ShmoopTube
Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.
Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos
Transformation Videos 16 videos
In Maya Angelou's poem "Africa," she compares Africa's pain and struggles to a woman being brutalized. Why does she do this? Is it to draw sympathy...
We're not sure if good ol' Shakespeare would endorse The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, but that's not going to stop us from hosting themed viewing...
Why did the editor give Chapter 21 of A Clockwork Orange the axe? Was it because he wanted to leave the reader hanging? Or did he realize Americans...
The Metamorphosis 65824 Views
Share It!
Description:
We'd all like to think our families would accept us if we turned into giant bugs, but for Gregor Samsa, that was not quite the case.
Transcript
- 00:04
The Metamorphosis a la Shmoop: A Bug’s Life Let’s talk about change for a minute.
- 00:11
Nice… but we meant this kind of change. Change may not be the easiest thing in the
- 00:17
world. . .
- 00:17
. . .as this guy could tell you. . .
- 00:18
. . .but sometimes. . . it’s a good thing. Unfortunately, for poor Gregor. . .
Full Transcript
- 00:23
. . .it’s not one of those times. So, why did Kafka turn our hero into a giant
- 00:30
bug? Was Gregor’s transformation into a cockroach.
- 00:33
. .
- 00:33
. . .a stand-in for Kafka’s own feelings of being alienated in life?
- 00:38
Maybe… Kafka was a Jew…
- 00:41
. . .and Anti-Semites actually referred to Jews as Ungeziefer <un-getz-ee-fer>. . .
- 00:46
. . .Kafka’s original word defining Gregor’s new form.
- 00:50
Just because English translations use “bug” or
- 00:52
“insect” . . .
- 00:53
. . .doesn’t mean that Kafka wasn’t trying to make a point.
- 00:56
Another popular theory. . .
- 00:57
. . .is that Gregor’s transformation into a disgusting bug. . .
- 01:01
. . .was to symbolize how workers in our capitalistic society were being dehumanized.
- 01:07
To put it another way, people were feeling small and unappreciated. . .
- 01:09
. . .kind of like… you guessed it. Since bugs don’t have thoughts or feelings.
- 01:16
. .
- 01:16
. . .they can easily be squashed without guilt.
- 01:18
Heck, even Gregor’s loving sister, his own flesh and blood, wanted him gone.
- 01:23
But here’s something else to chew on.
- 01:26
Gregor didn’t seem all that unhappy being a cockroach.
- 01:30
Maybe Kafka meant his story to be about the refusal to conform.
- 01:34
Gregor hated his boring job. . .
- 01:35
. . .and found a way to get out of doing it.
- 01:39
Okay, so he did die in the end. . .
- 01:43
But the only reason he shipped off to cockroach heaven. . .
- 01:45
. . . was because somebody else had a problem with his new look.
- 01:49
So, what was Kafka trying to say? Was that giant insect supposed to awaken our
- 01:55
feelings of alienation. . .
- 01:56
. . .make us think about the dehumanization of the species. . .
- 02:02
. . .or just point out the joys of doing our own thing?
- 02:05
Shmoop amongst yourselves.
Related Videos
This video defines utopias and dystopias, and investigates how a utopia might become a dystopia. Can a seemingly perfect world actually be a dystop...
They say that honesty is the best policy, but Jack lies about his identity and still gets the girl. Does that mean we should all lie to get what we...
Ever wish you could remember everything that you ever studied? How about everything that everyone has ever studied? Yeah, pretty sure our brains ju...
Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man is an American classic. Hope you're not expecting any exciting shower scenes though. It's not that kind of book.
Do not go gentle into that good night. In fact, if it's past your curfew, don't go at all into that good night. You just stay in your good bed and...