The war was also significant because so many technologies were used for the first time, such as tanks, airplanes, poison gases, and new forms of artillery, resulting in a previously unimaginable scale of destruction.

70 million people participated in the war, 9 million of whom died, and by its end in 1918, the Austro-Hungarian, Russian, German and Ottoman empires had dissolved. During his formative years, nationalism (a desire for independence and self-control along ethnic or national lines) was on the rise within the pan-national Austro-Hungarian Empire, leading to the hostility that exploded into war when Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, was assassinated in 1914. Kafka lived at a time of enormous tension in Austria-Hungary and in all of Europe. Fortunately, Brod disregarded this request, and published 'The Trial,' 'The Castle,' and 'Amerika.' Despite Kafka's relatively small body of work, he has become one of the titans of world literature, and the adjective form of his name, 'Kafkaesque,' has come to signify the frustrations of modern existence. When he died, he left a note for his friend, Max Brod, to destroy his remaining works. At 34, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis, which would lead to his death seven years later. During his lifetime, Kafka is estimated to have burned at least 90% of everything he wrote, though he consented to publish The Metamorphosis at age 32. He had several passionate love affairs but never married. Kafka's letters and journals reveal that he was tortured by a sense of his own inadequacy, sexually and socially, though to others he came off as quiet and intelligent. He studied law and got a job at an insurance company at age 24, though he resented having to work to pay the bills. He attended elementary school, gymnasium, and university within a few blocks of his birthplace. He preferred to speak and write German, as his family did, though most residents of Prague spoke Czech, a significant division both culturally and politically. Kafka was born in Prague, the first of six children in a family of middle-class Jews.

The metamorphosis book