Compose an essay analyzing Gregor’s character and how it develops over the course of the story.

The major assignment for this week is to compose a 900-word essay on a central theme that appears in one of the selected readings: The Metamorphosis or The Waste Land.

Select one of the following questions to respond to. The answer to the question you select should serve as the thesis to your paper. This thesis should be included in an introductory paragraph.
The paragraphs following the introduction should support and defend this thesis by analyzing and discussing specific examples and quotations from the reading you selected.
Review the academic articles you located in the Week 4 Library Assignment. Select at least two of these articles to incorporate into your paper as additional evidence in support of your argument.
Provide a concluding paragraph that summarizes the key points of your paper.
Questions:

Compose an essay analyzing Gregor’s character and how it develops over the course of the story. Start by exploring Gregor’s identity. How does Gregor see himself, his job, his family? Has his view changed by the end of the play? Pay special attention to Gregor’s thoughts as well as to the dialogue between him and other characters. As the story progresses, Gregor becomes more isolated, and he is treated as an outcast. One way to approach this assignment is to focus on how Gregor adapts to his new and changing situation. Another is to delve into the subtopic of personal identity and family duty.
Many scholars suggest that The Metamorphosis depicts the Industrial Revolution’s dehumanization of the worker—a “deadening of the soul.” Gregor’s transformation into a giant bug symbolizes his alienation from society and his loss of human self. Gregor is valued only for as long as he can work. He labors for others and has little control over his life. Analyze the story’s depiction of an industrialized society and peoples’ relationships to each other within the social structure.
From its initial publication, The Waste Land was seen as Eliot’s attempt to convey the loss and destruction brought about by WWI. The poem is deliberately constructed from a series of disconnected images and allusions which Eliot calls fragments. Select three or four of these fragments or images for your analysis. What do the fragments you have selected reveal about Eliot’s view of modern Europe? How do they convey the sense of physical and cultural loss brought about by WWI?