butterfly

Gregor Samsa evokes an emotion in people in two ways. Either people feel really deep sympathy for Gregor and see how is he beautiful internally, or they see him as a pathetic salesman and a loser. When people feel negatively towards Gregor, Kafka has made a point using literature to show what is wrong with society. He is trying to convey how sad it is that people can be so judegmental and look down upon each other in these ways. The first part, when we are introduced to Gregor as a giant bug, it is to be taken notice that we are viewing him from a bird's-eye view. This is a symbol of superiority.
Because Gregor is a salesman, we are set up to look down upon him, as we look down at him in a literal sense when we are introduced to him.
Gregor Samsa is very lonely, due to many things. Some of these things are the fact he lives with his parents, he is trapped (especially inside of his box room). His job of a traveling salesman provides him with little to no free time. He is so lonely that he has a framed picture of a woman from a magazine on his wall. This is trying to show the reader what has become of our society today. We are expected to work until we collapse, and then get up and do it again tomorrow. Kafka clearly disagrees with these ways. It is also to be noted that Kafka spent sometime as a traveling salesman as well, and sees the hardships.

shuffling the coil

What Dreams May Come...
The movie might seem simple, but is actually incredibly complex and has the smallest details in relation to Dante's Inferno. Throughout the painting, there were many paintings, pieces of art, and other hidden references to Dante, as well as ideas of heaven and hell relating to his. For example, the river full of the first sinners reaching up out of the river, which was exactly as it was in Dante's Inferno. The idea of the guide, the old man/ his med school mentor resembling Virgil, and Chris as Dante. The paintings behind Annie when she was committing suicide where three paintings of heaven, purgatory, and hell.

What struck me most about the movie was the colors and how significant they were as visual cues. The colors always held meaning, whether being a symbol of something, or a hint to an upcoming event. The movie started out full of life (in many ways). The scenery is in this beautiful place with a lake and a valley full of flowers and wildlife. Annie is full of life herself, as a personality. Her hair is long and free, wild. This is all a symbol of life. The death of the children alters the movie and the colors especially. The colors become bland, black and white, and very dark in a lot places. Annie's place of work is all white, while she wears all black. Her hair is dyed black and is cut short. She is symbolizing death and loss.

The movie could honestly be kind of confusing for me at times, but looking at it as a whole piece of art it is really beautiful. It is so deep and metaphorical, beautiful visually and mentally.

 

Franz Kafka

Birth
Franz Kafka was born on the third of July in 1883. He was born in Prauge, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary, which is now modern-day Czech Republic. He was born near the Old Town Square in Prauge. He was born into a family of middle-class Ashkenazi Jews. His parents were Hermann and Julie Kafka, who had six children. Franz was the oldest child. His two brothers, Georg and Hienrich, died during infancy, before Franz was seven. He has three sisteres, Gabriele, Valerie, and Ottilie, all of whom died or disappeared during the Holocaust.



Adult Life

Franz had a troubled and complicated relationship with his father that effected his writing. Kafka loved to write letters. He wrote hundreds to communicate with his close female friends, his father, his fiancé, and his youngest sister Ottla. Franz suffered with his Jewish heritage. It was a conflict for him and he thought it had nothing to do with him. His day job was a lawyer for an insurance firm, which he claimed took away from his calling, which was his love of writing short stories. 

 

the building that used to hold Kafka's insurance company day job

first page of a letter to Kafka's father

Influence

Kafka's influence came through his writing. They are important today in the eyes of many literary experts. Two of Kafka's novels are seen as the ninth and second most significant German-language novels of the 20th century. His novella, The Metamorphosis has been cited as one of the seminal works of fiction of the 20th century and is studied in many schools and universities. Many authors note Kafka for his vision and perspective. Novelist Vladimir Nabokov said he Kafka was one of the greatest writers of the the 20th century. Gabriel Garcia Marquez stated that Kafka "showed him it was possible to write in a new way". 

Death

Kafka suffered from laryngeal tuberculoses. It worsened, so he returned from Berlin to Prague in  March 1924. Members of his family, mostly his sister Ottla, took care of him. He went to a sanatarium near Vienna for treatment on April 10. He stayed here until his death, June 3 1924. He died from starvation, as his throat condition made it impossible to eat from the pain. Medicine was not advanced enough to alternatively feed him. He was buried in Prague 8 days later at the New Jewish Cemetery. 

