Question

(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.

Read the sentence from the passage and answer the question that follows:

"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."

The purpose of this sentence in the second paragraph is to

A) show the reality of Gregor's situation
B) reveal Gregor as a untidy individual
C) uncover that Gregor has a girlfriend
D) expose Gregor's hatred for his job

Answer 1

In Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis, the Gregor Samsa (protagonist) wakes up to realize he has, somehow, become a cockroach-like vermin. It's not as explicit in this excerpt, but later on in the story, we can realize how much he hates his job. While, at this point in the story, only his table is mentioned as scattered, we later find out that he is indeed a very messy person.

Therefore, your best answer is option B.

Answer 2

The correct answer is A.

Through this excerpt from Franz Kafka's "The Metamosphosis" we understand a little more about Gregor's reality.

We can see that he has a table covered with samples of different fabrics because he works as a working salesman.

At the same time, we can infer that he does not have very close relationships since, insted of framing a picture with his family or friends, he chooses to frame a picture he took from a magazine.