Metamorphosis By Franz Kafka Essays (550 words) - Absurdist Fiction

Metamorphosis By Franz Kafka "When he lifted his head a little, he saw his vaulted brown belly, sectioned by arch-shaped ribs, to whose dome the cover, about to slide off completely, could barely cling. His many legs, pitifully thin compared with the size of the rest of him, were waving helplessly before his eyes." Gregor Samsa has gone through a metamorphosis. This change has turned Gregor into a "monstrous vermin". The anxieties, inner terrors, and cynicism, which fill Gregor's life, are expressed by Kafka throughout the novel, metamorphosis. Franz Kafka uses these feelings as an element of Expressionism to convey Gregor's attitudes towards his life and society. Examples depicting this element of Expressionism used in the novel are Gregor's feelings towards his job, the effect his job has on his family, and the cruelty that his family displays. The novel opens with Gregor in his monstrous state, late for work. He infers that his job as a traveling salesman is very consequential, yet he is growing tired and frustrated, "The upset of doing business is much worse than the actual business in the home office, and, besides, I've got the torture of traveling, worrying about changing trains, eating miserable food at all hours, constantly seeing new faces, no relationships that last or get more intimate. To the devil with it all!" Gregor has a great amount of fury towards his job, which eventually led to his anger towards society as a whole. The fact that his office manager showed up at Gregor's house plays an immense role in creating trepidation and anxieties in Gregor's mind. Gregor feels strangled by his job and is too weak to tolerate the pressure. In addition to the pressure created by his office manager and society, the Samsa's, especially Gregor's father, take advantage of him. Gregor earns the basic income to support his family. "But of course he actually could have paid off more of his father's debt to the boss with this extra money, and the clay on which he could have gotten rid of his job would have been much closer, but now things were undoubtedly better, the way his father had arranged them." The superficiality of the Samsa's has put Gregor in a difficult position, which is a component causing Gregor's metamorphosis. Gregor's family in general, had given him the attitude he has on life. They took advantage of him to the point where he was the means of the family's survival. After Gregor's metamorphosis, when he could no longer attend work, his family begins to treat him as the vermin he has become. They no longer consider him as a human being, or a member of their family. Gregor seemed to be waiting for his family to give up hope in him so he could end his life. "He thought back on his family with deep emotion and love. His conviction that he would have to disappear was, if possible, even firmer than his sister's." Following this quotation, Gregor Samsa commits suicide. He felt he was no longer needed, as a salesman, a son and brother, or a member of society. Were the anxieties, inner terrors, and cynicism of human life all factors expressing the metamorphosis of Gregor Samsa? Gregor died of a broken heart. His family and society had a major part in bringing Gregor to his final state. Kafka used Gregor's metamorphosis into a vermin as an allegory for Gregor's transformation in which he alienated himself from everything and most importantly, from himself.

Will Faulkner - Rose for Emily essays

Will Faulkner - Rose for Emily essays Reader Response for A Rose for Emily Inside the illustrious story by William Faulkner there is a tale of a lonely woman who is living out the better part of her life inside a cage. The setting is in a southern town which most likely aided to the problems she faces due to the views of the South. Emilys father is the type that did not approve of any contact from the men of the town so she was always being held back in the area of socialization so she started out in a bad situation of not being a part of the community. Her fathers logic being that he didnt see it as proper for her to be as the others her age. The father figure is still a important symbol in her life though. When he dies she doesnt even accept the fact that he is gone. Her father was basically the only real person in her life. She had relatives in Alabama but they were pushed away by her father over some land that was left behind by a eccentric aunt. The relatives in Alabama were all she had but the old wound inflicted by her father was not going to heal. To add to Emilys already depressed state the man that she was engaged to runs off and leaves her all alone. This was a final blow for Emily and this she could not recover from, so she barred herself from the outside world and isolated herself inside her house. The only man that her father must have approved of, ran out on her making this the possible breaking point for her. Especially when loosing the two most important people in her life near the same time. The only other person Emily saw on a regular basis was a black man, named Tobe, that brought her food an d helped out with the odd thing when she needed it. After these two events had passed the community attempts to reach out to her. When her father dies the women in the town try to comfort and help her but she is still in denial and she just will not let anyone into her life. ...

Farming in the United States Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Farming in the United States - Research Paper Example An American farmer today feeds about 155 people worldwide through agricultural exports, an incredible increase in efficiency from his ability to feed only about 26 people back in 1960 (Center for Food Integrity 1) on the same land. However, there are obvious limits to what farming in the United States of America can do. As the country’s population grows, which now number about 313 million and then still growing fast due to immigration, there is pressure on the environment to produce more food. There is always the question about how the Malthusian theory plays out if this trend continues when population growth will have outpaced agricultural production growth. In other words, a reality check can happen anytime soon but Man always found ingenious ways to produce more food as the population keeps growing. An example was the introduction of mechanized farming which greatly increased industrial food production, followed a few decades later on by the so-called Green Revolution which increased crop yields and brought prices down, saving at least a billion people worldwide from hunger, malnutrition, and death by preventing famines. American farming is now on the brink of another technological revolution which w ill again increase food crop production to feed a growing global population using GMO crops. GMO crops are alternatively termed as biotech crops because these are plants whose DNA has been modified using genetic engineering. GMO means genetically modified organism which can refer to both plants and animals. It refers to any living organism from the simplest life forms such as bacteria, fungi, and yeast to go up higher to include successively complex organisms such as insects, birds, fishes, and mammals. Plants are GMOs because these are living organisms whose genetic material contains a novel combination using modern biotechnology techniques to improve a trait or obtain superior strains of a plant species. GMO are