Dr. Norman Prinsky

Humn. 2002: World Humanities II

Quiz on Franz Kafka's "The Metamorphosis"

1. Franz Kafka's "The Metamorphosis" exemplifies the language and literature of: (a) England (b) France (c) Germany (d) Italy (e) Norway

3. Technically, the literary genre of Kafka's "The Metamorphosis" might be considered: (a) epic (b) novelette (c) comedy (d) prose poem (e) tetralogy

4. Biographical factors contributing to Kafka's feeling of isolation and alienation both in his life and prose fiction, and often reflected in the prose fiction, were all the following except which one: (a) Jewishness (b) tuberculosis (c) insurance company job (d) Oedipus complex (e) his marriage

5. Besides Kafka, Jews contributing importantly to modern culture have included all the following except which one: (a) Leopold Senghor (b) Sigmund Freud (c) Karl Marx (d) Arnold Scho(e)nberg (e) Marc Chagall

6. According to the NAWM introduction, the system that Kafka's protagonists struggle with, reflected also in "The Metamorphosis," includes all the following except which one: (a) the Church (b) bureaucracy (c) the family (d) language (e) social mores

7. According to the NAWM introduction, allegorical or symbolic themes in Kafka's fiction (including "The Metamorphosis") predict or parallel the modern philosophy of: (a) dialectical materialism (b) existentialism (c) logical positivism (d) phenomenalism

8. According to the NAWM introduction, Gregor is more pathetic than tragic because he never gains, as symbolized when the huge insect is swept out with the trash: (a) victory (b) riches (c) insight (d) saintliness

9. A modern art parallel to Kafka's "The Metamorphosis," involving the “defamiliarization” of everyday items (depicted in naturalistic detail), is to be found in all of the following except which one (from Ch. 33 of GATA-12c): (a) Henri Matisse’s Red Room (Harmony in Red) (b) Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain (second edition) (c) Kurt Schwitters’ Merz 19 (d) Man Ray’s Cadeau (Gift) (e) Giorgio de Chirico’s Melancholy and Mystery of a Street

10. Part of the recurrent but oblique religious symbolism in "The Metamorphosis" is implied by all the following except which one: (a) the first description of Gregor's new body (part 1, par. 1) (b) expletive symbolism (mild oaths) (c) the lodgers who come to live with the Samsas (d) the physical stigmata inflicted on Gregor by his boss in Part 1 (e) some of the weapons the father uses to force Gregor back into his room (end of Part 2, into Part 3)

11. Important recurrent symbols in "The Metamorphosis" are all the following except which one: (a) door (b) silverware (c) window (d) violin (e) lock and key

12. The description of Gregor’s legs (part 1, pars. 1, 3, 9, 12, 14, 15, 29, 30) suggests the idea or ideas of: (a) love vs. hate (b) power vs. powerlessness (c) rationality vs. irrationality (d) power vs. powerlessness, as well as rationality vs. irrationality

13. The exact nature of Gregor’s job (what it is that Gregor does for a living), often referred to (part 1, pars. 2, 4, 27), evokes the idea of what opposition: (a) ethnocentrism vs. relativism (b) art vs. science (c) isolation vs. community (d) candor vs. lying

14. As it is described, the way Gregor learns to successfully move early in Part 1 symbolizes: (a) Gregor's method of achieving managerial level in his company (b) the biological principle of ontology recapitulating phylogeny (c) duality between mind or reason, versus body or sexuality (d) the successful athletic career Gregor gave up to go to work

15. The glass-covered picture in Gregor's room, as it emerges in the first two parts of "The Metamorphosis," symbolizes all the following except which one: (a) lost romances in Gregor's life (b) Gregor's admiration of technology (c) Gregor's attraction to art, symbolized also in his fretsaw (d) sexual tension between brother and sister

16. How the manager uses office furniture to wield power in communication (part 1, par. 5) relates to the academic study or area of: (a) kinesics (b) morphemics (c) proxemics (d) stylistics

17. One of the major and basic ironies of "The Metamorphosis," as indicated in the language of Gregor's description of himself on the job in par. 6 of Part 1 (and later), is that Gregor's new form represents: (a) modern beauty (b) no change (c) great power (d) contemporary democracies

18. The problem that Gregor has with his voice and communication, beginning in par. 7 of Part 1, and continuing in the work (e.g., pars. 20-22 and 27-29 of Part 1), may symbolize not only a sociological or psychological problem, but also that of the modern: (a) scientist (b) philosopher (c) artist (d) economist (e) politician

19. The way Gregor is depicted (e.g., part 1, par. 7) as initially communicating with his mother, sister, and father, has symbolic overtones of: (a) branching out (b) stepping down (c) hemming in (d) milling around

20. The way the family members communicate with Gregor initially in Part 1: (a) differentiates each family member in his or her tone (b) symbolizes the three major world religions (c) emphasizes their sameness in their feelings toward him (d) extremely contrasts families of Kafka's time with those of today

21. The passage describing the location of the “searing pain” Gregor feels (par. 10) as he deals with his new situation suggests which main component of Gregor’s life that has been deficient: (a) sexuality (b) travel (c) diet (d) education

22. As conveyed through the portrayal of the manager (or "chief clerk," in one translation of "The Metamorphosis") in Part 1, the business bosses are all the following except which one: (a) inhumanly demanding (b) excessively authoritarian (c) undeviatingly truthful (d) unscrupulously blackmailing

23. The description of Gregor’s hobby (part 1, par. 17) suggests the symbolism of: (a) education (b) art (c) limitation or restriction (d) art, and limitation or restriction

24. The manager’s description of Gregor’s behavior as desire “to start strutting about” (part 1, par. 19) exemplifies, given Gregor’s situation: (a) unconscious empathy (b) dramatic irony (c) appropriate moralizing (d) penetrating insight

