Research Paper on:
Style of 'The Metamorphosis' by Franz Kafka

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with modern life (Bloom, 1987). Born in Prague on July 3, 1883 to a middle-class family, Kafkas father, a successful Jewish merchant, was concerned that his children have the social  skills to be assimilated into the mainstream culture of the Austro-Hungarian Empire; therefore, since the official language of the empire was German, Kafkas father saw to it that his children  learned German and it is in German that Kafka wrote his fiction (Bloom, 1987). Kafka earned a law degree and spent the majority of his adult life working for Workers  Accident Insurance, while writing at night. He did not receive recognition as a writer during his lifetime, and his short story "The Metamorphosis" is considered to be one of  his finest pieces of fiction. The story begins with one of the most famous -- and oddest -- lines in all of literature: "As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning  from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect" (Kafka, 2002). The idea is so abhorrent to normal sensibilities that one would expect Samsa  to be screaming in horror. However, Kafka pictures the unfortunate man as, at most, expressing mild surprise, as he methodically notes the condition of his new body. He becomes depressed,  but not from his condition. Rather, his melancholy is because of the "raindrops beating on the window gutter" (Kafka, 2002). Rather than contemplate the severity of his situation, Samsa begins  to think about how much he hates his job as a traveling salesman. This beginning immediately tells the reader a great deal about the Kafkaesque style. First of  all, Kafka presents a situation that is both horrific and funny at the same time. It is horrible to think of anyone being turned into a bug, but also there