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Chan Cunningham

Mr. Radde

AP English 11

August 23, 2017

Connection

Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis is a very enjoyable book. The twentieth

century novella has some pretty memorable that have different appeals. These appeals

include aesthetic appeals, intelligence appeals, and emotional appeals. The scenes I have

chosen from the novella will be analyzed in this essay.

My absolute favorite part of the book is when Grete enter Gregor’s room and “she

would go straight to the window and pull it hurriedly open almost as if she were

suffocating. Even if it was cold, she would stay at the window breathing deeply for a little

while” (Kafka 25). This scene, this shot, of her standing by the window is so

aesthetically pleasing to me. It is so resonating because the way I see it, the door to

Gregor’s room is closed. The natural, early morning light brightens the room ever so

slightly. She opens the window and the room is filled with the crisp, cold, morning air.

The shot has a slight blue tint to it just to give it that extra pizazz. Then, she just stands

there. As she peacefully stands in the room staring out the window, all you can hear is the

slight whir of the cold air, and an occasional creak in the floorboard as she shifts her

weight from one foot to the other. It’s beautiful because when she just stares out the

window, she’s escaping her life. She’s completely vulnerable and she doesn’t care.

There is a part in the middle of the novella where Gregor’s family complains that

they cannot move out of their current house because they have no way of transporting
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Gregor. There are many ways that you could transport him. The book even states “He

could see quite well though, it would have been quite easy to transport him in any

suitable crate with a few air holes in it…” (Kafka 33). Was it important that the family

had to stay in the house? Did they not want to have to bother with Gregor? It just bugged

me I guess (pun absolutely intended).

Grete, Gregor’s sister, is really the only character that genuinely tries to pretend

he isn’t a giant bug, and it seemed that she and Gregor had a good relationship before the

metamorphosis. So, the most emotional part of the book for me was when Gregor was

imagining and wishing that “she would sit beside him on the couch with her ear bent

down to him while he told her how he had always intended to send her to the

conservatory, how he would have told everyone about it last Christmas… if this

misfortune hadn’t gotten in the way…” (Kafka 38). This scene is so emotional because

before the transformation, Gregor had to hold in his excitement and couldn’t wait to tell

everyone. Now, he’s a giant bug, he is shut out from his family, and Christmas has

passed. It may not be emotional for some, but this really hit me.

An honorable mention for the aesthetic and emotional response goes to Gregor’s

death. His legs collapse and he can no longer move. He has essentially, starved himself

and is now just sitting on the floor defeated. He just waits, and he finally passes away.

The aesthetically pleasing part is the room is completely dark except for the faint

moonlight coming through the window. The emotional part is that, he dies defeated. His

family didn’t accept him and he died knowing that. It is some very sad content, but its

good, sad content. The Metamorphosis certainly has the capabilities of making you
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emotional, leaving a resonating image in your mind, and even challenging the logic of the

author and his characters, but at the end of the day, that is what makes a good book.