Surrealism encompasses a reality above the surface reality, usually through efforts to suspend the discipline of conscious or logical reason, aesthetics, or morality in order to allow for the expression of subconscious thought and feeling. This literary technique, if successful, provides the audience with a suspension of disbelief, an acceptance of the imaginative aspects of the author's fantastic creation. "The Metamorphosis" by Franz Kafka and "The Masque of the Red Death" by Edgar Allen Poe, are two examples of surrealism. These short stories both contain ex-centric scenarios and environments which suspend the discipline of conscious or logical reasoning. By definition "The Metamorphosis" and "The Masque of the Red Death" are the same. In style, context, and sub-consciousness, however, these short stories are entirely different variations of surrealism.

Franz Kafka's "The Metamorphosis" offers a powerfully symbolic expression of personal anguish and uncertainty. The story's opening sequence tells of a...