Flash Facts

Image Source In Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis , Gregor Samsa faces the interesting predicament of waking up one day to find himself transformed into a giant bug. The novel explores the absurdity of existence and is a staple of the 20th century. When this novel was translated from the original German it was written in, there were several different translations done by various people. In each translation there exists different word choice, syntax, imagery, structure, and use of punctuation. Each gives their own tone to the text and creates a different feeling for the reader who reads this book. Four of these translations will be analyzed and then their effectiveness will be compared alongside a discussion of the impact of translations on texts. #1: Gregory Samsa woke from uneasy dreams one morning to find himself changed into a giant bug. Diction Words with moderate impact: uneasy, giant. These are not intense words, they do not carry much emotional weight. Changed ...

Shown above are four alternate covers for the novel Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro. Each cover represents its own element of the story and does so in its own way. Particularly with the use of color, each cover prefaces the book with a different tone.  The first image (the one in the top left) pictures an orange/tan background, resembling old paper/papyrus. In front of this background color is a blurry image of what appears to be a girl. This image suggests motion as if the girl in the image is spinning in one direction. Her face cannot be seen she appears to be in a blue dress of some sort. This cover may serve to allude to the theme of identity and individuality present throughout the novel, as shown by the girl in the image being faceless. By not giving the girl a face, the artist is intentionally preventing the girl from having an identity, and thus she becomes just another model for a girl, not any specific character. The motion in the image may suggest t...