For this past week, the seniors have read and discussed Kafka's chilling work, Metamorphosis. This tiny novella of three chapters is a masterful indictment of family, corporate greed, and the power of guilt to charm and disarm. Kafka is also a difficult work since it rests on its initial premise that Gregor Samsa awakens after a night of unsettling dreams to find himself changed into a monstrous vermin. This unspeakable horror evokes much discussion. Gregor is a difficult character to identify with on many levels, although his alienation and despair seem to ring true, despite his unlikely appearance. Maybe the very thing that repels us about Gregor, also makes us connect to him. He is hardworking, determined, generous to a fault. He in no way desired the life he led nor the life into which he transforms. Gregor Samsa is an emblem for the alienated man who Kafka would no doubt say is a product of the world in which he lives.
We head toward Africa next week, first with a few days of selections from Mark Mathabane's Kaffir Boy, then to Conrad's Heart of Darkness.
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