My Lovely Car Misadventure in Formal Diction

Whilst driving to my establishment for education, Olympia High School, a seemingly trivial drizzle of rain fell, dampening the roads around us. Mid conversation, much to the dismay of my step mother and myself, a herculean force jolted us forward in our seats. My seat belt dug itself into my chest, while my neck simultaneously slammed my head into the headrest. My step mother let out a shrill, bloodcurdling scream. The car behind us had hit us. What had seemed like overwhelming, brutal collision was, in fact, nothing more than a infinitesimal dent in the rear fender.

After an insignificant amount of time that went on for what felt like eternity, the blaring sirens and bright, flashing lights of a police car could be seen.

At a quarter past the hour, I walked into the school, I remained slightly disoriented. But, before I knew it, I was back into a haze of drowsiness, almost identical to the one I felt just before the misadventure.

The Metamorphosis

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka is quite possibly one of the strangest things I've ever read. In the beginning, it gives absolutely no information about what has happened to Gregor, the protagonist, apart from his waking up as an abnormally large insect of no specific species. Because the story is a total of 55 pages, the plot goes by very quickly, which occasionally leaves me a little bit dumbfounded and confused as to what just happened. I can't say that it's my favorite book, but I am enjoying it because of the slightly dark, comical undertone to Kafka's writing. I especially love the very beginning when his reaction is not screaming in terror or even being confused, but simply thinking that this could be quite the complicated situation and is more concerned with missing work than being transformed into a large bug. Quite frankly, I cannot relate to his reaction at all. Personally, I think I would have fainted.

The plot really is very important because the story is so short. Things happen fairly quickly, and are not particularly subtle (for example, his mother fainting at the sight of her beetle son and his father almost immediately attacking him isn't the most toned-down way of expressing his parents' feelings toward the new Gregor).

I can't say that I've read anything that really strikes me as very similar to The Metamorphosis, but it does loosely remind me of Christopher Moore's book, Blood Sucking Fiends. Both have a dark, slightly comical tone. Jody, the protagonist in Blood Sucking Fiends, become a vampire and runs away from everyone she cares for, like Gregor hides from those he loves. Both books also have writing style's that strike me as very unique.

For my outside project, I think I want to make a cartoon-like poster depicting the section where Gregor shows himself to his family and boss toward the beginning of the book. This part is important to the book because, for one, his family seeing him as a gargantuan insect effects the rest of the story quite a lot. His sister and mother both eventually coming to the conclusion that he is still a part of the family and at least attempting to make his new life easier is a big part in the story so far. But this scene really sets up the rest of the story.