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Southern Gothic, Kafka, and Moby-Dick: The Metamorphosis 7639 Views

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Description:

Ever wake up to find that you’ve transformed into a giant bug? Just say, “I woke up like this,” and post a picture on Instagram. Works every time.* *This probably never works. We could’ve told you to avoid Raid cans and people throwing shoes at you, but what fun is practical advice?

Subjects:

Literature / Southern Gothic, Kafka, and Moby-Dick

Transcript

00:00
Thank you We sneak in Southern gothic metamorphoses Ah la
00:10
shmoop Okay uh let's move on to another work that's
00:16
near and dear to our hearts Talk to us about
00:19
kafka and the metamorphosis First can you give us just
00:22
a quick prices of the of the work What happens

00:26
in the metamorphosis Gregor samsa wakes up one day to
00:30
find out he is a huge bug The first thing
00:36
he thinks about is how my going to goto work
00:39
when i'm a giant bug than his family Russia's in
00:43
there freaked out His boss comes over runs down the
00:47
stairs and that's kind of how he spends the rest
00:50
of his life just freaking people out come into his
00:53
room crawling around up and down the walls until his
00:58
family gets sick of them They throw an apple into
01:03
him that get stuck infected He starts moving more and
01:07
more slowly And then one day he just kind of
01:10
guys What does gregor's transformation symbolize Gregor's Transformation into bug
01:18
seems to represent people's alienation from one another That was
01:23
happening in the beginning of the twentieth century If there
01:27
is a lot of growth of technology a lot of
01:29
economic expansion It's really telling that gregor's first thought is
01:34
it Oh jeez um bug but how do i get
01:37
to go to work when i'm turned into this Everything
01:41
about his existence has become about money and about supporting
01:45
his family What do you mean by our alienation from
01:48
one another S o alienation is a major theme of
01:53
modernist writers They are concerned that there isn't the same
01:59
kind of human connection that there may have used to
02:01
have been People are out to exploit one another and
02:04
only out for their own gain God okay fair enough
02:08
What as a parable and it's not too bold a
02:12
parent is a parable is a greek term that initially
02:17
was used to mean sort of an illustration or a
02:19
comparison thing to another something that is supposed to teach
02:23
you a lesson Andi it's in its story so what's
02:29
the lesson that turning gregor samsa into a bug teaches
02:32
us about humanity that humans don't like bugs Or i
02:36
think it's a little more than that we don't like
02:38
bugs I think it is that this way of life
02:42
that costco was worried that we had adopted in the
02:45
twentieth century Wass creating people who don't feel like people
02:51
people who feel like less than people sort of like
02:56
slaves to their job or anything like that Who else
03:01
transforms in the metamorphoses The metamorphosis seems to have already
03:06
occurred but what happens through the rest of the story
03:09
is how his transformation has caused other people to metamorphose
03:15
eyes His family has to go out And get jobs
03:20
His sister becomes his caretaker She ends the story by
03:26
becoming sort of a new adult woman who her parents
03:30
realize she is now ready to go out Mary on
03:34
dh sort of continue the family line So the metamorphosis
03:38
can be thought of not just a cz gregor turning
03:42
into a bug but as the effect that that has
03:45
on everyone Else's life What happens in the metamorphosis What
03:51
does gregor's transformation symbolize What is a parable Who else 00:03:58.283 --> [endTime] transforms in the metamorphoses
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