Franz Kafka elicits feelings of sympathy and dismay through his book The Metamorphosis. These feeling are created by the violent situations Gregor experiences and his empathetic family. A reader would feel dismay at a book when a character doesn't act the way he or she feels like they should. This dismay would be caused by the reader’s consternation and distress about the current situation. Gregor acts calm and collective after finding out that he has turned into a “monstrous vermin” (Kafka 3). Not feeling satisfied with Gregors reaction, the readers undergo dismay, because they feel that he should react differently after noticing his change. When a reader has a common feeling between with a character they often experience sympathetic feelings. Feelings of pity and sorrow for someone or something's misfortune forms sympathy. Gregor struggles with the fact that he can no longer help support his family and puts himself in dangerous situations while trying to help. This causes a sympathetic feeling toward Gregor. Kafka creates a situation that makes the reader frustrated in the beginning of the book. He uses Gregors actions and reactions to his metamorphosis to create the dismay. However, as the book progresses, he imputes Gregor's family’s harsh reactions and sets up a situation that forces the reader to sympathize with Gregor. Kafka uses Gregor’s struggles to evoke the reader's sympathy. Kafka creates reader dismay through Gregors actions in the beginning of The Metamorphosis, but progressively elicits the reader's sympathy by demonstrating Gregor’s family’s lack of empathy towards his metamorphosis.
Part one of The Metamorphosis has the most situations that create dismay towards Gregor. When Gregor first wakes up, he acts completely calm and reasonable. Halfway through the first page, Kafka notes that Gregor couldn't “throw himself onto his right side,” (3) so trying to go back to sleep would be “impracticable” (3). This causes the reader to...