UM Honors Blog 2021-2022

         W.D. Auden's poem that most struck me was "Mus ée des Beaux Arts." It truly emphasizes the epidemic of human selfishness and self-absorption. In events of immense meaning that point to the existence of God, many people still do not respond appropriately.to these milestones. In the miracle of human life, as the poem reveals, many are still concerned with their personal feelings. Though people are arriving into this life who are all image-bearers of the Almighty God, there are still some who are resentful and focus on how an addition to the family could affect their lives. "For the miraculous birth, there always must be children who did not specially want it to happen," says Auden (lines 6-7). On the other hand, some are more indifferent than anything else. This lack of caring and empathy or lack of emotions surrounding significant life circumstances for other people is the most alarming of all. They hints at humans becoming dehumanized as they are m...

 Auden's "As I Walked Out One Evening" struck a different chord with me. So many times when people talk about the kind of love they want and desire they do not know the words to use. But they do not have to fear, Auden's poems gives them the words to express how they feel. This love that Auden describes, seems like the purest kind of love to me. It's enduring. It defies logic. It changes one's way of life. We all yearn deep down for this kind of love. If it was not for poets like Auden we would yearn and yearn and yearn and yet never have the words. We try and grasp at straws to nail down how this love makes us feel but at the same time it feels fleeting.  But, just like all things, this love is not eternal. Auden paints this beautifully in his poem in such a way that it almost does not even seem to hurt to acknowledge that this love is not eternal. The beauty of this love is enough to assuage the pain that comes with knowing that it is not eternal.  I comment...

      According to W.H. Auden, life goes on. While you might be at a pivotal point in your life that could change its course forever, someone else is having the least eventful night of their lives. As someone is grieving the most significant loss they will experience, you can also be receiving the news of your dreams. All of life is happening at once. All life is significant to the individual and insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Although, I believe all are significant in the eyes of God.  Auden communicates this through poetry, specifically in Musée des Beaux-Arts and .        Musée des Beaux-Arts, translates to Muesem of Fine Arts. The poem given this title entails comments on grief, life, death, and the slow march of time. In the first stanza, Auden lists several highs and lows of life that need and influence each other without ever meeting. The babe prayed for by those leaving this earth, hoping that they could improve what wa...

       There was a specific quote that really stuck out to me in these poems from Auden. The quote from his poem "As I Walked out One Evening". It states "In headaches and in worry / Vaguely life leaks away, / And Time will have his fancy / To-morrow or to-day." This really grabbed my attention because pretty much every adult that I have had a conversation with has said something along the lines of "don't take these moments for granted, life is short, and in a blink of an eye you're all grown up". Honestly, even though I'm only eighteen, I understand that there is so much truth to that. I believe that part of the reason it holds so much weight is because we as humans tend to spend so much of our time here worrying about various things. Some things are big deals like finances and jobs, others are more trivial like drama and whatnot. But we are always thinking and worrying about our next step or what's to come instead of actually just enjoyin...

     W.H. Auden's love life was scandalous. In his day, being gay was absolutely improper. His marriage to Erika Mann wasn't one of romance, but of convenience. And his affair with fellow poet, Chester Kallman, didn't last.      So it makes sense that his poem "As  I walked out One Evening", turns love into something depressing and fleeting. Anyone who has ever had a relationship not founded on true Love, Love founded in faith and in the One who stands outside time, knows that it doesn't last. "Until death do us part" is hardly literal, especially in modern and post-modern times. Even then, death is still an ending. Time takes its toll on a relationship, or it makes it stronger.     Perhaps this is why the dating world has turned into one of brief, passionate battles and one-night-stands. There is no credibility or commitment expected because this "love" isn't expected to last. We've conceded to the idea that "love" is bri...

       Death wins in the end- it’s a common theme throughout these poems. Both of these writers discuss how people have become so focused on the pointless rat race of life that they have lost all empathy towards others. This is especially evident in Auden’s poems, particularly through the representation in “Musée des Beaux Arts” when people ignore Icarus falling from the sky. People have lost all feelings for each other, but we all march slowly onward to our unavoidable fate of death. All the work, relationships, and everything we do in between is meaningless.             The bureaucracy and civilization are portrayed in a negative light throughout both series of poems and is contrasted with positive nature imagery. Civilization and industrialization are leading us closer and closer to our deaths, making it easier for us to drift apart and become immune to the sorrows that relate us as humans through escapes of...

