In For The Kill

Plan of Attack – Going in for the kill

After finishing reading the book, I close it and think about what struck me the most and I’ll figure out the reason why it struck me, to find a motif to discuss.

Then, I will have to read the text twice to understand the significance of the motif I’ve chosen to discuss. Of course I will have to annotate the text to be able to come back to look for quotes that support my argument. So here are the first baby steps:

·         I read the book at least twice

·         I annotate  

·         I choose a topic

Once I’ve found a motif to discuss (I would like to use a motif as the center of focus in my essay), I will look for a question that I can ask myself and which I will answer in my essay. This is like a research question or the purpose of a lab report. It will make it easier to stay on topic while writing and researching. When I found a general question that will sum up my topic, I will look for a more focused and specific question.

Next, I will look for examples in the text that illustrate the motif I’m discussing. I will write the page numbers as well as personal annotations next to the examples as to not forget why I thought it was an example in the first place. Once again, I’ll sum up the little steps towards the goal:

·         I find a general question summing up my topic

·         I then reduce it to a more specific question

·         I look for examples in the text

·         I note down the page numbers of the examples and write down my thoughts about the examples that came to me while reading them

Once this is done, I will think of the main focuses of my essay, so that I can start to formulate topic sentences for my body paragraphs. When this is thought of, I will start writing an introduction to my paper, including the different arguments of my essay. This won’t be the final introduction; it will be more of a pre-plan for the organization of the paper.

To support any arguments of the essay, I will have to read secondary sources on the text and my topic, so that I can come to a better conclusion in the end. For that, I will consider reliable sources on the internet, as well as literary pieces in the school library.

When this step is achieved, I can start to write up a basic outline of my essay. I will then proceed to look for specific quotes in the text that are relevant to my motif and support my thesis statement. These quotes will be added to the outline, and then a first draft of the paper can finally be written. The first draft includes all my thoughts and quotes and has to be edited by a peer and at least twice by myself. I have to look for grammatical structure as well as context. The second draft will look like I would like my final draft to look. It will include the use of primary and secondary sources, quotes, thesis statement, body paragraphs with topic sentences, and a well structured conclusion.

After writing the second draft, I will proof read it again to finalize it and finish it up as being the final essay.

I read Asim's plan of Attack, ( http://asimlikesenglish.blogspot.com/2011/02/plan.html ) and I realized that I didn't discuss the thesis statement enough. He said: "6. Write my thesis
a. This will probably take a while, and I will end up having many different wordings of the same thing but it’s all good ". I agree that it will take a while, but I would add that there should be a certain method of attack. I'm not sure how I will approach writing my thesis statement yet, but I'm sure it'll all work out somehow.

The Name Of The Game

The term « Kafkaesque » is used to describe something that is reminiscent of Kafka’s work. Now, when you write you can never fully separate your experiences from your words and so all of Kafka’s works had something to do with his real life. To describe the Kafkaesque style, the film “Kafka” provides some striking examples. The film uses techniques such as Kafka’s relationship with his father to convey elements of Kafka’s life. It also includes the fact that Kafka dies at a young age from tuberculosis. This is clear the moment we see the main character coughing blood. In the end he also writes a letter to his father, admitting that ignorance is bliss. This implies that they used to have a very rough relationship, and that now that he’s given up hope in the truth, he reaches out to his father again. The movie provided some references to The Metamorphosis, such as the fact that everyone is scared of a man with animalistic features and is seen as a monster. It is also mentioned that the character worked at his place for eight years, while Gregor worked hard at the same working place as well. As mentioned before, the relationship to his father is an important reference not only to Kafka’s life, but to Gregor’s life as well. The scheme of something extraordinary happening, with the conclusion that everything goes back to normal in the end is almost like a moral, seen in the film as well as in The Metamorphosis. The film blurs the lines between the real and the surreal because the observer is never sure when something is happening in ‘reality’ and when something’s fantasy. To make it clear which is which, the use of color plays an enormous part in the differentiation between real and surreal. When Kafka goes into the castle where he encounters all these scientific anomalies, the film is in color, while when he goes back to work and identifies his friend’s dead body, we see him in black and white again. The absurd in met when the scientists in the film are modern, but Kaka’s modern work that is borderline extravagant, is made fun of. The scientists also want to transform everyone into the same robots, respecting them not more or less than a simple bug, but when Kafka comes up with a story outlining this phenomena, society sees him as too demanding and outraging. The political revolutionaries want to find out the truth, but are taken and transformed into animalistic creatures. Class is also an issue discussed in the movie, because the upper class are the people in the castle that are harming the poor and innocent. At one moment, we see the richer men in society stuffing themselves full of food like barbaric animals, just before they get blown into the air. In The Metamorphosis, Gregor’s first thoughts after he notices his transformation are absurd: He can’t go to work. It seems like he’s a robot in society and only breaks out of it when he becomes a bug. Irony is met when you think about the picture he was trying to protect from being taken by his family, showing a woman in fur, representing his always know life goals: being rich. Kafkaesque refers to all of the above. Kafka created his own unique style of writing, and nowadays people can identify a piece of writing as being ‘Kafkaesque’, and as confusing as people might think his writings are, there is much more to it than a simple transformation into a bug, and as discussed in previous blogs, something funny.

