Period 12

After reading Kafka's Letters to Father, write a response that shows your understanding of Franz's relationship with his father Hermann. Be sure to comment on a specific quote from the Letters or show a connection between The Metamorphosis and Letters to Father. The questions posted are only here to get you started in case you get stuck. Do not feel as though you have to be boxed in by these. If there is something interesting that struck you while reading, feel free to respond to that. In addition, if you read a previous post and wish to build on that go right ahead. If you do so, just be sure to provide your own connection or quote.

1. Before Gregor dies at the end of The Metamorphosis we get the sense that he is tired of dealing with his family and just wants it all to be over. Do you think Franz Kafka felt similar exhaustion with his own father? Explain.
2. Kafka explains how evidently most of his feelings were influenced by his father's behavior and relationship with him. However, to some degree Franz Kafka is to blame for his own emotions and actions. To what degree is his father to blame? To what degree is F.Kafka to blame?
3. How does Franz's childhood memory of whimpering for water at night and not getting any compare to the different levels of starvation (literally and symbolically) Gregor goes through in Part III of the novella?

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

The beginning of chapter two begins with a gruesome dream that then leads to Ishmael having a flashback of  his time as a boy soldier. He says, "Memories I sometimes wish I could wash away, even though I am aware that they are an important part of what my life is; who I am now" (Beah 19). Why is remembering his story and retelling it so important?