Kafka was Jewish all of his life and faced anti-Semitism in his birthplace of Prague (b. 1883).

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Prague is the capital of the Czech Republic, then Bohemia

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A close friend of his and fellow writer, Max Brod, “convinced several generations of scholars that his parables were part of an elaborate quest for an unreachable God.”

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Kafka’s father hoped to assimilate Kafka into the Austro-Hungarian Empire, many Jews in Prague shed their traditional ways and gained rights by assimilating

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Hebrew name Amschel—pious(devoutly religious/Making a hypocritical display of virtue) and learned; mother’s side of family more traditionally Jewish As he never really did “find God” does this mean his Hebrew name doesn’t fit him and he was never really meant to be part of the Jewish community?

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Jewish—believe in God, resurrection, Torah, God rewards and punishes

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Man in Silesia tried to convert him to “Jesus” In this particular letter parts of what he is saying to Felice parallel parts of the novella:

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“pour myself into it” (64)

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Harassed by so much=Gregor is burdened with caring for his whole family by working as a travelling businessman which he hates but must do in order to take money in; Kafka has to watch over factory and can’t handle it; Gregor’s way of dealing with it is turning into a vermin which renders him useless and Kafka’s way of dealing with it is turning to a suicide attempt

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Uncertainty with fiancée= Gregor never has time to keep an intimate relationship because of his family’s expectations

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Incapable of coping with office=cannot deal with stress of perfect attendance and effort needed to care for his family through business career he is forced into

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Transformation into a vermin could be an unwanted or unsuccessful conversion from one religion to another, the fact that he’s a vermin proves that he is so far from his old self and the conversion has been negative in that no one wants him any longer, it could represent when at the time in his life he became interested in Yiddish theatre and his dad did not accept it because it went along with Jewish’s old ways which was not accepted in the society Kafka and his family lived in

The Metamorphosis