In Church Going , Philip Larken tries to discount his visits to an old church building. He associates this icon of Christianity with ignorance and superstition, wondering if "delirious women" will come to "pick simples for cancer" and so forth (lines 28-31). Yet after saying he "Reflect[s] the place was not worth stopping for," he admits: "Yet stop I did: in fact I often do" (lines 18-19). Why then does the man feel compelled to stop? Aubade  may lend a clue. Here, Larken struggles with mortal dread, the fear of death. Moreover, he recognizes that "religion" provided a way to dispel this fear: "Religion used to try...Created to pretend we never die" (lines 22-24). Those of us who have been made believers in Christ understand that the Old-Time Religion is much more than a superstition. We have a Living Hope through Whom we will never die. Those verses on the lectern could have read: " Wherefore, as by one man sin entered i...

   The Auden poems have reoccurring themes of time running out and reminiscing of good times.     Auden utilizes cold and warmth within the lines he writes. In "As I Walked Out One Evening," the speaker begins by describing the environment he is walking in. He hears a lover singing by the river along with the chiming of a clock. The mention of wheat suggests growth. There is life and warmth in his environment. By the end of the poem, the lover has stopped singing and the clock is no longer chiming. Night has come, and the only thing similar to when he began his journey is the flowing of the river. This is a cold ending. In contrast, Auden's poem "In Memory of W. B. Yeats" begins on a cold note. The speaker describes Yeats leaving in the winter, giving the listener the feeling of desolation. In the second verse, Auden reminisces on the way things were before Yeats disappeared. This verse occurs in springtime- warmth. "Shield of Achilles" creates a back ...

"I am inevitable." You Marvel fans out there will recognize this line. As he snaps his fingers to wipe out half of all life, Thanos speaks these words with a sense of premonition. Hope for the world is lost in this moment.  Larkin's poem,  Aubade, carries the same theme of sure fate. For the poet, death is inescapable. The voice in Aubade is seaching for meaning and finally seems to settle in the fact that things are the way they are and cannot change. While reading Larkin's poem, I was reminded of Thanos from Avengers: Endgame.  " Most things may never happen: this one will" (Larkin, line 34). The end is inevitable. While Lakin dispels the idea that humanity can change on its own and accepts that, Thanos saw a world he wanted to change. In Larkin's words, "One side will have to go" (44). For him, genocide was the solution to bring balance to the world. He took the power to cause the end. Obviously that's a little misguided, but overall, Th...

      As Icarus falls from the sky, as Icarus falls to his death and lands in the water and drowns, no one but his father bats an eye, and even his father has to keep flying. Auden captures the image of this beautifully in "Musée des Beaux":     ...t he ploughman may      Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,      But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone      A s it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green      W ater; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen      Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,     had somewhere to go and sailed calmly on. (Auden 15-21) These people have just seen a boy fall from the sky, but pay no attention to it or do not take any action after seeing it because they have work to do or places to be. When we think of the story of Icarus, we often forget these people who saw and ignored. Although some...

  In Larkin’s poem Aubade, the theme is very morbid. One of the quotes that really stood out to me from this poem is “Courage is no good: it means not scaring others. Being brave lets no one off the grave. Death is no different whined at than withstood.” I think that humans naturally think about death from time to time simply because it’s such a common occurrence. It also reminded me of Hamilton when Burr says “Death doesn’t discriminate between the sinners and the saints. It takes and it takes and it takes.”   What did y’all think? I commented on Isabelle’s and Emory’s posts.

 For this week’s post, I specifically wanted to emphasize the meaning behind Larkin’s poem “Church Goers.” The poem itself has a pretty straightforward tone and influences a melancholy mood for the readers. Larkin describes the church building in a way that heavily emphasizes the place’s flaws and wear downs, creating the idea of abandonment tying back to the concept of religion itself.  Larkin creates this sense of absence within the church which led me to consider the way many “church goers” actually are. Most religious people come to church merely out of routine, bringing their families and sitting through the services without much thought whatsoever. In this way, Larkin’s description of the church symbolizes the inward attitudes of many religious people. They are spiritually dead. The withering away of the church in the poem represents the way people fall away from spirituality throughout the cycles of life.  I was not aware of Larkin’s religion when reading this, and...

