Partner Analysis

Natalie Witherell & Will Bangs

"Tomorrow, Govinda, I shall take leave of you." (Hesse, 28).


"We are not walking in a circle, we are ascending; the circle is a spiral, and we have already climbed many of the steps." (Hesse, 16)



"Now it is the beginning, now Siddhartha is on his way, now his destiny is beginning to bud and, along with it, mine as well." (Hesse, 8)


"...and found the gaze of the Buddha so full of kindness and peace, the youth plucked up the courage to ask the Vernerable One's leave to address him." (Hesse, 28).


Will did not read the chapter so I did this blog post.

Kafka in the Modern Era

      Throughout life, we are constantly trying to get the acceptance from someone we know won't get it from. Acceptance is the action or process of being received as adequate or suitable, typically to be admitted into a group. Franz Kafka's life was constantly a game of trying to win his fathers acceptance. Kafka was an educated, German-speaking Czech Jew, it's not hard to see echoes of Enlightenment philosophy in his works. Kafka puts a twist on the whole ethical tradition by making the subject of ethical debate in The Metamorphosis, a bug. And not just any bug, a vermin, a pest. Gregor isn't a cute little ladybug or even a motherly spider named Charlotte, but the kind of disgusting bug that makes your skin crawl and stinks when you squish it. In Kafka's father's eyes, Franz was a failure. Although Gregor was ugly on the outside, on the inside he was pure. Everyone else saw him as a vermin. They only saw what he had unwillingly transformed into. In the beginning of The Metamorphosis, when Gregor's body is turned, his parents haven't seen him and want him to come outside his room and to meet with them. In Kafka's real life, this is just before he became an other. His parents still love him, yet they are distant. Even before and in the beginning of his writing career, his sister was always there. But when he becomes a writer he knows that she would end up siding with her father because of acceptance and the fear of being rejected. When Gregor first doesn't open the door, his sister, Grete, begins to cry. "Why did his sister not go to the others? She had probably just got up out of bed now and had not even started to get dressed yet. Then why was she crying? Because he was not getting up and letting the manager in, because he was in danger of losing his position, and because then his boss would badger his parents once again with the old demands?" ( Kafka, 4). In the end of the story, Grete is on her father's side of things and is working because Gregor can't. In this passage, She is crying because she is fearful of what is to come, that Gregor will get hired and she might have to work to support the family. So out of love and selfishness, she takes care of Gregor, thinking that if he gets better, he can work and she won't have to.
       When Gregor was working, slowly, the life was being sucked from him. He worked so much so that his parents did not have to want for a thing. Little did they know, the parents were using vampirism In Gregor's work. They loved their son but they let him work so much that he got worn out and more tired each passing day. So that one day he wakes up late, his parents are worried but in a rush to get him out of the house and off working. They were excited from the delicious blood they can suck from him today, making him weaker by the second. Throughout the times when Grete brings Gregor food, each time she brings in and leaves quickly so she doesn't have to see his face. "To test his taste, she brought him an entire selection, all spread out on an old newspaper. There were old half-rotten vegetables, bones from the evening meal, covered with a white sauce which had almost solidified, some raisins and almonds, cheese which Gregor had declared inedible two days earlier, a slice of dry bread, a slice with butter, and a slice of salted bread smeared with butter." (Kafka, 10). Gregor's communion is now with himself. When people eat together is a bond of friendship and excepting each other.  "...breaking bread together is a sign of sharing and peace, since if your're breaking bread you're not breaking heads." (Foster, 8). Grete and the rest of Gregor's family did not want to eat with him. He had no friends and no one who wanted to love him. "I'm with you, I like you, we form a community together." (Foster 8). Gregor' family did no want anything to do with such a pest, so they left him to eat by himself, a lonely communion.
        The Metamorphosis, is comical. Gregor takes it with a sense of irony, pretending that noting is wrong. He’s well aware of how people perceive him. But the funny thing is, aside from how he scares everyone, it is that he’s more troubled by how his transformation has thoroughly screwed up his routing than by the transformation itself. He spends almost the entire first chapter trying to figure out how to get out of bed, while constantly worrying about train schedules and how his tardiness might affect his job. And when he does get out of bed and opens his bedroom door, the results are comic genius. While his boss and his parents are on the verge of panic, Gregor just wants to go to work, and even gives a little speech on how he feels, stating that he’s perfectly fine, though he might have a tiny cold. Then, Gregor reminds his boss to report on his employee’s condition truthfully.
        In the original piece, Kafka writes the word vermin in German as Ungeziefer, which means and unclean animal not suited for sacrifice. In the second picture below, is showing the relationship between Kafka and Gregor. Although Gregor is the bug, Kafka is the writer. The illustrator of the cover, was very deep with how the image was going to turn out. Every cover of every book has a meaning that relates to the book. This cover shows the book, and explains the author. Kafka felt like a Ungeziefer in his father's eyes. And in Mr. Samsa's eyes, Gregor was a bug, but for a different reason. Because of Kafka's unwillingness to become a accountant, Kafka was dead to his father. In the first image, is a picture passed off Kafka's life. Kafka was a child with no fatherly figure. His father was always gone, off at work and his mother was distance too. In The Metamorphosis, his parents were close to Gregor before the transformation, almost like that's how Kafka wished his parents were.
     Gregor and Kafka were very much alike. It started off as opposites, Gregor having a loving father and Kafka not. But, then as the story of The Metamorphosis progresses, things begin to even out and their stories become one. When Gregor's father sees Gregor as the bug, he no longer cares for him. Just as Kafka's father sees Kafka after he told his father he did not want to be a business man, but a writer. Once Gregor dies, his father seems to feel at peace. Kafka felt as though he was dead in his father's eyes and thought that he would feel peace is Gregor was dead, and not alive. 

