A compare and contrast Analysis of Frank Kafka’s, The Metamorphosis and The Things They Carried.…
Franz Kafka is said to have based most of his works off of his own life. Consequently, in one such work, Metamorphosis, the characters, and their struggles parallel those of people present in Kafka's life. Metamorphosis tells the story of a man, Gregor, who leads a prominent lifestyle until he wakes up one morning transformed into a bug; from the moment that he takes his first breath in his transformed state, Gregor's life goes downhill. Because Kafka's work reflects his life, his state of mind is revealed through the fact that he chooses a bug in peril to represent himself. Kafka's purpose for writing Metamorphosis was to alleviate his hardships by providing himself an escape through writing.…
The view of interest here holds to the objection that personal identity is anything but ubiquitous, but rather the set of characteristics in question form a personality, which a person merely possesses as a holding, a constitutive of personal consciousness. On this view, a person can change their personality without having their identity annihilated in the strict sense implied by Hume, because one’s personality as well as the personality traits is constitutive of personal identity. Based on how this idea has been refined in recent paragraphs, I propose we rename it personality as a constitutive of personal identity or personality as a constitutive for short. The basis for personality as a constitutive has been that personal identity as a static…
Kafka throughout Metamorphosis shows key examples of the life of Gregor and how it's filled himself with alienation. Alienation is brought out in both Kafka's writings The Metamorphosis and "A Hunger Artist". The way Kafka lived may have been examples and themes in each the two stories. In both stories main characters decide to separate themselves from their own surroundings. They are reasons for each of the characters isolation from what's outside of them. In The Metamorphosis, Gregor, the main focus morphs physically into a bug. His intent was to be freer from his own life, but isolation from family and work increases. Gregor's family then does not want anything to do with him. Also, the hunger artist alienates himself by hiding inside a…
Sam’s second objection to the Body Theory of Personal Identity is called the Argument from Impossibility. It states that it is possible to imagine waking up in a different body, like is suggested in Kafka’s Metamorphosis, and thus the body theory is false. Kafka’s Metamorphosis tells about a story of a man that one day wakes up to find that he has turned into a large insect but seemingly still able to remain the same person.…
Before anyone can change, they certainly have to go through a metamorphosis. Here is where life takes another form. In novels there are always certain events that make the characters change. These changes can be for good or bad. In “The Metamorphosis”, by Franz Kafka the protagonist, Gregor Samsa suffers a significant change. This novella is about a young man who has taken care of his family during the last five years. His life was limited to work and care for his family. None of the members of his family were used to work. In this family had to happen something really bad, so they can notice that they have to do something for themselves. The nature of Gregor’s reality changes insignificantly in spite of his drastic physical changes. Gregor’s metamorphosis leads an important change in the members of his family. The metamorphosis of Gregor eases the sudden change of his family, showing that a disgrace is needed in order to force people or even family, out of the stagnation and put them into life.…
Metamorphosis is the process of transformation from one nature to another. However, in Kafka’s “Metamorphosis”, we witness two types of metamorphosis emotional and physical. Kafka shows us physical metamorphosis through Gregor’s transformation and introduces us to emotional metamorphosis when referencing to Gregor’s family dynamic. Therefore, when looking at true character change, we have to compare these two aspects. Kafka elaborates on two characters specifically throughout the book, Gregor and Grete. While he talks how Gregor’s metamorphosis has impacted his family, he only focuses on the physical aspects and Gregor’s personality remains unchanged. However, when he talks about Grete, he shows the change in character she experienced due to…
Alienation of Gregor Samsa is being portrayed by Kafka in the “Metamorphosis” by contrasting events with his family, work and society. Many of these events are faced by individuals or families in today’s society.…
Hume’s main point in his article is his claim that a person consists of a collection of thoughts, memories, experience, and knowledge. He states that there is no existence of an individual self area of our being and we are instead just a “bundle” of psychological items. Hume is a type of skeptic as he believes that since we cannot internally or externally prove the existence of a soul or distinct self that it in fact does not exist.…
