The Trial Lesson Plan

Metaphor and Allegory

Kind of Activity:

Individual Writing

Objective:

Seek out and analyze scholarly analysis of the text's use of metaphor or allegory.

Common Core Standards:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.4, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.2

Structure:

What does The Trial represent? Do you read it as a direct, one-to-one allegory? Or is it more impressionist, simply capturing a feeling or mood?

There is a compelling quality to a cryptic story like The Trial: we, as readers, are eager to assign meaning. Note how this aligns us with K. who is also trying desperately to discern meaning from overwhelming amounts of confusing information and perpetual absurdity. Assigning...