Once again, I'd like to put a general trigger warning here. I talk about some deep and kinda dark stuff.           MCMXIV. I had to Google the translation and once I did the poem made so much more sense. MCMXIV, for those who don't know, translates to 1914 in roman numerals. At first glance, that might mean nothing. I myself had to do a follow-up search of important events of 1914 to jog my memory. Once I did, however, the poem took a dark turn. 1914 is the year of which the chain reaction began, the chain reaction that lead to the "War to End All Wars," aka World War I. The poem speaks of daily life. There is nothing exciting, everything is calm. There is peace and everything has an air of almost mundaneness. Yet, in the last stanza, it shifts.       "Never such innocence, Never before or since, As changed itself to past Without a word – the men Leaving the gardens tidy, The thousands of marriages, Lasting a little while longer: Ne...

  For this weeks blog post, I want to talk about two lines from Auden’s poem “As I Walked out One Evening.” The two lines I want to talk about say.     “‘O let not Time deceive you, / You cannot conquer Time” (Auden). I do find it interesting how time is referred to as a person. As interesting as this is, this is not the main thing I want to talk about from these lines. What I would like to do is try to find the meaning in these lines. I think the meaning in these lines has a lot to do with the phrase “Time flies by when your having fun.” Later in the poem is a line that says “Vaguely life leaks away” (Auden). The context surrounding this line is what I imagine as two people having fun at night. This is probably not what is actually happening but it is how I visualized the poem. What I think Auden is saying is that time does not last forever, and time will always win at ending the moment no matter how much you think it will last forever. I think that is what he means ...

 In Auden's "As I Walked out One Evening" there is a beautifully written juxtaposition of love and time. The poem begins with the proclamation of love from one to another. This is a beautiful proclamation of love that the author says will last forever. This beautiful proclamation of love soon turns into a fear of time. The poem begins to talk about how fast time goes by and how soon forever won't be so long. I think today's society is completely driven by time. We are always checking the time and having to be somewhere at a certain time. There is a saying that talks about loosing track of time. I think this is true when it comes to love. When you love someone and love to spend time with someone you loose track of time and time flies by. The poem presents time as something we should fear but instead of fearing time I think we should cherish it. Cherish that hour that you are learning in class. Cherish nights watching TV and playing games with friends. Cherish that ...

         In Philip Larkin's "Aubade", the speaker tells of how he lives his life. He works all day, ends the night by getting half drunk, and starts the day over. Yet in the early hours of the morning, when it is still dark out, he is reminded of the ever looming threat of death, how it comes for everyone, an there is nothing anyone can do about it. He states how religion tries to make it seem not so bad, tries to make it seem like we will not die. He later explains why we fear death, and how being brave about dying will not change the fact that we will die one day.      I do believe a fear of death is very reasonable, since people tend to fear the unknown. No one truly knows what happens when we die. Different religions will claim different things, and whether they are true or not, we have no way to know for certain. People cannot come back from the dead to explain it to us. Death is something we cannot wrap our minds around, as La...

       I wanted to focus on Musée des Beaux Arts by Auden. The ideas posed by Auden are very interesting. In the poem, he analyzed a painting of Icarus and how it can symbolize reality. Icarus is depicted as about to drown but the rest of the painting is beautifully unaware of his plight. Similarly, in real life, bad things happen every day, but often life goes on barely stopping to acknowledge that anything is amiss. It’s a rather sad concept to think that people do not care when tragedies occur but it is true. How many times do we see death on the news, hear of accidents on the radio, or sirens on the road rushing off to help the injured? We might pause a moment to acknowledge the gravity of the situation but how quickly do we move on? We continue going about our everyday business and forget about the event.  It is only when the event directly affects us that we remember. The more it impacts you the more debilitating it can be. We cannot easily move on with al...

