Has anyone ever had a friend or family member get transformed into a beetle over night? In Franz Kafka’s novella The Metamorphosis, Gregor Samsa, a traveling salesman awakes one dreary morning only to find himself transformed into a monstrous vermin. Franz Kafka, the author, was a Jewish, German speaking man from Prague. Kafka lived an unfortunate life he was the oldest of six, his two brothers died in infancy and his three sisters were killed in the holocaust. His upbringing was not the best as Kafka’s parents were often out of the home working and as a result Kafka often felt lonely and alienated. His father has been described as a “huge, selfish, overbearing businessman”. His father significantly influenced his writing, which in The Metamorphosis …show more content…
His job as a traveling salesman was not one, he chose but he took it out of necessity to pay off his parents’ debt (Kafka, 4) Gregor has a strong dislike for his job which we can gather when he says “If it weren’t for my parents’ sake, I’d have quit ages ago” (Kafka, 4). After Gregor was transformed his first thoughts were not of his bug state but of the impracticality of missing work. This ignorance Gregor has of his own personal problems shows Gregor’s dedication to his efforts of paying off his family’s debts (“Gregor Duty to His Father”). When Gregor first wakes up he wants to go back to sleep so that he can forget about the constant pressure and responsibility that is always on his shoulders (Kafka, 1), but due to his hardworking attitude Gregor ignores his surroundings and personal needs to fulfill his duty to his family (“Gregor Duty to His …show more content…
His family did not respond well to his bug-state and rejected him isolating him in his room. Gregor accepted his family’s rejection and continued to live isolated in his room. To keep his family comfortable, he hid anytime someone came in the room. When his mother and his sister started to move his furniture out of his room Gregor was initially grateful for the extra space, but when he realized that they were taking his last pieces of humanity from him he panicked because he did not want to accept that things would never go back to normalcy again (Kafka, 30-34). Gregor’s ultimate acceptance came when he realized that his family would be better off without
Even though his family has assumed the world and thought that their dear son and brother had been turned into a monster. Gregor still looked out for them, was extremely selfless, and still cared deeply about his family. Even in his isolated, depressed state, he spent hours working on a way to make it so Grete didn’t have to see him. “One day he carried the sheet on his back to the couch this job took four hours” (29). Even after being essentially ignored by his family he still puts himself through strain to make sure that they are taken care of in whatever way he can.
Here Gregor is contemplating the impracticality of missing work, while completely ignoring the fact that he turned into a vermin. Gregor’s ignorance to his own personal problems highlights his dedication to pay off his family 's debts (pg 9), at the expense of his wellness. The overcast weather and the mention of his depressed mood creates a pessimistic mood which would feed into Gregor’s already gloomy outlook on life. His want to sleep and forget his problems shows a pressure that Gregor must always be under. His hardworking attitude doesn’t match up to his willingness to ignore his problems.
Most notably, his reaction is extremely calmer than normal people would be. As a human, Gregor accepted the hardships he faces by his family without complaint. He is a naive and decent person. He works in anonymity without uttering words to earn money for the whole family even he did not even like this “exhausting job he’ve picked on”(p89) since his dad’s failure in business. Similarly, when he first realized he had transformed into an insect, he was not disgusted by his looking and condition, he did not wonder how he turned to an insect and how to transform back to a human.
Scared of the Monsters Inside of Our Heads Up in the northern part of America, the legend of monster still haunts tribal people to this day. This monster was known for coming out during the darker time of the year, to kill and eat any person it could find. It was denoted that it had the face of a deer, but the body of a human. As piles of snow softened the forest floor, its big thumps could be heard resonating through the woods. When the tribe members heard about its whereabouts, people immediately became frantic.
This is the reason he isolated himself from his family. Gregor is forced to work in an environment he hates but his transformation overlooks that. He doesn’t have to suffer from his occupation and allows him to spend more time with his family. However, this change only had a positive affect temporarily.