Metamorphosis Reflection

I   The novel written by Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis, was basically written off his life. It shows the difficulties of living in a modern society and the struggle for acceptance of others when in a time of need. In this novel Kafka directly reflects upon many of the negative aspects of his personal life, both mentally and physically.  In the beginning, Gregor is transformed into a bug. I feel as though Kafka wrote this story to express that he felt as a bug in his fathers eyes. The relationship between Gregor and his father, I feel is similar to the relationship between Franz and his father Herman. "His numerous legs, pitifully thin in comparison to the rest of his circumference, flickered helplessly before his eyes." (Kafka, 1). During this movement of his legs, he is feeling help less and excluded. In Kafka's life, his parents were often distant and he only had his siblings. Before Gregor was a bug, they cared for him. Before Franz chose his writing oath, his parents were there somewhat, but still cared for him. After his decision, the tension relationship between him and his father grew. From the moment we meet Gregor Samsa’s father we are shown how short tempered he is. "The father relentlessly pushed his way forward, hissing like a wild man." (Kafka, 8). His father was very short tempered to see Gregor's new "transform" when Gregor first exited his room in his new state as a bug. Gregor’s father chased after him with a cane and newspaper making a hissing noise that annoyed Gregor. Just this passage here shows how alike Mr. Samsa and Herman Kafka are. Kafka was subjected to abuse and constant yelling from his father because he was a failure in his eyes. "Perhaps his father noticed his good intentions, for he did not disrupt Gregor in this motion, but with the tip of the cane from a distance he even directed Gregor’s rotating movement now and then. If only his father had not hissed so unbearably!" (Kafka, 8). Gregor hoped that his father saw his good intentions in letting himself be shown. I feel as though Franz became a writer in hoping that after his father saw what kind of author he was, he would see Franz's good intentions and support him. He may have went along with his father's intions of Franz's job if he hadn't been so abrupt and demanding of it. When Samsa sees what has happened to Gregor he is immediately outraged, either out of confusion or disappointment towards his son.

II   Kafka’s father viewed Franz as a failure and disapproved of his writing because he wanted Franz to become a business man like him. When Franz Kafka was a boy his father abused him. Whenever Franz Kafka disagreed with his father or told his father that he wanted to be a writer, not a shop owner, his father got very upset. In the book, Mr. Samsa displayed a violent temper from the very first encounter with the transformed Gregor. When he chased Gregor back to his room, he kicked him in the back as he reached the door. Another event in which Gregor encountered violence from his father was when Mr. Samsa threw an apple at him and it lodged in his back. "However, another thrown immediately after that one drove into Gregor’s back really hard. Gregor wanted to drag himself off, as if he could make the unexpected and incredible pain go away if he changed his position. But he felt as if he was nailed in place and lay stretched out completely confused in all his senses." (Kafka, 8). From this point on, the physical and mental condition of Gregor steadily decreased. The apple began to rot away and he felt weaker and he experienced more of the pain than usual. Gregor even lost his appetite, and ate nothing. The feelings of seclusion and not being wanted entered Gregor’s thoughts. He could tell that his sister did not care as much as she did when he first became a bug. These feelings could have been the same feelings of seclusion that Kafka felt in his own life after abuse from his father.