     Time is something that everyone feels the effect of but rarely considers. The poem "As I Walked Out One Evening" by W.H. Auden brought this thought to my mind. The poem begins with a lover making grandiose promises to the one they love. The promises go beyond the boundaries of space and time. This is common to see in a relationship. The couple does feel that they can truly survive anything. Auden however has a differing opinion. He seems to believe that you "cannot conquer time". Can love conquer time? I would like to think so, but perhaps a deeper inspection is in order before such an assumption can be made. For the sake of keeping my post a reasonable length, I will only be discussing love among two people. So I will stick within the context of the poem which is a Lover calling out.      The Lover in the poem seems to be ignorant of time. Time is depicted as an almost threatening force. It seems to be watching the Lovers, waiting for the opportune ti...

 I have to be honest when saying that I have no brain power while reading the poems and writing about them. Anyways, I would like to try and write about the fact that even though these poems were written a while ago, they still have some relatable factors to them. In today’s terms, we would say that they are a “mood”.  The first instance that I see my generation relating to is when Auden writes in his poem Muse’e des Beaux Arts , “For the miraculous of birth, there always must be children who did not specially want it to happen…” Even though it is a dark thought, it is still very popular.  Another instance where I can see people relating, especially in the month of love that is coming up, is in the poem As I Walked out One Evening. In this poem, we are introduced to a person who is in love. Not only do I love how the poem flows in the verse of the lover, I can also see how personable the lover is. In this day and age, people do not emphasize poetic love like in old poems ...

       As I was reading this story one thing was very clear to me. Gregor was the provider of the family but not the man of the household. He did the work while his family lived in the luxury he created for them. Not only that, but no thanks was given but he was still happy to do it. The main thing that was appalling to me is the family was so worried about Gregor when he transformed, but not worried for his just his well-being. His sister took care of him for a while but eventually gave up. It seemed to me they cared for him until they realized that he wasn't transforming back. Once they came to this conclusion, they pretty much put him out of their mind.      To be fair, if I was living in a house with an  abnormally large beetle who was supposedly my family member, I would be very disturbed. I can't really blame them for not wanting to be close to him or see him for that matter. However, my problem comes from what I stated earlier: the fac...

      I must admit that for a great portion of the story, I was utterly horrified at the "ickiness" of having to come face-to-face with a giant bug in one's own home. Even though I do not have a specific phobia, I experience a lot of disgust toward bugs and cannot stand to share space with pests that can crawl or fly toward me. On a purely human level of a knee-jerk reaction, I relate to the fear that Gregor's family displayed at the very thought of him. Kafka does an incredible job of painting vivid images in order to give a full picture of the grotesque circumstances of the story. At one moment on page 7, the outwardly monstrous image of Gregor's interaction with his mother in which "he could not resist snapping his jaws together a couple of times at the sight of the streaming coffee" plays like that of a scene from a horror movie. However, the most terrifying aspect of this story is that his family never truly pauses in an attempt to have any empathy ...

        Throughout The Metamorphosis, Kafka’s personal post-modern views and reflections of his own life play a key role in the message and plot to the story. The character of Gregor reflects many of Kafka’s own feelings, such as his abusive relationship with his father and feelings of helplessness and uselessness. Many times throughout the story, the family would be better off with Gregor dead, much like Kafka’s own feelings that the world would be better off without him. When Gregor’s death finally comes at the end of the story, this is actually the case for everyone, including himself. Gregor is done with his miserable existence, and the family is overall better for multiple reasons. While much could be said regarding Gregor’s obsession with work, the postmodernist and absurdist views held by Kafka portrayed throughout the story, or the reflections of Kafka’s personal life in the story, the topic I found most interesting was this development and ultimate bettermen...

     What is the point of this writing? What do we learn from reading Gregor's misfortune? Relatability can be found, at least for some. At one point or another, most people will have a Gregor moment. A moment in which one feels like they cannot give back to those who give so much to them. Like their lives do not have value. Maybe it is the loss of a job like Gregor, as a man-sized bug cannot go out into the world and function. Perhaps it is an emotional burden. One works but does not feel or see its benefits to others and feels as if they are not pulling their weight. If you find yourself here, I employ you not to think those around you are like Gregor's family or that you are like Gregor. While it is easy to morph your troubles to be like Gregor's in some sense, I promise you, your life has value and improves the world around it.       Another reliability can be caring for someone who cannot care for themselves. These situations can be challenging bu...

