The Metamorphosis

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The Metamorphosis










Close Reading
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What is close reading?

• A type of note-taking skill used in high school,
  college, and beyond that you will be working on
  to increase your engagement and understanding of
  what you are reading
• Putting a poem or a prose passage under intense
  scrutiny to examine the authors style and
  diction and their effect on the reader.
• The ability to read between the lines of a
  literary work to grasp an authors tone and true
  intentions
• Finding the patterns, contrasts, and
  relationships within a work of literature
• Peeling back the layers of meaning to look beyond
  what is literally on the page
• A readers intellectual conversation with the
  text.
• Annotating is not just underlining/highlighting
  or circling things, it also involves writing
  notes, so dont expect a passing grade if youre
  just underlining (you may write directly in the
  novel or on sticky notes)

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Things to point out on your annotation page

• Especially effective use of language/vocabulary
  terms
• Connotative and denotative meanings of words
• Figurative or poetic devices (Dont forget to
  tell why you think they were usedhow they affect
  the reader.)
• Other literary elements (foreshadowing, symbols,
  archetypes, etc.)
• Recurring images or details links to other parts
  of the story
• Key ideas and your reflections about them
• Ideas or questions you have while reading
• Unusual or interesting sentence/plot structures

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When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from
unsettling dreams, he found himself changed in
his bed into a monstrous vermin. He was lying on
his back as hard as armor plate, and when he
lifted his head a little, he saw his vaulted
brown belly, sectioned by arch-shaped ribs, to
whose dome the cover, about to slide off
completely, could barely cling. His many legs,
pitifully thin compared with the size of the rest
of him, were waving helplessly before his eyes.
Whats happened to me? he thought. It was no
dream. His room, a regular human room, only a
little on the small side lay quiet between the
four familiar walls. Over the table, on which an
unpacked line of fabric samples was all spread
out Samsa was a traveling salesman hung the
picture which he had recently cut out of a glossy
magazine and lodged in a pretty gilt frame. It
showed a lady done up in a fur hat and a fur boa,
sitting upright and raising up against the viewer
a heavy fur muff in which her whole forearm had
disappeared. Gregors eyes then turned to
the window, and the overcast weather he could
hear raindrops hitting against the metal window
ledge completely depressed him. How about
going back to sleep for a few minutes and
forgetting all this nonsense, he thought, but
that was completely impracticable, since he was
used to sleeping on his right side and in his
present state could not get into that position.
No matter how hard he threw himself onto his
right side, he always rocked onto his back again.
He must have tried it a hundred times, closing
his eyes so as not to have to see his squirming
legs, and stopped only when he began to feel a
slight, dull pain in his side, which he had never
felt before.
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The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from
unsettling dreams, he found himself changed in
his bed into a monstrous vermin. He was lying on
his back as hard as armor plate, and when he
lifted his head a little, he saw his vaulted
brown belly, sectioned by arch-shaped ribs, to
whose dome the cover, about to slide off
completely, could barely cling. His many legs,
pitifully thin compared with the size of the rest
of him, were waving helplessly before his eyes.
Whats happened to me? he thought. It was no
dream. His room, a regular human room, only a
little on the small side lay quiet between the
four familiar walls. Over the table, on which an
unpacked line of fabric samples was all spread
out Samsa was a traveling salesman hung the
picture which he had recently cut out of a glossy
magazine and lodged in a pretty gilt frame. It
showed a lady done up in a fur hat and a fur boa,
sitting upright and raising up against the viewer
a heavy fur muff in which her whole forearm had
disappeared. Gregors eyes then turned to
the window, and the overcast weather he could
hear raindrops hitting against the metal window
ledge completely depressed him. How about
going back to sleep for a few minutes and
forgetting all this nonsense, he thought, but
that was completely impracticable, since he was
used to sleeping on his right side and in his
present state could not get into that position.
No matter how hard he threw himself onto his
right side, he always rocked onto his back again.
He must have tried it a hundred times, closing
his eyes so as not to have to see his squirming
legs, and stopped only when he began to feel a
slight, dull pain in his side, which he had never
felt before.
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3rd person narrative
Dreams were not pleasant
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from
unsettling dreams, he found himself changed in
his bed into a monstrous vermin. He was lying on
his back as hard as armor plate, and when he
lifted his head a little, he saw his vaulted
brown belly, sectioned by arch-shaped ribs, to
whose dome the cover, about to slide off
completely, could barely cling. His many legs,
pitifully thin compared with the size of the rest
of him, were waving helplessly before his eyes.
Whats happened to me? he thought. It was no
dream. His room, a regular human room, only a
little on the small side lay quiet between the
four familiar walls. Over the table, on which an
unpacked line of fabric samples was all spread
out Samsa was a traveling salesman hung the
picture which he had recently cut out of a glossy
magazine and lodged in a pretty gilt frame. It
showed a lady done up in a fur hat and a fur boa,
sitting upright and raising up against the viewer
a heavy fur muff in which her whole forearm had
disappeared. Gregors eyes then turned to
the window, and the overcast weather he could
hear raindrops hitting against the metal window
ledge completely depressed him. How about
going back to sleep for a few minutes and
forgetting all this nonsense, he thought, but
that was completely impracticable, since he was
used to sleeping on his right side and in his
present state could not get into that position.
No matter how hard he threw himself onto his
right side, he always rocked onto his back again.
He must have tried it a hundred times, closing
his eyes so as not to have to see his squirming
legs, and stopped only when he began to feel a
slight, dull pain in his side, which he had never
felt before.
Change mentioned in title
Irony he woke from bad dreams to be living one
Imagery of helplessness
Vermin negative connotation for bug type not
given
Imagery
Imagery round shape of body not natural
Room is non-descript
Mood room gives sense of loneliness,
claustrophobia
surprised but not really shocked
Gold covered
Does this imply hes lonely or is it for his job?
Possibly a fur salesman?
Mood melancholy
Rain contributes to dreary mood
Not a very strong term to describe what happened
Mood melancholy
impossible
Imagery of helplessness
Keeps mentioning dreams and sleeping cant
escape this real nightmare
Imagery
Similar to his reaction and his room - plain
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Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis. New York
Bantam Classics. 1972.