Independent Novel Study — "Metamorphosis" by Franz Kafka

               I.         Summarise the book in no more than two paragraphs, but be detailed in character names, plot events, and main conflict/resolution. 

Kafka’s book opens up with one of the most famous lines in literature, the protagonist, Gregor Samsa, has mysteriously transformed into a human-sized bug throughout the night. For a couple hours Gregor tries to move, get out of bed, and go to work; but his actual condition prevents any sort of agile movement. His family starts to worry, and along comes a supervisor from Gregor’s job to check on him. Both the family, made up of his mother, his father, and his sister, Grete, along with the supervisor ask Gregor to open up. After trying for a while Gregor finally manages to open the door, and the supervisor and the family don’t like what they see. The supervisor leaves immediately, Gregor tries to catch him, but his father pushes him back into his room with a broom.

Gregor’s struggle as a bug continues for a good chunk of the novel, with only his sister, Grete, taking care of him while he is locked in his room. In this part of the novel Gregor has an interesting mental and conceptual development. Since Gregor was the family’s only source of income, which was used to pay off some debts; they all now start to work and rent a room in their apartment to make some money. They are very kind to their three guests, until one night Gregor escapes his room and the guests see them. They are scared and disgusted by Gregor, and tell the family that they will leave in the morning without paying. This event causes the family to finally reconsider their position about Gregor, who they’ve been taking care of without any human response (Gregor can’t talk). Grete leads the way saying they should finally get rid of Gregor. Gregor, who listens to this from behind the door, goes to sleep and doesn’t wake up the next morning. Contrary to the rest of the book, the novel ends in a hopeful tone. After Gregor’s death, the family now realizes that, due to their new jobs, they now have promising careers along with some money, and decide to buy a new place, and look for better opportunities.

II.              What is the main theme of the book?   Remember, a theme is a full sentence that can be argued.  Give at least three examples from the book that illustrate / prove the theme you indicate.

·      The main theme of the book is alienation, a disconnection from the rest of the world, which shows us that ultimately, we are alone and unimportant.

·      Examples:

o   Gregor’s growing distancing from his family.

o   Gregor’s one-way fraternal love for his sister after he suffers the transformation

o   The novel’s hopeful ending despite Gregor’s death

III.            How does the book connect with any of our major texts that we’ve read as a class this year or literary books that you’ve previously read?  (Note: Harry Potter, the Twilight series, etc. do NOT count as "literary.”)  Give at least three pairs of examples of how and why your book connects to other literary texts.

·      Kafka’s descriptive language to depict every detail in the setting of “Metamorphosis” reminded me of Joseph Conrad’s also very descriptive language to describe the Congolese land when Marlow arrives there.

·      The character of the office messenger/supervisor reminded me a bit of Big Brother’s role in “1984”. His persecution of Gregor and ‘being on him’ about every little mistake or misdemeanor he makes is similar to Big Brother’s ‘Telescreen’ system and how he prosecuted everyone who didn’t follow his ideals.

·      The ending of the novel, and especially the depiction of how the afternoon sun hitting the family, reminded me a lot of Meursault’s scene at the beach in “The Stranger”. Though the context is completely different, the detailed way both Albert Camus and Franz Kafka describe the sun hitting Meursault and the family was very similar and it popped in my mind right away.

Hamlet Act II, Scene II Soliloquy

We will recap and review Act II tomorrow.  For today, please take on the POV of Rosencrantz or Guildenstern and write a soliloquy that would relay his thoughts on the events of the play thus far at II.ii. 533.  Your soliloquy should be approximately 20 lines long.  Remember that Shakespeare aimed to keep his lines at approximately ten syllables.  You may write your soliloquy using modern language...no need for the thees, thous and thines!

Do your best and submit on your blogs before the end of the class at 12:15. This will count as a small weekly work grade.

Invited to Elsinore by King Claudius were we

From Wittenberg to visit Hamlet went we

Received kindly and with greetings,

To cheer Hamlet up the purpose of our visit was

Did not know we Hamlet had gone mad.

Hamlet we met at Elsinore and kind he was to us

Greeted us with genuine happiness

But the nature of our visit questioned.

To Hamlet we told the truth

And he seemed unfazed by it

Claiming this purpose he already knew

Since his Uncle worried about him was,

Confessed to us his motif for sadness

Saying his father’s grief still haunted him.

To us his plan Hamlet revealed

That his uncle and mom deceived were by him.

Proceeded him to invite us to at Elsinore stay

Accepted we to stay and attend a show

By a theatrical troupe that arriving was.

Gladly the offer accepted we

Interested to see the unfolding of this plan.

Nature Has No Boundaries—Review of Heart of Darkness Essay

Nature Has No Boundaries

In ‘Heart of Darkness’, by Joseph Conrad, we see the mysterious and mighty Kurtz pass away in a boat running away from the Congo natives. His career there comes to an end with a cryptic whisper: “The horror, the horror” (Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad, pg. 154). Marlow listens to these words, but decides not to tell Kurtz’s intended the truth about them despite stating several times throughout the book that he hated lying. Marlow’s lying to Kurtz’s intended proves that the Congo, a symbol for European Colonialism, corrupted every bit of a man’s integrity, to the point in which he renounces to his principles.

