and comical at the same time. However, one can non help but wonder why Gregor has undergone this direful transformation, and what purpose it could possibly serve in the story. Upon examination, it seems that Gregors metamorphosis represents both his granting immunity from maintaining his entire financial stability and his familys freedom from their dependence upon Gregor.Long in the lead the story takes place, Gregor Sam sas father had a business failure that left him heavyset in debt. His son, Gregor, works as a commercial traveler for the play along to whom he owes money in effect, Gregor is slowly working off his fathers debt. Gregor is not happy with his job, which Greenburg calls degrading and soul-destroying, but believes that his familys existence depends upon him sacrificing himself by working at this meaningless... job, and so he continues (274). Heinz Politzer goes far enough to say that Gregor is a striver to his boss (276), which would imply that there is no escape for Gregor- at least, no conventional escape.However, Gregor does escape from his life of indentured servancy- by becoming a giant insect. Walter H. Sokel explains the effect of the metamorphosis on his occupat... ...om House, 1963Greenberg, Martin . The Terror of Art Kafka and neo Literature. bracing York Basic Books, 1968.Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis and Other Stories. 1st ed. Translated by Stanley Appelbaum. New Yor k Dover Publications, 1996.Parry, Idris, The Talk of Guilty Men (1981), in Parry, Speak Silence. Essays, Manchester 1988.Politzer, Heinz, Franz Kafka Parable and Paradox, Ithaca N.Y. 1962 Sokel, Walter H. The author in Extremis, Expressionism in Twentieth-Century German Literature. 1st ed. California Stanford University Press, 1969. Works ConsultedPawel, Ernst. A Nightmare of Reason A Life of Franz Kafka. 2nd ed. New York Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 1984. Suchoff, David. decisive Theory and the Novel Mass Society and Cultural Criticism in Dickens, Melville and Kafka. 5th ed. Wisconsin University of Wisconsin Press, 1994.