Short Stories

Short stories are a particularly interesting genre because of how condensed the writing must be to communicate the story. I have read Kafka's The Trial and appreciate the similarities between the two stories, albeit, The Trial is a full fledged novel. Both of the stories share a surreal, nearly absurdist characteristic. Both also focus on a man caught in an inexplicable plight. Inexplicable because they do not seem to know how they arrived in their present condition. The really terrible part is that the Metamorphosis is, in some ways, funny. A man is transformed into a giant cockroach and he and his family do not react very adversely to his condition. They just role with the punches.