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The Marxist Literary Lens By: Sarah Anderson, Raul Perez, and Flavio Salazar I.

A Review of Marxism
A. The political and economic theories of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in

which the class struggle is a central element in the analysis of social and economic change for the understanding of societys development
B. The class struggle consists of Bourgeois (Bourgeoisie) and Proletariats II.

Bourgeois are people belonging to the middle class whose lifestyle confine them to hard work and contradictions Proletariats are the industrial wage earners that solely make their living on selling their labor

Marxism and Metamorphosis A. Though Binder's analysis, he explains that Kafka is a Marxist writer because he writes literature through his personal experiences with the struggles of the status quo set up for him
B. In fact, Kafka's life reveals the rightness of the prognosis displaced here onto

the fictional plane III. Lecture Outline A. Paraphrase of Literary Criticism Background history establishes the narrative perspective as the family needs to pay off the debts of the father and Gregor is the only one helping by being a salesman; this emphasizes the negative counterpart of which is Gregor's feebleness in his profession

Gregor overcomes this oppression put on his shoulders by turning into a bug and switching places as the head of the family with his father, where Kafka and Richter expose the economic and moral structure in the Samsa Household

Gregor struggles to maintain moral integrity in his work as a salesman as his steady income allows a bourgeois lifestyle Richter and Kafka highlight the dearth of mobility in a bourgeois culture; anyone who attempts to depart from the bourgeois lifestyle heads toward his or her lonely doom like Gregor after his metamorphosis
B. Examples from Metamorphosis

That was the voice of an animal. (pg.12) - This quote represents the lack of appreciation that Gregor felt when he worked like an animal to support his family

IV.

Reflected Motifs
A. The Need to Escape

He thought back on his family with deep emotion and love. His conviction that he would have to disappear was, if possible, even firmer than his sister's. (pg.51)

B. A Window of Hope

He still saw that outside the window everything was beginning to grow light. Then, without his consent, his head sank down to the floor, and from his nostrils streamed his last weak breath. (pg.51)

V.

Theme from Literary Lens


A. There are two volumes that Kafka wrote that relates back to Marxism, The

Judgment and The Metamorphosis; from a thematic point of view, the similarity consists in the fact that each case a family conflict is depicted, in course of which the sons are involved in a social/economic struggle

Bourgeoisie and Proletariats

Bourgeois and Proletariats

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