Each time I gaze into a mirror, or respond to a question or assert a preference that requires a personal perspective, ‘I’ thereby assume an idea of personal identity. As ordinary common sense dictates, that personal perspective is my own insofar as I maintain a sense of ownership of my personal identity. In this view of ordinary common sense, ‘I’ assume ownership in light of the perception of ‘me’, ‘I’, or ‘myself’ (my emphasis). However, in Hume’s view, to have first-person perception of me is to have experiences of bundles of impressions from past experiences that are as temporally distant as my youth, yet as temporally local as now. Accordingly, phenomenal experiences of personal identity occur in constant conjunctions of experiential data…
The concept of self identifies the essence of one’s very being. It implies continuous existence having no other exact equal, i.e. the one and only. Whether or not the specific characteristic(s) used to define self are objectively real, i.e. physical attributes, or purely subjective, i.e. imaginary traits, the concept makes distinct one entity from another. Rationalism is the theory that truth can be derived through use of reason alone. Empiricism, a rival theory, asserts that truth must be established by sensual experience: touch, taste, smell, et al. Rene Descartes, a philosopher and rationalist concluded that one self was merely a continuous awareness of one’s own existence; one’s substance was one’s ability to think. On the other hand, David Hume, an empiricist refuted Descartes conclusion and claimed that the concept of self was nonsense, the idea could not be linked to any sensual experience. Ultimately, Hume concluded that there was no such thing as self, i.e. self does not actually exist and that the concept was an illusion. Overall, Descartes theory of self is more reasonable than Hume’s.…
Locke believed that people are born a free human being. His main idea is his writing was that if a government should fail the people of the country have the right to become or create a new government. The same rules apply if the citizens decide the government is using their power in the wrong ways. As well as the other philosophers and more to come as I write, John Locke wrote many books and was a very influential enlightenment thinker. In one of his books, Second Treatise on Civil Government, written in 1690, he was talking about the dissolution of government. He says,”When the government is dissolved, the people are at liberty to provide themselves, by erecting a new legislative,... they have not only a right to to get out of a failed government, but to prevent it.”(Locke) Okay, that literally is almost a restatement of what I said about his beliefs earlier. This explains that if a government was to be unruly or disrespectful to their people, the people have the right to rebel and create a new law making body. The interesting thing about our government is that if we were in fact to rebel against our government, which we have right to, the government would also then have to right to shut us down and stop the crusade we started. What he is saying is true but what Locke is also saying is what we do with our individual rights can always come back to bite us in the…
Metamorphosis is an illustrious short story, which manifests Kafka’s complex character, his beliefs, and real-life dilemmas. It highlights the existentialist credo by elucidating the quandaries faced by an individual in the face of absurdity. Kafka critiques the impersonal and materialistic society around us, which mitigates individualism, restricts freedom, and engenders alienation. A whirlwind of redundancy and absurdity pose Gregor with an identity crisis. Initially, his individuality is tethered by social obligations where as in due course, he is socially marginalized by virtue of his outrageous appearance. Either way, he is isolated. By means of this clock, my oral presentation aims to chart Gregor’s progress through life, which essentially follows a circular trajectory. I will begin by explaining some of the key ways in which Kafka portrays non-fictitious concepts with stark clarity……
Kafka’s Metamorphosis, encompasses that insects are difficult to get rid of. Gregor transforms into an insect and becomes a burden to his family. Moreover, Gregor was the one who supported the family’s basic needs, such as making enough capital to survive, but when he becomes an insect it disables him to help them. The family is very dependent on Gregor, therefore initially each member of the family does not contribute to their well being and union. Even though Gregor physically changes, the subject going through true transformation is the dynamic of the family.…
dream into a reality, the concept is still the same. Gregor feels like he is worthless and…