 In Kafka’s Metamorphosis , there is a clear disconnection between Gregor Samsa’s mind and his body. In the beginning part of the book, Samsa tries to get out of bed and mentally has the strength to do so, but his body will not follow his mind. He also desperately wants to go to work in order to provide for his family, even though he’s an insect. Throughout the book, Samsa’s mind starts becoming less human and more like an insect as time passes. I think the last little bit of Samsa’s humanness leaves him when the furniture is removed from his room so he is free to crawl around wherever he pleases. I feel like this is a good contrast of our connect to God when we become Christians. There is a clear disconnect between us and God before we become Christians. But after we accept Christ, that connection is supposed to become stronger with each passing day.  I commented on Emma Landry’s and Madalyn’s posts.

In The Metamorphosis , the whole story revolves around Gregor turning into a bug. The man's alteration, however, goes further than his bodily form. The change renders him useless; Gregor turns from his family's productive breadwinner into their greatest nuisance! And perhaps more bothersome still, he has no hope that anything can be done to improve his situation. Gregor is thus left without any real reason to live. As a bug, Gregor's life is a meaningless life. There is an interesting framework called the Four Pillars of Meaning that may help one understand how Gregor lacks meaning in his life as a bug. First, Gregor lacks a sense of belonging , meaning he has no healthy relationship with another person. This is made abundantly clear as the one person he admires most, his sister, tells Mr. and Mrs. Samsa that "we must try to get rid of it. We've tried to look after it and put up with it as far as is humanly possible" (page 20, 1st full paragraph). Second, Gre...

 After reading Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis for a second time personally, I was able to infer much more correlation between my prior knowledge of the author and the storyline of the novel. Turning curiosity into research ultimately revealed that perhaps Gregor the bug is an extraordinary representation of Kafka’s internal struggle and upbringing.  Kafka was raised in a small Jewish family under the influence of his business driven and subside father who placed Kafka under an immense amount of pressure to take over the family business. Because Kafka chose to pursue writing as his career and not just his pastime, his father abused him physically and emotionally, seeing him as weak and a disappointment. Immediately, readers of The Metamorphosis  notice a parallel between Kafka’s father and Gregor’s father depicted in the novel. Gregor’s father was implied to be very short tempered and was even admitted to chase his son around with a cane and a newspaper at the slight...

I would like to place a general trigger warning here. For those who are new here, all of my blogs have been vents that I tie back to the story. Most of them pertain to my mental health. If you are in any way, shape, or form not entirely stable, I wouldn't suggest reading my post. Also, this one is kind of yelling at the sky, so. Fair warning.       I tried to eat. I really did. I couldn't. I couldn't do it. My mind is not here. I wish this was something new, but it isn't. Every day I sit, one wrong move away from my mind flying off into the unknown. It was supposed to help. When we were young it did, it did help. But now? Now it hurts. Everything hurts. I'm sick of being broken. I'm sick of being helpless, of being one wrong move away from having a new headmate, another anxiety attack, a new depressive spiral. I'm sick of things getting worse and never getting better. Why can't anything just stay? Why do I have to wait and wait and hope and hope for some...

    Allow me to preface this post by stating that there is a difference between a depressive episode and actually suffering from depression. A depressive episode does eventually subside, whereas depression itself is a consistent state. That being said, Kafka's descriptions of Gregor in The Metamorphosis upon first waking up remind me of what it is like to experience a depressive episode. Gregor wakes up feeling unlike himself, as if there is something wrong. He gives a description of what he can see of his body, noting his disgust at the way his body and arms look as he tries to get out of bed. He has the same persistent thought throughout his internal monologue: I have to get out of bed. Gregor makes observations about his internal and external environment, giving the reader a backstory on why he is so determined to get out of bed. However, no matter how much he tries, no matter the goals he sets for himself, Gregor cannot force himself to get up.      I exper...

      One of the oddest things and possibly saddest things in the Metamorphosis is not that Gregor turns into an insect, but that despite turning into an insect, Gregor is worried about not being able to go to work. There are so many times throughout the story where I wondered why Gregor had not had a more dramatic reaction to his predicament. In fact, he seems to only express curiosity about what has happened to him, at least in the beginning. He is rather more worried that he is late to work and has missed the train. For instance, in response to his appearance, he says. "What has happened to me?" (Kafka 1). In response to seeing he is late for work, he expresses, "Heavenly Father!" (1).       These thoughts come not for a love for his job (he expresses a great hatred for his job and his boss), but his thoughts come from his fear of not being able to provide for his family. Gregor has been working nonstop to provide for his family and pay off his fami...

