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Kafka’s The Metamorphosis Writing Assignment

Directions: Please choose one of the two options below. For your choice, write a short essay exploring the suggested questions.

Option One:

Specifically, what is the relationship between Gregor and his family? Focus particularly on Gregor and Grete and Gregor and his father. What family role has Gregor played prior to his metamorphosis? What role does he play now? What clues in the story suggest that Gregor’s relationship with his father is unsatisfactory?

Option Two:

The story’s principal metamorphosis is Gregor changing into an insect (a cockroach). But the story abounds with other metamorphoses (changes). Identify and describe other metamorphoses that the story holds. Think in terms of Gregor’s father, mother, and Greta. Also, the final paragraph of the story represents a metamorphosis of tone, setting, and action in that it differs markedly from the rest of the story in word choice, description, setting, and mood. What is the significance of this change in terms of everything that has gone before it?