The common interpretation of Marlow’s lying to Kurtz’s intended is the one that the book itself proposes. When deliberating whether or not to tell the intended the truth about Kurtz’s last words, he reflects upon the young lady to whom he is talking. Marlow observes the desperation of this woman caused by the death of Kurtz, who she hadn’t met in person, and decides not to tell her what Kurtz’s last words really were. Instead he tells her that the last words he pronounced were her name. Throughout this conversation we are aware of Marlow’s inner conflict, and can infer the reason for his lying, convenience and pity, as shown by Marlow’s final reflection: “But I couldn’t. I could not tell her. It would have been too dark—too dark altogether…” (Conrad, 164).

Throughout the whole novel we observe numerous different characters arrive and go to the Congo, most of them just there for a short period of time. But independently of the length of the stay, it changed them. Through Conrad’s writing we can see how the Congo’s dark nature and vast savagery altered Europeans’ personality and beliefs. Marlow is no exception. We see him change through the novel and ultimately abandon the Congo in order to not become ‘one of them’, deeply concerned about his own change of personality. Marlow’s experiences in the Congo affect his values and morals, and ultimately lead up to his lying to Kurtz’s intended, something he would have never done before going to the Congo.

All through the novel Marlow repeats that he deeply hates lying, but he was calm after lying to Kurtz’s intended. The Congo’s darkness and nature affected Marlow’s morals, which was ultimately challenged by the intended begging him to tell her the truth about Kurtz’s last words. In his article “Lying as Dying in Heart of Darkness”, Garrett Stewart develops the point that a lie, that of Marlow to the intended, doesn’t respect anything or anyone, not even the integrity of “a man’s deathbed integrity.” He proposes that Marlow’s trip up the river and through the jungle to meet Kurtz symbolizes the process of moral corruption, which culminates in the meeting of perhaps, the men that was most changed by the Congo. Furthermore, he suggests that the Congo is a place unknown to those European colonizers who arrive for there for the first time, and are then exposed to the nature of humanity without the protection from civilization, as Stewart explains: “a naked exposure (for the European colonizer) of the human ego, unshielded by civilization and its self-contents, to a world of savagery presumed to be far beneath it is, in the long evolutionary run, only a baring of the soul to the most primally rooted human impulses.” (Stewart, 319). This free-of-intermediaries, unprotected exposure is what Stewart argues changes men’s moralities, and he makes and emphasis on their integrities, which are challenged by the different values they are unprecedentedly forced to confront.

Another similar, yet different, view on the issue of how the Congo changed Marlow is offered by Richard J. Arneson in his article “Marlow’s Skepticism in Heart of Darkness”. Arneson argues that Marlow’s principles and ideas were of no use and didn’t fit in whatsoever in the Congo once he arrived “piloting a steamboat up the Congo”. He offers and interesting perspective by which he argues Marlow felt some kind of attraction by the savagery and “fascination of the abomination”, which shows how the Congo first trapped the European colonizers in its vast nature and savagery, and then proceeded to let this nature change them, their values, their morals, and their personality. Arneson arrives at the conclusion that, though Marlow did change during his stay in the Congo, he was the most reasonable, logical, and skeptical mind in the novel. He observed others in more of a critical view, and through his skepticism and conservation of reason, we are able to observe the true essence of the Congo and the people there. This article contributes to the analysis of Marlow’s lying to the intended because, though Marlow did treason his values, he did it from a deliberate point of view. He was able to make the conscious choice to lie to the intended, knowing that she wouldn’t comprehend Marlow’s true final words since she was innocent-minded and hadn’t been to the Congo. This deliberate choice shows how Marlow was able to maintain his reason by leaving the Congo before changing completely and losing the totality of his moral integrity.

Throughout Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” we observe a variety of European characters arrive at the Congo and be changed by the abominable darkness there. Marlow, our protagonist, is the only character able to keep a logical, reasonable, and critical mind all through the novel, and through his story we are able to observe the true nature of the Congo and its people. Even though Marlow kept his reason and remained skeptical of the Congo, he was able to understand it, and make the conscious decision to abandon it before it was too late. We see this understanding not only in his leaving of the Congo, but also when he lies to Kurtz’s intended about his last words. Instead of telling her the truth, he lets her think that Kurtz died saying her name, which calms her desperation. Marlow here shows his comprehension of the situation by discerning how the intended wouldn’t understand the meaning of Marlow’s last words because she was too innocent and had never learnt the barbarities that happened in the Congo.

Works Cited

-       Stewart, Garrett. “Lying as Dying in Heart of Darkness.” PMLA, vol. 95, no. 3, 1980, pp. 319–331., www.jstor.org/stable/461876.

-       Arneson, Richard J. “Marlow's Skepticism in Heart of Darkness.” Ethics, vol. 94, no. 3, 1984, pp. 420–440., www.jstor.org/stable/2380816.