 

New Jewish Cemetery, Prague

 Franz and Ottla

Bibliography

"Franz Kafka." Franz Kafka. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2014. <http://www.levity.com/corduroy/kafka.htm>.

"Franz Kafka." Online. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Mar. 2014. <http://www.kafka-online.info/>.

"Franz Kafka." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 18 Mar. 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Kafka#Death>.

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

down dante's soul

This week I saw cantos 19-32. 19-28 are all having to do with fraud, while 29-32 are the first part of the falsifiers. Why people who falsified metals are below the violent, I'll never know. Dante really should have had some therapy. Anyways, canto 19 was the simoniacs, which is basically being corrupt in a church position of power (But aren't they all?). These sinners are upside down in a rock with burning feet. The magician canto, 20, was interesting. Although I don't see how a magician, practicing a hobby he enjoys, deserves his head twisted backwards, the punishment is pretty breezy compared to some we have seen. Then came the barrators, swimming in boiling tar forever. Then there was my canto, 23. I have dug so far into this canto and understood every metaphor I have come across. Their punishment of being hypocritical is to walk in lead-lined cloaks. Another walk in the park! (Except not at all.) The thieves of 24/25 were very metaphorically being tormented by snakes, because they were snakes in their moral life. The fraudulent counselors of 26/27 were shocking to me. They are in such a low counsel for a crime not as severe as many that we have seen, in my opinion. But nonetheless, Dante thinks they should be burning alive for the rest of eternity. Then comes the scandals and divisive of 28, being cut and mutilated by demon's swords. These are really not an equal punishment to the crime. Then, we get into the ring of falsifiers, starting with metals (29), then people, coins and words (30). Next was the canto 31 with the giants. I liked this canto because I would rather be a giant who makes up a wall than any of these other things. Finally, we are getting into the last ring of hell, the traitors. We got to 32, which was a traitor to kin or homeland. This probably happened to Dante himself for him to put them so low down here in Hell.

dipping into hell

This week, cantos 1-18 presented. Dante's mind disturbs me. Who could think up such things, for (in Dante's mind) crimes that are not so severe? The first few cantos aren't to exciting, as they merely are beginning to enter hell through mountains and gates. It makes me wonder why Dante didn't turn around, why he wanted to see any of this at all. The next few cantos, limbo, lust, gluttony, and greed are some basic sins, which I wouldn't imagine having the punishments they did. It goes from limbo not really having a punishment besides them being absent from god forever (kind of just hanging out down there), to only the next canto where you find sinners being forever blown in a storm of violent winds. This is a sizable escalation, leaving me wondering how Dante came about this idea. Gluttony showed the sinners being rained upon by human feces for eternity. I had canto 23, the hypocrites, who merely have to walk around with heavy coats on. I would rather walk slowly than do any of those things, including shoving heavy bags up hills or be tortured in River Styx. It's odd that I would rather be thrown into canto 23, than the first few cantos.
The wrath/violence circle is all pretty similar, just different types of wrath and some variations in punishment. This part has some really disturbing means of punishment like burning forever in graves or living forever in a boiling river of blood and fire. Goodness, where is Dante's mind through all this? These are thoughts I can't imagine coming up with. The suicide canto was honestly really hard to sit through. The punishment wasn't even just simple violence of a blood river, but a deep, disturbing metaphor that Dante tried to make work for a suicide. I have dealt with more suicide than I knew possible for a 16 year old. No human being who has been brought to the point of taking their own life could possibly be in hell. I am comforted by the fact that I don't believe a hell exists at all, because I couldn't live thinking people I hold dear should deserve any more suffering after they die. Dante talks like they "disrespected" their bodies, like the were belonging to a god. I believe your body is yours and absolutely no one else's, so this is hard for me to take in.
After the violent, we started to just dip into the fraud circle, with flatterers, (who are somehow worse than all of the violent people...what?) who are punished by the beating of demons. I really can't see through Dante's eyes on this, but I'll keep trying.