     In the metamorphosis, the family's son Gregor, who they rely on very much, becomes unable to support them. To survive, they sell objects around the home, give rooms to boarders, and work more. They fear of what Gregor has become and the work required to care for him puts heavy stress on the family. Gregor's transformation uncovers problems that have long existed in the family. They were already tight on money, they were not working while relying on Gregor, and they hardly spent time together "Then all three of them left the apartment together, which was more then they had done for months" (Kafka 23). The metamorphosis, though being very hard on the family, helped them. The whole family moved to an easier lifestyle in a smaller apartment as they have been wanting to do. On top of this the father got a job, the sister faced some of her fears as she learned to take on more responsibilities, and they began to spend more time with each other as they planned for a bett...

      Kafka sets the scene in the third paragraph by explaining the atmosphere in which the work takes place. He describes the weather as rainy and dreary. He states," Gregor's eyes turned next to the window, and the overcast sky- one could hear raindrops beating on the window gutter- made him quite  melancholy." One could argue it is not only raining but storming due to the diction "Beating" that Kafka uses. This sets the opening scene as dreary and down. He then goes on to say," What about sleeping a little longer and forgetting all this nonsense," This statement makes me think of when times are hectic and tough and all it makes you want to do is sleep. I think we all can definitely relate to this statement. I think this is especially true for college students during finals week, a week when you know you should be studying but decide to sleep instead. Sleep is a coping mechanism we often use to avoid problems or unwanted work. This is illustrated by ...

         Starting off I will have to say that this is one of my favorites stories I have read so far in Honors English. I am not sure what exactly makes Metamorphosis one of my favorites but I think I will have to attribute it to how unique this story is. The story is about a guy named Gregor who turned into what I imagined is a giant roach which in turn places a huge burden on his family. His family then has to learn how to exist with this creature and how they are going to survive since Gregor can no longer work. The setting of this story takes place in Gregor’s room and from his perspective, but I do not think the metamorphosis that the story is name after is Gregor turning into a roach, but rather Gregor’s sister’s character changing.       At the start of the story, Gregor’s sister was just a young seventeen year old girl who had no real responsibilities of her own and would only help around the house. After Gregor’s change, she stepped up he...

     I don’t even know where to start— this book was heartbreaking. Outside of the general disgust I had for the idea of someone turning into a filthy insect (I strongly dislike bugs of any kind), there was so much to unpack in this tale. There are too many things I could address but I want to focus on the personal connection I had to the story. WARNING: this might sound cruel but it’s my honest experience— I promise I’m not a terrible person. When Gregor turns into an insect, his family is horrified, but they still look after him. His sister takes on the responsibility of caring for his needs directly. She brought him food and moved the furniture to make sure he was as comfortable as he could be. In addition to the change in his form, he can’t communicate with anyone which is further dehumanizing. His family is struggling financially and although they loved him he proves to be nothing more than a burden on his family. By the end of the story, his family is almost reli...

      Reading Kafka's "The Metamorphosis", I can only think of how crazy, disgusting, and saddening this story is. The descriptions of Gregor's insect body was enough to gross me out. What really stood out to me was the fact how Gregor was only worried about work. We learn that before he became a large insect, he never went out during evenings to have fun. When the chief clerk comes to check on Gregor, his mother says : " The boy thinks about nothing but his work. It makes me almost cross the way he never goes out in the evening; he's been here all last week and has stayed at home every single evening. He just sits there quietly at the table reading a newspaper or looking through railroad timetables. The only amusement he gets is working with his jigsaw." Gregor does not know what to do with his downtime because he only wanted to work. Even when he becomes a giant insect, he is not concerned about that, instead he worries about getting to work on tim...

 Okay, I need to get something off my chest. I need to get this story off my mind. It has plagued me since I have first read it, and I don’t think I’ll ever forget it. I had no clue how affected I would be by such a short story. I’ve read plenty of short stories and few sentence horror stories, but none of them have compared to “The Metamorphosis”. Abigale did a fantastic job in showing how the  wording changes throughout the story to convey different emotions, but I could not get out of the ‘funk’ of sadness the story hooked me on. When I first read it, when I was younger, I likened the mother, sister, and father to the Dursley family from “Harry Potter”.  I full heartedly agree with Emmett in disliking the sister, Grete. I don’t see how wanting your brother turned insect to die and him later dying is a probable cause of growing up. It seemed like she already accepted his death way before the end. If anything, I believe this shows her immaturity. The way she didn’t even ...

