Compare and contrast the image in the first stanza of the ki…

Compare and contrast the image in the first stanza of the kite that the wind keeps “in the air above the trees” (line 8) and the image in the last stanza of the “black umbrella, / blooming like an ancient flower.” What might each image represent for the immigrant family?

As Gregor lies in bed, he thinks about how his imaginary pai…

As Gregor lies in bed, he thinks about how his imaginary pains “had always turned out to be pure imagination . . . and he wondered how his imaginings would slowly resolve themselves today” (lines  121–123). From this detail, readers can infer that Gregor