Question

According to some scholars, what is the connotative meaning behind Kafka's use of the German word for vermin?

A. Calling someone a rat in German was complimentary and thought of as kind.
B. Kafka knew that people feared rats and wanted the reader to be afraid of Gregor.
C. Kafka wanted to imply that Gregor was as disgusting as a rat.
D. Jewish people, such as Kafka, were often persecuted and referred to as that word.

Answer 1

D. Jewish people, such as Kafka, were often persecuted and referred to as that word.

Answer 2

The answer is D: ewish people, such as Kafka, were often persecuted and referred to as that word.

The German word that Kafka used in the opening lines of his novella was ungeziefer, which best translates into English as vermin. Kafka made sure that his character, Samsa, was not given a specific form, so that the reader would have to form an image of his character based on imagination and not description. A vermin can be considered a bug, like a cockroach, but it could also be considered a rat. The word was used to designate Jewish people in a very negative sense, as unwelcome within German public life (lebensraum). Later, after Kafka´s death, this word would become pervasive in all forms of anti-Semitic expressions before and during the rise of the Nazi party in Germany.