Franz Kafka's "The Metamorphosis": A Report

Given a copy of Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis, interpretation proves to be a challenge because his profound use of language establishes symbolic significance that is tough to decipher. "The Metamorphosis can be seen as an intensely introspective work, relating to itself and providing Gregor Samsa as a concrete metaphor for metaphor itself" (Way 267). Kafka's pessimistic view on society and the struggle to find one's identity are overriding topics in his work. In The Metamorphosis, Kafka …

…Bausch. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2000. 885-918. Nietzsche, Friedrich. "Gregor Samsa as a Functional Deviant: A Hypothetical Interpretation by Friedrich Nietzsche." Ed. Russell McNeil. 20 Jan. 1995. 27 April 2002 <http://mala.bc.ca/~mcneil/m4lec5a.htm>. Pascal, Roy. Kafka's Narrators: A Study of His Stories and Sketches. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982. 189-230. "Society." Random House Webster's Dictionary. 1997. Way, Brian. Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Sharon K. Hall. Vol 13. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1982. 17 vols.