Passage Analysis from Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

Here is an excerpt from Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis, which I will be analyzing.

“Did you understand a word of all that?" the chief clerk asked his parents, "surely he's not trying to make fools of us". "Oh, God!" called his mother, who was already in tears, "he could be seriously ill and we're making him suffer. Grete! Grete!" she then cried. "Mother?" his sister called from the other side. They communicated across Gregor's room. "You'll have to go for the doctor straight away. Gregor is ill. Quick, get the doctor. Did you hear the way Gregor spoke just now?" "That was the voice of an animal", said the chief clerk, with a calmness that was in contrast with his mother's screams. "Anna! Anna!" his father called into the kitchen through the entrance hall, clapping his hands, "get a locksmith here, now!" And the two girls, their skirts swishing, immediately ran out through the hall, wrenching open the front door of the flat as they went. How had his sister managed to get dressed so quickly? There was no sound of the door banging shut again; they must have left it open; people often do in homes where something awful has happened.

“Gregor, in contrast, had become much calmer. So they couldn't understand his words any more, although they seemed clear enough to him, clearer than before - perhaps his ears had become used to the sound. They had realised, though, that there was something wrong with him, and were ready to help. The first response to his situation had been confident and wise, and that made him feel better. He felt that he had been drawn back in among people, and from the doctor and the locksmith he expected great and surprising achievements - although he did not really distinguish one from the other. Whatever was said next would be crucial, so, in order to make his voice as clear as possible, he coughed a little, but taking care to do this not too loudly as even this might well sound different from the way that a human coughs and he was no longer sure he could judge this for himself. Meanwhile, it had become very quiet in the next room. Perhaps his parents were sat at the table whispering with the chief clerk, or perhaps they were all pressed against the door and listening.”

In this passage, people other than Gregor first begin to realize that something is wrong with him, that his voice sounds like an animal’s. This is a case of dramatic irony because we know that Gregor is a bug, but none of the characters besides him know that. These paragraphs also show a complete contrast between the behavior of Gregor and all of those outside the room. Gregor’s family and the chief clerk at his company together rush about and are generally in a state of confusion. While, as Gregor points out, they act sensibly by calling for a locksmith and a doctor, their demeanor is chaotic. His family and coworker behave like bugs while he behaves a bit more like a human. Bugs typically scurry here, there, and everywhere, as does his family. Bugs also quickly dive for cover when something bad comes their way, just as his family quickly runs for help. Gregor on the other hand acts extraordinarily calm, cool, and collected despite his outlandish transformation and job predicament. He does not behave quite like a human though, because he should be freaking out about his plight. He also never even considers the problem to his family which his transformation might become in his first interactions. Throughout his normal lifestyle, Gregor has been living an emotionally and socially detached life from the rest of the world and even the rest of his family. His longing to be cared for and brought back into the rest of humanity can be seen in the comfort he finds from the idea of being “drawn back in among people.” His indiscriminate attitude toward the help that a locksmith and a doctor could give shows that he is desperate to once again feel connected with the rest of humanity and would be just as satisfied if his boss could help.

Poetry Out Loud Selection: "The Charge of the Light Brigade" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

            “The Charge of the Light Brigade” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson is one of my favorite poems. I chose it because I tend to enjoy poems about war and military, particularly those of noble feats. This poem is based on the Battle of Balaclava from the Crimean War. Through a series of errors, the Light Brigade was sent down a valley for a mile and a quarter to seize eight heavy artillery. While they did eventually make it to the line of cannon to slaughter those defending them, the regiment returned with only 426 out of 673 men who set out, and of those, only 195 still had horses. Tennyson brings up some interesting themes about war in his poem. In the second stanza he talks about how the duty of the soldiers required them “not to make a reply” to their orders, “not to reason why,” but just to “do and die.” It makes me consider the heavy weight of mistakes in war they tend to cause great bloodshed. The lines, rhythmic construction, and various forms of repetition somehow make the poem itself sound like a cavalry charge. The repetition involves not only many short or repeated phrases, but also a spread of similar unifying words. The unity could possibly reflect the uniformed nature of the military. There is also a ton of parallelism to mirror the ranks of the cavalry. This can be seen in the “Cannon to right of them, Cannon to left of them, Cannon in front of them” and in other places. The repeated patterns fall apart in the fourth stanza. Instead, the word choice is more varied and arrhythmic such as in the lines “Plunged in the battery-smoke/ Right thro' the line they broke.” The number of lines per stanza rises from the beginning to the climax in paragraph four, and then decreases to the calm ending concerning the glorious legacy of the Light Brigade.