Lines 1-8
Analyze Author’s Choice: Text Structure
• Authors make decisions about all aspects of a story, including where it is
best to begin. In this story, Kafksa sets up a situation that hooks readers and
makes them want to continue reading.
• What does Kafka reveal about the main character in the first paragraph?
Cite the line that this information can be found int.
Lines 28-40
Analyze Theme
• Authors reveal a theme throughout a text, shaping and
refining it with specific details.
• One of Kafka’s themes is isolation. Cite details from the
text that supports this theme.
Lines 20-48
Support Inferences
• Readers use textual evidence and personal experience to
make inferences, or logical conclusions.
• How does Gregor initially react to his situation? What can
you infer about his character and his feels based on these
lines?
Lines 41-55
Analyze Characters
• Understanding a character’s motivations or reasoning for
doing things helps readers better understand a character.
• What motivates Gregor to keep his job? What does this
tell you about his character?
Lines 100-115
Analyze Word Choice
• An author’s choice of words can effectively convey
characters’ feelings and their relationships.
• What does Gregor’s father do when Gregor oversleeps?
What particular words explain how his father feels? What
kind of relationship can we infer Gregor has with his
father?
Lines 111-115
Support Inferences
• Readers often use details to infer how a character’s
actions help develop the central theme.
• What inference can you make about the theme based on
Gregor’s actions? Identify textual evidence that supports
your inference.
Lines 121-135
Support Inferences
• Look for details that help you make inferences about
characters and events. In the first paragraph of this story,
Gregor easily accepted that he was not dreaming, even
though his body was no longer human.
• What can you infer about Gregor based on these lines?
Lines 156-158
Analyze Impact of Word Choice: Tone
• An author’s choice of words, details, and sentence
structure often communicate the tone.
• What is the tone of this story? Identify key phrases that
help you develop the tone.
Lines 172-175
Support Inferences
• Inferences and conclusions are always based on textual
evidence, but up to the reader to ultimately figure out.
• What inference can you make about Gregor’s employer?
Identify textual evidence that supports this.
Lines 226-235
Support Inferences
• Complex characters change throughout the story and
often have conflicting feelings and motivations.
• Explain whether Gregor thinks his situation is unique to
him. Given the strangeness of the situation, what can
you infer about the type of person Gregor is?
Lines 241-248
Analyze Theme
• Once an author sets a theme, they are sure to reinforce it
throughout the story.
• Cite details that reinforce the theme.
Lines 256-264
Cultural Background
• Authors can express the cultural background of a place through the opinions
and actions of a character. By doing this, authors reveal what the society of
particular place value. An author’s point of view, or attitude towards a subject,
supports and develops a theme or message about society and human nature.
Through the narrative, Kafka has shown Gregory’s anxiety about being late for
work and possible consequences for that action.
• Explain what Kafka is revealing to readers about society’s opinion of workers.
How do these revelations help develop a theme?
Lines 304-321
Analyze Character
• Authors sometimes use dialogue, or the conversation between characters,
to build tension in a narrative. Dialogue can reveal motivations and the way
characters think and feel.
• Explain what Gregor’s dialogue in these lines evokes. What words create this
feelings?
Lines 315-321
Support Inferences
• Authors do not always explicitly reveal a character’s feelings and
motivations. Readers must use information to make an inference about
what is not stated directly.
• What inference can you make about the reason Gregor is NOT worried? Cite
with textual evidence.
Lines 357-373
Analyze Theme
• A story’s theme is the overall message the author wants to share.
Themes are perceptions about human nature or society and they
are usually unstated and must be inferred based on the way a
character deals with and resolves conflict.
• Cite details that shape and refine the story’s theme.
Lines 385-391
Support Inferences
Authors provide clues throughout a text about a character’s
development and readers use those clues to infer information
about the character.
• Review what you leave learned about Gregor’s personality. Cite
information in the text that supports their inferences.
Lines 403-408
Support Inferences
• Making inferences is important to help them understand and
relate to the characters and recognize how certain actions
advance the plot.
• What inferences can you make about the way the chief clerk,
his mother, and his father react after seeing Gregor? Why do
you think they react this way?