 This story had me feeling several different ways. First I was entirely mind blown by how Gregor was responding to his predicament. I can only imagine how I would react if I woke up and realized I had become some kind of eight-legged bug over night. I would be terrified, to say the least. But no, Gregor instead takes this new development in stride and worries about other things: his job, his social life, his sister, his parents' debt. Because he is late for work he has nothing on his mind except trying to get out of bed and on the next train so that he doesn't end up losing his job. But, Gregor/s strangeness aside, my real beef is with Grete.  After realizing her brother has turned into an insect, Grete almost seems to be his caretaker and worries about his wellbeing (bringing him food and whatnot). But sooner than later she begins to neglect even doing that and begins to see Gregor as entirely an insect with no humanity left. While reading this section of the story my heart a...

  "As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect" (Kafka, 1).  If first lines say anything about a story, this line says it all. What an unbelievable story! The reader is plunged into what seems like a strange nightmare. Kafka's writing seems to be intentionally harsh and unsettling. I am led to question the nature of such an absurd plot. Whose metamorphosis is the focus of the story? It seems, aside from the strikingly obvious change that he undergoes, Gregor's family undergoes a metamorphosis of similar magnitude, though not simply in appearance.  The beginning of the story sets the stage for the family's state of affairs. They have been living on the income Gregor can provide. He seems to have willingly given up his life to support his family. His parents and sister have led a relativley easy life. One has the sense that theirs is a humdrum existence. Suddenly, their fortune changes... for th...

 At first glance, Kafka's Metamorphosis is absurd. Impossible. However, looking deeper into the story, it's hard not to cry.  Even as Gregor goes through the turmoil of a transformation he can't describe, he attempts to keep working. But he's told his worth at work was being questioned before, and now it is officially over. He can't be the employee he needed to be. The devastation is felt even more when he finds out that his family didn't really need his support in the first place. So, not only is his "worth" now questionable, but his past worth is now nil in his eyes.  As a type two on the enneagram, my greatest fear is being unneeded, unwanted, and unloved. And God forbid that I should be a burden or obstacle to someone else. I would rather die. Perhaps this is why Gregor's ending is so heartbreaking. Sometimes isolation, the fact that you bring nothing to the table, and are seen as an inconvenience, is death in itself. But what is more heartbre...

      The "Metamorphosis" was saddening to read. I felt immense pain when reading of Gregor's decline and eventual demise. After many hours of pondering, I still have not determined exactly what the overall theme of the piece is. However, I do have a hypothesis of what the theme could potentially be. "Metamorphosis" is a story about the balance between work and family life. In Gregor's case he had a very unbalanced work/life balance. Although Gregor suddenly finds himself to have the form of an insect , I think he has mentally been one for years. Why do I make such a claim? The second he awakens all he thinks about is work. He is afraid to miss his train, afraid of the boss, worried about his image at work, etc. He recalls to himself from page two to five, all the work he has done and continues to have to do. One might think he would be concerned about his family, but this is not the case.  He is concerned about providing for them. Gregor is revealed on page...

  Hello there! To our new folk: Welcome to Honors! To our returning folk: Welcome back to Honors! My name is Isabelle Ferguson, and I serve as the President of Honors. Abigale Bell is our wonderful Vice President. Lily Caswell is our marvelous Secretary. As we dive head first into the upcoming year, there are a few things you need to know and remember about the Honors program. This message is mainly for our new scholars. For those of you aware of all of this information, feel free to skip to the end of this post to find out who will be grading you this semester.  There are no quizzes or tests in Honors. Grades are provided based on attendance/class participation, blogs, and papers (explicative and research). The papers will be addressed later in the semester. As we mentioned, there is a blog post due every week. We have listed the criteria for these posts below. Criteria Blog posts are due Monday at 11:59 pm, and comments are due Tuesday at 9:29 am. POINTS WILL BE DEDUCTED FRO...