25. How Gregor manages to turn the door key (part 1, par. 22) suggests the symbolism of all of the following except which one: (a) the difficulties of staying honest on the job (b) the difficulties of managing language (c) the difficulties of the literary artist (d) the difficulties of communication

26. The two instruments used by Gregor's father to herd the insect back into the bedroom at the end of Part 1 symbolize all the following except which one: (a) commerce (b) paternal phallicism (c) society (d) religion

27. The architectural symbolism of what the mother does across the room from Gregor, while the father is herding Gregor, is (part 1, par. 30): (a) economizing (b) escape (c) enlightenment (d) equality

28. The repeated reference to the physical location of Gregor’s pain -- a motif in Part 2 and elsewhere (e.g., part 2, pars. 1, 2) implies the symbolism of: (a) broken heart (b) nose to the grindstone (c) Achilles heel (d) kneejerk liberalism

29. What Gregor notices on the ceiling of his bedroom at the opening of part 2 (par. 1) helps suggest a recurrent subject in the work of: (a) nationalism (b) technology (c) representative democracy vs. popular democracy (d) university schooling

30. What Gregor notices on the ceiling of his bedroom at the opening of part 2 (par. 1), in conjunction with the description of the rest of the room, connects to a motif in the work of several other such references, related to what in painting is referred to as (see the Glossary in the back of GATA-12c): (a) chiaroscuro (b) chromatic abstraction (c) collage (d) colorito (e) continuous narration

31. What Gregor had secretly planned to use extra money for (part 2, pars. 12, 15) from his income suggests his extra closeness to: (a) father (b) mother (c) sister (d) uncle

32. The simile or analogy of the manner in which the sister visits Gregor in par. 7 of Part 2 conveys the themes in the work that are similar to those of which book of the Bible: (a) Exodus (b) Ruth (c) Ezekiel (d) Psalms

33. The father's having held back money, as revealed in Part 2, is treated, typically in Kafka, as: (a) negative (b) positive (c) positive and negative (d) neither positive nor negative

34. What Gregor does with a sheet (part 2, par. 18; “One time . . . ”) suggests all of the following except which one: (a) his love of physical comfort (b) increasing alienation (c) brotherly love for a sister (d) innate considerateness (e) his self-effacement in his former life

35. As depicted in Parts 2 and 3, the changes or metamorphoses of the father, mother, and sister--physically, mentally, and emotionally (including their relationship to Gregor)--resulting from Gregor's metamorphosis are treated, typically in Kafka, as: (a) negative (b) positive (c) positive and negative (d) neither positive nor negative

36. One theme suggested by the metamorphoses of the father, mother, and sister after Gregor's metamorphosis is that: (a) cyclical changes in families are inevitable in modern capitalist economies (b) even the most benign dominance produces ill effects (c) unforeseen ecological disasters attend the rise of technology (d) marriage and the family in the middle class are doomed in the modern world

37. The conflict of Greta with her mother over the treatment of Gregor, for instance, about the issue of furniture in Gregor’s room (part 2, pars. 21-22; “When he heard,” “But his sister”) reveals motivations in Greta that are: (a) positive (b) negative (c) both positive and negative (d) cannot be determined

38. The reference to Gregor possibly being “guilty of some outrage” against some particular individuals (part 2, par. 28; “A short time”) has symbolic overtones of: (a) the Czech-German conflict (b) legality (c) Kafka’s training in Talmud (d) sexuality

39. Gregor's dehumanization is symbolized in Part 2 by all the following except which one: (a) disgusting growth of his appetite for food (b) increasing nearsightedness (c) new, favorite recreational in his room (d) a desire to get rid of his furniture

40. In Part 3, the father's treatment of his uniform when at home, suggests that he: (a) rebels against authority (b) empathizes with his wife in clothes cleaning and pressing (c) chooses comfort over symbolism (d) is completely a company man

41. In Part 3, the wife's new job symbolically associates her, as has her attire at the end of Part 2, with: (a) maternalism (b) sexuality (c) feminism (d) asexuality

42. The description of the boarders, including their number and facial appearance (and their interrelation among themselves), in part 3 (pars. 9-11, 14-15, 33, 35), helps suggest the symbolism of all of the following subjects except which one: (a) conventional society (b) the subjugation of Gregor’s family (c) male authority (d) conflict between the upper and lower classes (e) parody of the Magi in the gospel of Matthew

43. In Part 3, the boarders' response to competing attractions (pars. 12-16) in the Samsa household one night symbolically conveys the idea about the public or ordinary society that it: (a) prefers sensationalism to art (including art music) (b) hungers for cultural education (c) gravitates inevitably toward feminine sexuality (d) considers the underlying monetary value in all things

44. In Part 3, the treatment of Gregor's room suggests all the following except which one: (a) even horrors can become adjusted to as routine (b) Gregor has become one more item of refuse (c) a compensating obsession about cleanliness develops from sorrows and disorders in life (d) mother and daughter compete over son/brother in one archetypal family triangle

45. In Part 3, the member of the household whose betrayal of Gregor is the greatest and most poignant is: (a) the father's (b) the mother's (c) the sister's (d) the cleaning woman's

46. In the last several paragraphs of Part 3, the maid, the father, and the mother are all depicted, straight or symbolically, as attempting to engage in all the following except which one: (a) bonding (b) mourning (c) storytelling (d) communicating

47. The last several paragraphs of Part 3 have an underlying archetypal and religious pattern or symbolism (straight and ironic) of: (a) death to rebirth or renewal (b) journey through many temptations to spiritual salvation (c) cycle from purity and religiosity to experience to renewed purity and religiosity (d) ignorance to enlightenment