Symbolism

3 Pages 751 Words

A symbol is when an object is used to represent something abstract. In stories, symbolism plays a large role in expressing the author’s true meaning and emotions. It is a tool that enables the writer to give a completely different meaning to the story they are writing. The author Franz Kafka uses a fair amount of symbolism in his writing in order to help him in the telling of the story and to make the reader think. This is evident in his writing’s of “The Metamorphosis” and “A Country Doctor”.
In “The Metamorphosis” Kafka is attempting to express the fact that some people waste their lives and in a way live their lives as a bug would. Gregor Samsa (the main character) is an extremely hard working man who hates his job yet he never misses a day. His job consists of him traveling around and selling cloth, his life is extremely inconsistent and lonely like a bug. This is evident when Gregor says, “…the trouble of constant traveling, of worrying about train connections, the bed and irregular meals, casual acquaintances that are always new and never become intimate friends. The devil take it all!” (Kafka 581) The six legs that he has may be a symbol of all the traveling and moving around that he has to do. The family along with Gregor has the same routine day in and day out, which shows that they aren’t really living their lives to the full extent in which they should. This is why Kafka turns him into a bug in the beginning of the story. Gregor’s family depends solely on him because his father has lost his memory, his mother has asthma, and his sister is too young to work. His family doesn’t seem to appreciate what Gregor does for them this becomes obvious when the clerk chief comes to the house to see why Gregor isn’t working. When the clerk chief gets Gregor to open his bedroom door the family is in shock to see that nothing is wrong with Gregor and he is simply late for work. This shock represents his fami...