III   In The Metamorphosis there are many signs of slow deterioration for Gregor. He slowly starts to lose his eye sight when he notices that he can no longer see across the road to the hospital. " For, in fact, from day to day he perceived things with less and less clarity, even those only a short distance away. The hospital across the street, the all-too-frequent sight of which he had previously cursed, was not visible at all anymore..." (Kafka, 13). He has many injuries, some of which he cannot explain, like the pain in his side when he first woke up. He had an apple lodged in his back, by his father, which was left to rot. He was cut by a piece off glass from a shattering glass bottle, and was bleeding. And then when he tried to get into his room and got stuck in the door. All of these descriptions are painful, and the whole basis of the novel revolves around a human being who is dyeing a slow, painful death.Franz Kafka died on June 3, 1924 from tuberculosis of the larynx. The Metamorphosis could be one of Kafka’s imaginations of his own death that is carefully disguised and elaborated through literature. After awhile, Gregor's father refused Grete, his sister, go in Gregors room to clean it. "A huge bony cleaning woman with white hair flying all over her head came in the morning and evening to do the heaviest work. The mother took care of everything else, in addition to her considerable sewing work." (Kafka, 19). Because of their little amount of income, they let go of the servant girl and hired a cleaning woman who only cleaned Gregor's room. Almost as they were sending someone else to go and take care of their mess. "He was filled with sheer anger over the wretched care he was getting, even though he could not imagine anything which he might have an appetite for." (Kafka, 22). After all the things he has done for the family and the ways to keep it afloat, they treat him horribly. "  "'Well,' said Mr. Samsa, 'now we can give thanks to God.' He crossed himself, and the three women followed his example." (Kafka, 25). When Gregor eventually dies, his family is grateful. They did not want to have to take care of the menace he had become in their eyes. The way they act to his death, his almost like they did not know who he was and they did not care.

Franz Kafka Reflection

Franz Kafka was an author born in Czech Republic in 1883. Kafka wrote The Metamorphosis in 1912, the year he felt his creativity finally taking a definite form. It was one of fairly few works Kafka was to publish in his lifetime. In 1913 he turned down an offer to publish the story.

What Dreams May Come Reflection

The movie What Dreams May Come was a every beautiful and good movie. The movie very much relates to Dante's Inferno in many ways. In both Dante's Inferno and What Dreams May Come, the most important place is hell. Like in the Bible passage where Peter (one of Jesus disciple) that tried to walk on water and failed to do so when he let doubt take over, also Chris was unable to walk on water until after exportation from Albert. In both "The Inferno" and "What Dreams May Come" the most important place is hell. While in "The Inferno" almost all of the novel takes place in hell, in "What Dreams May Come" hell is only part of the movie. In Dante's Inferno, Dante is on a journey through the nine circle of hell in order to get through the journey. While in What Dreams May Come, Chris sees his wife in hell and vigorously tries to help her. Chris experiences hell as a result of his depression to find his wife and save her from that place. But for Dante, as he gets father down into the circles, the surroundings also increase in the intensity of it. The detailed description of hell and each of the circles contributes to the idea of hell not being a nice place and also creates a sense of desperation because it seems as if it will never end. The darkness and chaos of the setting created anxiety and that is the exact same thing that is transmitted to the viewer in "What Dreams May Come" and the reader in "The Inferno." Through the description of the horrid places the tone of the environment is set thereby transmitting the same emotion.

Through the use of flashback the viewer can comprehend the importance of the relationship between Chris and Annie, Chris and his son and daughter. If there was no use of flashback the viewer would not be able to understand why Chris' kids are treasured by both mother and father, why Chris believes the love him and his wife have can overcome even hell, and how death affected the family. In the Bible (Revelation) God explains to John what he sees and hears in Heaven. In "The Inferno" Virgil explains to Dante what he sees in Hell. Virgil serves as a guide for Dante and angles at times serve as guides for John. In "What Dreams May Come" Albert, later discovered it is truly Ian, guides and helps Chris understand the afterlife. In Revelation 3:16, it says that God will not tolerate lukewarm, neither hot or cold, those that neither hate nor love sin. Also in the movie, Albert is his guide through heaven.
Chris and Albert:


Dante and Virgil:

Franz Kafka Biography

Franz Kafka was born on July 3, 1883, in Prague, Czech Republic. Kafka grew up in a middle class, German speaking, Jewish family with his father being a business man, and his mother worked as many as 12 hours each day helping to manage the family business. Kafka's childhood was indeed lonely, and the children grew up largely by a series of governesses and servants. When Kafka was around the age of six, his two younger brothers, Georg and Heinrich, died in infancy, leaving him the only son in a family that included three daughters. Kafka had a difficult relationship with both of his parents. His mother, Julie, was a devoted homemaker who lacked the intellectual depth to understand her son's dreams to become a writer. Kafka's father, Hermann, had a forceful personality that often overwhelmed the Kafka home. He was a successful business man. who make his living by retailing men's and women's clothes. Kafka's father had a huge impact on both Kafka's life and his writing. He was a tyrant of sorts, with a wicked temper and little appreciation for his son's creative side. Much of Kafka's personal struggles, in romance and other relationships, came in part from his complicated relationship with his father. His mother as often quiet and shy, and his father distance and absent. Kafka's troubled relationship with his father is evident in his Brief an den Vater, a letter to his father, of more than 100 pages, in which he complains of being extremely affected by his father's dictatorial and demanding character.




As an adult, Franz Kafka worked in numerous places. On November 1, 1907, he was hired at the Assicurazioni Generali, an aggressive Italian insurance company, where he worked for nearly a year. He ended up quitting because of the long and torturous hours from 8pm-6am, which gave him barely anytime to work on his writing. On July 15, 1908, he resigned, and two weeks later found more congenial employment with the Worker's Accident Insurance Institute for the Kingdom of Bohemia. Kafka was very committed to his literary work. Together with his close friends Max Brod and Felix Weltsch these three were called "Der enge Prager Kreis", the close Prague circle. In 1912, at the home of his lifelong friend Max Brod, Kafka met Felice Bauer, who lived in Berlin and worked as a representative for a Dictaphone company. Over the next five years, they corresponded a great deal, met occasionally, and twice were engaged to be married. Their relationship finally ended in 1917. In 1917, Kafka began to suffer from tuberculosis, which would require frequent convalescence during which he was supported by his family, most notably his sister Ottla. In the early 1920s he developed an intense relationship with Czech journalist and writer Milena Jesenská. In 1923, he briefly moved to Berlin in the hope of distancing himself from his family's influence to concentrate on his writing. He lived with Dora Diamant, a 25-year-old kindergarten teacher from an orthodox Jewish family, who was independent enough to have escaped her past in the ghetto, in Berlin. As Kafka's tuberculosis worsened, he also suffered from migraines, insomnia, constipation, boils, and other ailments, all usually brought on by excessive stresses and strains. He attempted to counteract all of this by a regimen of naturalistic treatments, such as a vegetarian diet. He returned to Prague, then went to a sanatorium near Vienna for treatment, where he died on June 3, 1924. His body was ultimately brought back to Prague where he was interred on June 11, 1924, in the New Jewish Cemetery in Prague-Žižkov.






BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Nervi, Mauro. "Kafka's Life (1883-1924)." The Kafka Project. N.p., 08 Jan. 2011. Web. 15 Mar. 2014.                <http://www.kafka.org/index.php?biography>.

"Franz Kafka Biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, 2014. Web. 17 Mar. 2014.                                     <http://www.biography.com/people/franz-kafka-9359401>.

Canto 19-32

Cantos 19-23 take place in the 8th Circle of hell. This circle is home to the sinners of Fraud, Flattery, Simony, Political Corruption, and Hypocrisy. The monster Geryon transports Virgil and Dante across a great abyss to the Eighth Circle of Hell, known as Malebolge, the term refers to the circle’s division into various pockets separated by great folds of earth. In the First Pouch, the Panderers and the Seducers receive lashings from whips; in the second, the Flatterers must lie in a river of human feces. The Simoniacs in the Third Pouch hang upside down in baptismal fonts while their feet burn with fire. In the Fourth Pouch are the Astrologists or Diviners, forced to walk with their heads on backward, a sight that moves Dante to great pity. In the Fifth Pouch, the Barrators (those who accepted bribes) steep in pitch while demons tear them apart. The Hypocrites in the Sixth Pouch must forever walk in circles, wearing heavy robes made of lead. Caiphas, the priest who confirmed Jesus’ death sentence, lies crucified on the ground; the other sinners tread on him as they walk. In the horrifying Seventh Pouch, the Thieves sit trapped in a pit of vipers, becoming vipers themselves when bitten; to regain their form, they must bite another thief in turn. In the Eighth Pouch of the Eighth Circle of Hell, Dante speaks to Ulysses, the great hero of Homer’s epics, now doomed to an eternity among those guilty of the False Counselors for his role in executing the ruse of the Trojan Horse. In the Ninth Pouch, the souls of Sowers of Scandal and Schism walk in a circle, constantly afflicted by wounds that open and close repeatedly. In the Tenth Pouch, the Falsifiers suffer from horrible plagues and diseases.