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Reflection Essay for Oral Presentation on Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

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Reflection Essay for Oral Presentation on Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
La-Keetra Lawrence
English IV
Tashjian
11, January 2012

The Oral Presentation rubric grades based on the presenter’s knowledge and understanding of the works, presentation, and the language of the presenter. My Presentation, entitled: “Gaining Happiness Requires Selfishness and Loneliness,” was particularly strong in any of the three categories, but fairly week in each category. The thesis for my presentation was: “Kafka characterizes the mother as being initially selfless when caring for Gregor and shows how she becomes selfish after abandoning him period, which ultimately leads to her happiness. This reveals that when you are selfish you may gain happiness, but also loneliness.
The “Knowledge and Understanding” component of the rubric grades comprehension of the text, position of the quote in the presentation, and the dispersion of the quotes used throughout the novel. The quotes I used came from pages 19, 35 and 38. There was a quote from the beginning, middle and end of the novel, however the second two quotes are close together. My largest flaw in this category came when I stated in my introduction: “The mother is characterized as being lonely and happy,” but then used a quote such as “She rushed upon the father and embracing him, in absolute union with him” (Kafka 38) to support my point. This quote was too close to my partners point being “The mother is characterized as being utterly disgusted after she realizes that Gregor will not transform back into a human being,, but is stuck a bug,” and quote which says, “The mother wasn’t used to the sight of Gregor, which might make her sick … She stopped in her tracks, stood still a moment and then went back to Grete.” (Kafka 35) My quote does not support my point because it shows the mother still trying to show some form of care toward Gregor, supporting my partners point. Except for this mistake, my knowledge and understand was adequate. I had summary in the introduction and an introduction to my quotes

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