These are some students’ respond to question about “The Cask of Amontillado” story , please make a respond for each students answer.

I need 4 responds one per each student answer (100 words x 4 = 400 words at least)

1. List three symbols from the story. What makes you think they are symbols? What do you think they mean?

The symbols in the story include; Food, the uniform of Gregor’s father and the picture of the woman in furs.

Food is used as a symbol in this short story. It represented the feeling of the family members of Samsa towards Gregor. For example, in the story, we find out that Grete was the closest one to Gregor since she as feeding him.

The fathers’ uniform is a simple because it represented the dignity he had. It also symbolized Gregor’s feelings of pity and respect for him.

The picture of the woman in furs is a symbol because it represented the former humanity of Gregor. When his mother and sister were clearing his room, he clings to the picture just to symbolize that he was human and that was one of the things that he loved.

2. What is the mood of Gregor’s family at the end of the story? Why? How does their mood at the end compare to the way they feel at the beginning?

At the end of the story, the family was in a happy mood. The family took the electric tram and went out to enjoy for the first time after such an extended period. They seem to have been relieved by the death of Gregor who was a source of shame for the family members because of his state. They go ahead to prepare for the marriage of their daughter Grete.

At the beginning of the story, I can say that there was a tense mood. Think of waking up only to find one of the family members transformed to a bug? It is shocking. He was crawling rather than walking.

At the beginning of the story, we can also talk about a claustrophobic mood. That Gregor can no longer move about but is confined to his room. He had to crawl around the room, rest at the bottom of the chair and on the ceilings and the walls of the house. Even the mother and sister removes the furniture so that he can have enough space in the room to crawl.

3. What is “comic” in this story? Why does it strike you as funny or absurd?

I found Gregor’s though process in the very beginning both comic and absurd. The fact that he was more bothered by being late for work and what might happen then his sudden shift was darkly comedic. I imagine that if I woke up as a bug I would be screaming and flailing around in a panic, but Gregor views his new state as being less worthy of his time than being set back at work and the consequences it might bring. His pragmatism and rationality are so extreme that one cannot rightly describe with those words, since I think any rational human would not calmly handle waking up as a bug.

4. Why does Gregor turn into a bug? Why not a pony or a kitten?

I think there are a few reasons for this. One is that Gregor had to turn into a being that would cause people to be horrified. A kitten or pony are cute and often sympathetic creatures, so the family may have reacted with some surprise but not the extreme horror as what we saw in this story. He needed to have a form that would disgust others in order to work. Also, I think that his being an insect had something to do with Kafka’s own self image. The little biography in the beginning makes it sound like this story was at least emotionally autobiographical, so I think the transformation into such a low creature reflected how Kafka saw himself.