Review on Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka (Pre Ap)

[Emily]

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka is a fairly short story about a salesman named Gregor Samsa. Gregor wakes up one morning to find he is no longer human, but has become a large insect, with many tiny legs.

Kafka uses many literary elements such as imagery, and symbolism. Throughout the story, Kafka describes Gregor's new form, from the direction in which each leg moves, to the slow yet painful transformation of Gregor's room. Gregor's own room becomes a symbol in how isolated he really felt when he was human, and many other objects and places become symbols for Kafka to use.

Overall, I enjoyed this short story. At first, I didn't understand the point of this story, but the further you read, the more you come to understand what Kafka really wanted to say, Kafka's extensive descriptions, and unique vagueness in Gregor's family peaked my interest to get to the bottom of this story, and read until the end. The ending, although somewhat surprising, was also satisfactory, and gave and completed feel to the story. I enjoyed the heavy use of symbolism, which made me as a reader really focus on what I was reading, otherwise I would have missed the story really being told. Out of 5, I would give Metamorphosis a 4/5. While it was overall enjoyable, there were points where it felt relatively slow and monotonous.