1. Journal Prompt
August 24, 2012

2. Man v man
Man v nature
Man v society
Man v fate
Man v self

4. Does Death see anything new?

19. - No society has been able to abolish human sadness, no
political system can deliver us from the pain of living, from
our fear of death, our thirst for the absolute. It is the human
condition that directs the social condition, not vice versa.
- Living is abnormal.

20. Doesn’t sound like there is much hope in the world…

22. John Paul Sartre

23. Samuel Beckett

25. Absurd:
Absurdism:
Ridiculously unreasonable
or unsound
A philosophy based on the
belief that the universe is
irrational and
meaningless and that the
search for order brings
the individual into
conflict with the
universe.
Having no rational or
orderly relationship to
human life
Not necessarily comic

26. Nihilism
 A viewpoint that
traditional values and
belief are unfounded and
that existence is
senseless and useless
 A doctrine that denies
and objective ground of
truth and especially of
moral truths
Existentialism
 A philosophy that
focuses on how
individuals function in
an unfathomable and the
plight of the individual
who must assume
responsibility for acts of
free will without any
certain knowledge of
what is right or wrong.

27. The Absurdist abandoned all hope of finding meaning in life
and embraced a sort of nihilism. The Absurdist was
convinced that everything was meaningless. The subjectivity
of a Romantic was appealing to the Absurdist. However, even
that implied that something was transcendent--a desire--and
the Absurdist would have nothing to do with that.

28. Shock or stun the audience
Rely on Symbols
Focus on non-realistic situations to make a point
Heavy on dialogue, short on action.
There is no God.
There is no afterlife.
There is no meaning.

29. Meet Franz Kaf ka. You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

30. Unhappy in life
Unforgettable in
death
Abused by his father
Unloved
Unwanted
Destined to
disappoint
Isolated
Insufficient
Alienated

31. His view on living:
“A First Sign
of the
Beginning
of
Understand
ing is the
Wish to
Die.”

32. His view on living:
“The
meaning of
life is that it
stops.”

33. His view on living:
“Slept,
awoke,
slept,
awoke,
miserable
life.”

34.  “I think we ought to read only the kind of
books that wound or stab us. If the book
we're reading doesn't wake us up with a
blow to the head, what are we reading for?
So that it will make us happy, as you write?
Good Lord, we would be happy precisely if
we had no books, and the kind of books
that make us happy are the kind we could
write ourselves if we had to. But we need
books that affect us like a disaster, that
grieve us deeply, like the death of someone
we loved more than ourselves, like being
banished into forests far from everyone, like
a suicide. A book must be the axe for the
frozen sea within us. That is my belief.”
Kafka’s view of
literature

35. Any
surprise
he died
young?

36.  Read “The Metamorphosis” chapter 1 (pp 11-24)
 Write a one paragraph summary of the chapter.
 Look online for summaries of transformation
myths (Arcas, Arachne, Atlas, Callisto, Charbydis,
Cygnus, Echo, Narcissus)
 Based on your research, is Gregor’s transformed
figure an appropriate one for his life?