As always you will want to incorporate passages (documented quotations) from the novel is you select one of the questions about Metamorphosis.

If you choose to answer one of the Kafka questions (by the way, the movie is on VHS only; the last time I checked it had not been migrated to DVD, odd considering both the principal star and the director are big names), then you will describe scenes rather than quote directly.

Answer any one of the questions below:

  1. Gregor Samsa's having been changed into a dung beetle (or cockroach or vermin depending on the translation) is a perfect symbol of alienation and isolation and a sense of insignificance. What sorts of things in the book have made Gregor retreat into isolation?

    Note: you might discuss lack of meaningful communication within his family, the lack of satisfaction and the ill treatment he gets from his workplace, etc.

  2. Several interpretations of this story have been proposed; discuss any one of the following:

    • The story represents the position of a once-vital member of a family becoming an invalid. It shows his change from independence to dependence, his sense of guilt, his family's response (which changes over time).

    • The novella symbolizes the artist/writer (or any other outsider) in relation to mainstream society.

      With this interpretation you might want to mention the cheap, gilt-framed picture and Gregor's love of music. Also show how his father cannot accept his son when he's not working a traditional 9-to-5 job.

    • The story shows the growing self-awareness of someone living a counter-cultural lifestyle (one critic suggests homosexuality, but it could be anything that Gregor, his family, his culture would have been raised to deny and disapprove).

      One way to look at this is to see how Gregor first refuses to accept his "buggness" but eventually feels natural and happy only when he's accepting his bug abilities

    • Invent your own interpretation; do make sure it's supported by examples from the text.

  3. For those of you who rented and watched Jeremy Irons in Kafka, what do you make of the shift from black and white to color and back to black and white again?

  4. The film Kafka has moments of humor, but the overriding atmosphere is bleak. In part the film symbolizes the shift from a world ruled by Fate or by a religious sensibility to something else. What animates human experience in the movie?

    Note: you will certainly want to discuss what The Castle represents if you choose this question