Question

Read the following passage and answer the question that follows: from Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka (1)One morning, when Gregor Samsa woke from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin. He lay on his armour-like back, and if he lifted his head a little he could see his brown belly, slightly domed and divided by arches into stiff sections. The bedding was hardly able to cover it and seemed ready to slide off any moment. His many legs, pitifully thin compared with the size of the rest of him, waved about helplessly as he looked. (2)"What's happened to me?" he thought. It wasn't a dream. His room, a proper human room although a little too small, lay peacefully between its four familiar walls. A collection of textile samples lay spread out on the table -Samsa was a travelling salesman - and above it there hung a picture that he had recently cut out of an illustrated magazine and housed in a nice, gilded frame. It showed a lady fitted out with a fur hat and fur boa who sat upright, raising a heavy fur muff that covered the whole of her lower arm towards the viewer. (3)Gregor then turned to look out the window at the dull weather. Drops of rain could be heard hitting the pane, which made him feel quite sad. "How about if I sleep a little bit longer and forget all this nonsense", he thought, but that was something he was unable to do because he was used to sleeping on his right, and in his present state couldn't get into that position. However hard he threw himself onto his right, he always rolled back to where he was. He must have tried it a hundred times, shut his eyes so that he wouldn't have to look at the floundering legs, and only stopped when he began to feel a mild, dull pain there that he had never felt before. The above selection describes a scene that should be terrifying. However, the author uses pacing to create a different effect. What is this effect? (5 points)

Select one: a. Romantic b. Humorous c. Bewilderment d. Excitement

Answer 1

The author uses pacing to create the following effect:

c. Bewilderment.

Instead of feeling terrified, the reader is completely disoriented by Gregor Samsa's condition. What causes it is the fact that, although the character has just realized he has turned into a vermin, he is still able to think and reflect upon the situation in a lucid way.

That was one of Franz Kafka's trademarks: the description of overwhelmingly bewildering events in a serene pace which was not only his, but also the character's, who was able to reason despite the absurdity of the events he was going through.