Cold shoulder

The following paragraph is an interpretation of a passage of Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis (pg 86-87). The overall theme is Gregor’s struggle with himself whether or not to let his sister and mother move furniture out of his room. One specific quote struck me as important, portraying Gregor’s obsession with a picture verses his relationship to his sister.

“He clung to his picture and would not give it up. He would rather fly in Grete’s face.” – pg. 87

In the first part of the story, the reader learns that before Gregor’s metamorphosis, Gregor used to have a very trusting relationship with his sister. This is shown by the fact that they know about each other’s desires, such as music for Grete. In this passage, their relationship is questioned as he breaks out, which resolves with the words: He would rather fly in Grete’s face. Diction hints to the detachment to his sister at this moment in time. He refers to his family (mother and sister) as ‘the two women, whose existence he had by now almost forgotten’, indicating an impersonal relationship.  While at first Gregor attempts to convince himself that his family’s actions are meant to favor his own good, he soon has a change of heart. The structure accompanying this change, is worth noticing. Firstly his sentences are very long, as he’s hiding under the couch, thinking about his options. As soon as he comprehends that their actions aren’t in his interest, his sentences become short and sharp. This applies to the whole passage. One last thing, implying that Gregor’s relationship to his sister and mother grows smaller everyday is that he uses words such as ‘vast disturbance’, ‘dragged off’, and ‘laboring’ to describe their achievements.

New version of the "Cold Shoulder":

Gregor struggles to let his sister and mother move furniture out of his room. His relationship with his sister suffers under the metamorphosis of Gregor, and attempting to protect his picture from being displaced, he escapes and chooses his obsession over his family:

“He clung to his picture and would not give it up. He would rather fly in Grete’s face.” – pg. 87

In the first part of the story, the reader learns that before Gregor’s metamorphosis, he used to have a very trusting relationship with his sister. This is shown by the fact that they know about each other’s desires, such as music for Grete. In this passage, their relationship is questioned as he breaks out, which resolves in the exclamation: “He would rather fly in Grete’s face”. Diction hints to the detachment to his sister at this moment in time. He threatens his sister and doesn’t think about his mother even though he knows that she’s very fragile when facing him. At first Gregor attempts to convince himself that his family’s actions are meant to favor his own good, but he soon has a change of heart, as shown clearly in the words quoted above.

He refers to his family (mother and sister) as ‘the two women, whose existence he had by now almost forgotten’, indicating an impersonal relationship.  The structure accompanying this change, is worth noticing. Firstly his sentences are very long, as he’s hiding under the couch, thinking about his options. As soon as he comprehends that their actions aren’t in his interest, his sentences become short and sharp. The reader understands that his actions are becoming animalistic. Not only has he changed physically, he is mentally transforming as well. Implying that Gregor’s relationship to his sister and mother weakens every day, is that he uses words such as ‘vast disturbance’, ‘dragged off’, and ‘laboring’ to describe their achievements.

As Gregor’s body had transformed over night, he started to develop a different personality. The consequence is that his human bonds diminish as he lives on. As the provider for his family, he used to be a coward, never thinking about his own good because he hadn’t the strength to do so. Now that he lost the only purpose in his life, he starts to rebel which has a drastic effect on his relationship, eliminating the sole hope of leading a fairly happy life.

Same mistake

In part one of ‘Metamorphosis’ by Franz Kafka, what struck me the most was the moment when Gregor’s family discovers that their loved one has transformed into a giant insect. On one hand, I find that this passage tells the readers a lot about the relationship between Gregor and his family, as well as about the different characters of the family. On the other hand, it seems improbable to me that the family could in fact believe in the metamorphosis, instead of just calling the zoo to ask them if one of their giant insects broke out. 

Assuming that it is flawlessly normal for the family to believe that the enormous insect is Gregor, the response to the phenomena reveals the true relations in this family, as well as the development of the story as it builds up. His mother sprang all at once to her feet, her arms and fingers spread wider, crying: “Help, for God’s sake, help!” His mother is shocked, which is understandable, but it foreshadows that she will be terrified of her own son for the rest of the story. She can’t be in command of her emotions when it comes to Gregor, as we discover in the second and third part of the piece. If she truly believed that the insect they are feeding was her own son, and if she truly cared for her son, then why would she show this much resentment at the sight of her dear loved one?  Throughout the story, it seems to me that the mother collapses quite often, even though she should have gotten used to the fact that her son is an animal (again, assuming that it is normal for the family to believe in the metamorphosis…). His mother is someone who’s unstable and most probably introvert. Possessing no control over her emotional outbursts, it bothers me how she acts around her son. The father’s reaction to the scientifically impossible transformation is even more bizarre. At first, he remains calm but then he violently pushes his son back into his room with a walking stick that the chief clerk left at his house, fleeing from the biggest insect he’d ever seen. During this act of deep disgust, he injures his son, causing a heavy bleeding. These few actions tell a story for their own. I interpreted Gregor’s father to be selfish, violent, irresponsible, lazy and ungrateful. Gregor’s sister Grete seems to be confused. She used to love her brother but now that he’s ‘gone’ and she’s got a brother that is an insect, she gives the impression to be lost.  With her fragile 16 years, she doesn’t know what to do; should she cry, like a girl her age or act normally like a grown up (her parents failing at setting a good example)? If it wasn’t for her, Gregor would have died much earlier.