... and alienation are at the heart of this surreal story of a man transformed overnight into a kind of beetle. In contrast to much of Kafka's fiction, The Metamorphosis has not a sense of incompleteness. It is formally structured into three Roman-numbered parts, with each section having its own climax. While the father ... as if in alarm and banged the door shut; a stranger might well have thought he had been lying in wait for her there meaning to bite her" (Kafka 30). This same story is Paneloux'; by embracing the plague and decrying resistance, he himself has renounced the world of man. H...

• Word Count: 1386
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School