There are hundreds of works of literature out in the world, many of them are great, and some are not as great. What makes them great is the truth behind them, the true feelings, and what it truly meant to the author. Many great works of literature are influenced by several different things, in the case of “The Metamorphosis”, it was influenced by the life of Franz Kafka, the author, and his real- life experiences. The Freudian concept help explain why “The Metamorphosis” contains symbols and clues that can be used to compare certain relationships throughout Kafka’s life, one being with his father, and the other with woman who entered his life. Franz Kafka was a German man who worked as a lawyer who worked at the workmen’s Accident Insurance
After, Gregor finally manages to open the door with his mouth, his family was mortified with what they saw their family member had turned into. His mother faints, his father becomes angry and sad at the same time, and the clerk begins to back away in fear. Gregor is still able to understand what they are saying and experiencing, but he is very confused and upset as well by the situation. His father ends up shutting the door on him and leaving him locked in his room. Gregor was being isolated from his family and other civilization because he was suddenly a repelling creature.
One should make a balance in order to have more than one thing to live for. Humans always are questioned their actions and their being, but by showing in actions how complete and competent we are there is no need to provide an explanation. Gregor became a slave of his family and his idea of what he had to do to make them happy. He lost himself in all that work and the end it didn’t give anything back to him. In conclusion, I think this story teaches us that life not only is work or you’ll lose yourself.
Gregor’s isolation and loneliness begins to toy with his composure, he becomes unpredictable and frightening to his family. Although, Gregor’s slow transformation from man to bug eventually becomes beneficial to Gregor. For instance, Gregor’s bug-like appearance allows him to be released from his family's high expectations. As for his developing bug-like qualities helps him to register his inner anger he feels towards his father. Gregor now realizes his father shows no sympathy towards Gregor and instead punishes him for something he has no control over.
Gregor experiences lots of conflicts throughout this event happening in his life. After Gregor turns into a bug he really can’t move when trying to get out of bed or even open the door for his family. In the text, it says “ He told himself again that he couldn’t possibly remain in bed and that it might be the most reasonable thing to sacrifice everything if there was even the slightest hope of getting himself out of bed in the process. At the same moment, however, he didn’t forget to remind himself from time to time of the fact calm(indeed the calmest) reflection might be better than the most confused decisions”(140 & 141). Gregor describes his situation as bothersome & amusing.
Gregor changed his mind about work. After not being able to do anything but crawl around his room, he would prefer to be himself again and be working instead of being a bug for the rest of his life. Gregor keeps struggling throughout the story about the fact that he is no longer the breadwinner of the house and no longer has a job to help out with his family’s financial money debt. He took on the work and debt despite his own dreams and ambitions. This was not a job that he wanted but one he did out of love for his family.
He decided to make himself seem like an outsider instead of finding a solution. Similarly, when Gregor from “Metamorphosis” became a bug he got very lonely and sad. “At first he thought it is his sadness over the condition of his room that kept him from eating” (Kafka 169). When he first became a bug his sister would bring him food to eat. But after more time had passed the family started to distance themselves.
When the story starts, Gregor is more or less unhappy with how things are going but is unable to change the fact that he is the sole provider for his family. Throughout the story we do see Gregor realize he spent his whole life pleasing his family then, when he is unable to provide for them we see his family getting fed up and annoyed with him. They are unable to deal with his change and to make it easier for them to cope, they try to not even think of him as Gregor. Father often refers to him as “it” and towards the end Mother and Grete do too. He became more and more frustrated with his family and acted impulsive at times because he was not able to make his family understand.
Gregor is a thoughtful and compassionate person. However, he lives a life he does not enjoy. Gregor hates his job. He thinks, “Oh God, what a strenuous career it is that I’ve chosen! (…) there’s the course of travelling, worries about making train connections, bad and irregular food, contact with different people all the time so that you can never get to know anyone or become friendly with them.”
To management, workers like Gregor become disposable at the slightest infraction. Indeed, Gregor is dispensable to even his own family. When Gregor first found success at work and brought money to his family, they had been “astonished and delighted” (Kafka 27). However, their wonderment soon fades as “they had just gotten used to it” and “the money was received with thanks and given with pleasure, but no special feeling of warmth