Question

Select TWO pieces of textual evidence from The Metamorphosis that BEST illustrate the theme that life is unpredictable.

"One morning, when Gregor Samsa woke from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin."

"The next train went at seven; if he were to catch that he would have to rush like mad and the collection of samples was still not packed, and he did not at all feel particularly fresh and lively."

"He really ought to have expected things to have changed, but still, still, was that really his father?"

"No-one dared to remove the apple lodged in Gregor's flesh, so it remained there as a visible reminder of his injury."

"Who, in this tired and overworked family, would have had time to give more attention to Gregor than was absolutely necessary?"

"She still cleared up the room in the evening, but now she could not have been any quicker about it."

Answer 1

• "One morning, when Gregor Samsa woke from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin."
• "He really ought to have expected things to have changed, but still, still, was that really his father?"

Step-by-step explanation:

In the first sentence shown above, we can see that the fact that Gregor wakes up transformed into a horrible worm, is something totally unpredictable and unusual to happen to human beings. What Gregor expected was for him to wake up and follow his routine of going to work, however, this transformation brought something totally new and unpredictable to his life.

The second sentence also shows a transformation that had a totally unpredictable result. Gregor's father started to behave in a way so different from the eventual one that Gregor was not recognizing him and had doubts if that was really his father. Once again life was unpredictable.

Answer 2

I believe that the two pieces of textual evidence from The Metamorphosis that best illustrate the theme that life is unpredictable are:

1) "One morning, when Gregor Samsa woke from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin." [here, Gregor wakes up from his sleep to see himself turned into a bug, a very unpredictable thing]

3) "He really ought to have expected things to have changed, but still, still, was that really his father?" [the change his father went through is also an example of how life is unpredictable]