Literary Analysis - English Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Literary Analysis - English - Essay Example The story â€Å"A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings† draws a vivid conflict-line between belief and disbelief, religion and secularism and at the same time, the psychological impact of the extraordinary on human mind revealed as ennui and greed. But in the novella, â€Å"Metamorphosis† religion and belief in God and supernatural are apparently in a reticent state. Even then the text focuses on human psychology while treating the extraordinary and the supernatural with ennui from a cultural point of view. Both of the texts are strikingly similar in their approach and this essay will explore the relationship between the religious and the secular in each story in an attempt to discover how each author comments on the human tendency to treat the extraordinary with ennui and human greed. By confronting the religious and magical with the reactions of the characters in each work, both authors have much to say about human nature and above all the negative aspects of the human co ndition which show themselves as a result of supernatural events. The two short stories are very similar in their discussion of the division between secularism and the sacred. There is an extremely strong symbolic use of food in both stories which makes deliberate reference to the bible. In ‘The Metamorphosis’, Gregor is assaulted with apples by his father when he ventures into the living room. In this scene â€Å"something or other thrown casually flew close [to Gregor] and landed in front of him. It was an apple. Immediately a second one flew after it† (Kafka 64). Kafka is at pains to underline that the particular fruit is significant by placing it within its own brief sentence. The religious symbolism is clear, since the apple is associated with the fall of mankind in the bible. This is the first time that Gregor comes into direct contact his father after his