Learning Log: Post-reading Kafka's letter to his father

Writing About the Novel

Discuss the title of The Metamorphosis and its meaning for the events of the story. Which

characters undergo changes? What are these changes, and how are they brought about?

Focus Question

What causes conflicts between human beings? How can conflicts be peacefully resolved?

Background

It would, perhaps, be difficult to find a father and a son who were more different from each other than

Hermann and Franz Kafka. Hermann was robust, outgoing, and domineering. Franz was frail, introspective, and insecure. Given the differences between them, it is not surprising that they were often at odds.

When Franz was in his thirties, he wrote his father a letter in which he analyzed their strained relationship.

The selection is from the opening passage of the letter.

Responding to the Reading

1. According to Kafka, what is the purpose of the letter? What other purposes might the letter serve?

2. What does Kafka see as the major cause of the conflicts between him and his father? The major effects?

3. Describe the tone of the letter. How might this tone help fulfill the stated purpose of the letter?

4. Making Connections What parallels do you see between Kafka’s relationship with his father and the father-son relationship portrayed in The Metamorphosis?