1. How does Kafka use his central metaphor in The Metamorphosis? In what way is his use of it different from what we might expect to find?

2. How does the apparent disjunction between tone and event create humor in the story?

3. What is the relationship between Gregor and his family? What clues in the story suggest that his relationship with his family, particularly his father, is unsatisfactory?

4. Discuss the central events in each of the three sections of the story. In what ways doe these events suggest that the weakening of Gregor results in the strengthening of the family as a whole?

5. What significance is attached to food in The Metamorphosis?

6. What is the significance of the minor characters in the story - the manager, the three boarders, and the cleaning woman?

7. What is the importance of the final scene in the story, the family's trip to the country? Why is it written so lyrically in comparison to the rest of the text?

8. The Metamorphosis has been read and interpreted in many ways:

as an example of the existentialist philosophy,
a depiction of humanity's condition in the modern world,
a presentation of psychological neurosis, and
a theological parable.

Discuss these various interpretive possibilities.

9. In Notes from the Underground (Pt.I: Chap.1) the Underground Man announces that "every decent man of our time is and must be a coward and a slave." To what extent does this description fit Gregor Samsa before he turns into a dung beetle? Is it true of him in his metamorphosed state? Is it true of his entire family?

10. Listening to his sister play the violin, Gregor, who had not appreciated music before, is deeply affected. "Was he a beast to be so moved by music?" This difficult sentence makes us reread it: it seems to ask whether a dung beetle could have this capacity to respond to high art and therefore to throw Gregor's identity into question once more, does it? Thinking of Rilke's The Panther or other works you know of animals, what sensibilities are ascribed to animals that humans do not possess? Why can we accept this in a powerful animal, but perhaps not in a beetle?

11. What other works we have read might be compared to The Metamorphosis?