A Transformation
A transformation is when someone or something, makes or has something drastically change in their life. There are major transformations in The Color Purple, by Alice Walker, and in Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka. Gregor the protagonist in Metamorphosis, physically transforms into a bug and Celie from The Color Purple, transforms into a human that can love and these transformations change their lives forever.
Gregor Samsa undergoes a transformation that destroyed his soul. Gregor is an ordinary man. He is a travel salesmen that has a very dull life. He works everyday to support his family. This makes it all the more shocking when he wakes up one day and realizes that he has transformed into a bug! “When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from unsettling dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin,” (part 1 p.76). Gregor is not dismayed by his overnight transformation but is only worried about getting to work on time. “The next train went at seven; to catch that he would have to make frantic haste and his samples weren’t even packed up yet;” (part 1, p 78). Gregor can barely get out of bed and he is worried about how he will make it to work. It is not until he interacts with members of his family that the effects of his transformation truly affect him. One day Gregor unintentionally makes his mother pass out due to his presence and his father becomes very angry. “Pitilessly his father came on, hissing like a wild man, If only his father did not keep making this intolerable hissing sound! It made Gregor lose his head completely,” (part 1). Gregors parents both
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Celie, from The Color Purple, experienced a positive change and Gregor from Metamorphosis experienced a negative change. Although the transformations effected the two characters differently, they both had major effects on their
Gregor’s initial reaction to his transformation shows his preoccupation with work. His confusion over his radical transformation does not last long, quickly becoming concerned with work and disregarding that he woke up physically transformed into a monstrous vermin. Immediately after realizing he had transformed, Gregor explains, “Well, I haven’t given up hope completely; once I’ve gotten the money together to pay off my parents’ debt to [the boss] that will probably take another five to six years… But for the time being I’d better get up, since my train leaves at five” (4). The quick transition of Gregor’s thoughts from the initial shock to his economic duties reveals his ironic nonchalant attitude towards his nonsensical transformation and
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.
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.
The narrator said, “During the first fortnight, Gregor’s parents could not bring themselves to enter his room…” He has been disconnected from his family to the point where they’re emotionally unstable and unable to treat him as he deserves with affection and comfort to help him cope with his metamorphosis. The narrator shows this disconnection before the mutation,”Gregor later earned so much money that he was in a position to cover the expenses for the entire family…” He later described the exchange not “particularly warm”. Gregor feels alienated by his parents because of the lack of affection for him providing for them.
Gregor Samsa’s transition from human to vermin was not the only shift that happened through the duration of Kafka’s The Metamorphosis. The novel is centered around Gregor who wakes up as a vermin, presumably a cockroach, which catalyses a series of emotionally traumatic experiences for him and his family, culminating in Gregor’s death. Yet the most significant change is, in fact, the gender role reversal seen both with Gregor and Grete, his sister, as Gregor becomes more effeminate and Grete becomes more emasculate, directly correlating with their societal and emotional transformation due to Gregor's physical change. From the moment, Gregor wakes up he has transformed. But not just as a vermin.
The cruelty of the Samsa family to Gregor started even before his metamorphosis. He was the main supporter of his family after his father's business failed and by this be was trapped. Forced to work a job he hated Gregor worked tirelessly to pay off his father’s debt. In doing so Gregor was isolated from the world and was never able to find a wife or have a life of his own.
Gregor began to resent his father for throwing household items at him, squashing him like a bug. Even his beloved sister Grete began irritating Gregor by removing all of his belonging from his room, leaving him with nothing. The cruelty performed on Gregor by his own family sends him into a dark pit of despair. With nothing to live for he began to slowly end his life, making one final sacrifice for the ones he loves
As the main character, Gregor Samsa, transforms from human state to that of a beetle, there are many aspects that are left unexplained and seemingly unstable. For example, in the novel, Gregor’s transformation into a beetle is left unexplained by Kafka. Kafka opens up the novel by stating, “When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from unsettling dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin” (Kafka 1). There is no scientific or physical evidence as to why this transformation occurred, but it can be ascertained that it is a psychological transformation.
“When the wind blows, some build walls while others build windmills. ” This quote was incorporated to demonstrate the different emotions and reactions people have towards change. Change can be both negative and positive and while some people embrace it, others are frightened by it. In collection 3, it can be inferred that many of the stories such as, The Metamorphosis, Life After People, The Starry Night, and The Lord of the Flies, show how change can negatively affect someone 's life, a groups lives, or in extreme cases, the world.
1. Almost from the very beginning of Gregor’s metamorphosis, Mr. Samsa has been unwilling to accept Gregor as his son. Furthermore, Gregor’s transformation into an offensive form of an insect, constantly reminds Mr. Samsa of the grotesque, feeble, and pathetic aberration that he has fathered. Consequently, now that Gregor has genuinely revealed himself in all his audacious behavior, his cruel father is driven to destroy him. In his eyes, Gregor has become everything loathsome to him—scrawny, parasitic, and futile—not the kind of son this once successful and ambitious storekeeper could be proud of.
He became embodied by his weak form and closed off to the real world, literally. Gregor’s influence on his family also allowed his father to grow as an individual and appear superior when dressing within his
In fact, Kafta mentions Gregor’s transformation in the first sentence of the story. “One morning, when Gregor Samsa woke from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin”. Kafta does not specifically mention how or why Gregor transformed into a monster like figure, but implicitly indicates that Gregor’s absurd life is imminent. Moreover, the transformation of Gregor illustrates the absurdity of himself as a human being. The existence of Gregor as a monster-like creature brings extreme disruption to the household, in which Gregor’s parents begin to work due to the lack of income.
In the written text trash by Andy Mulligan at the beginning of the text a character that changed was Rat. The author wants to reveal to us how rat started from having no family to having family and being loved. An important character that changed at the beginning was rat. Throughout the book trash by Andy Mulligan.
But, it is his sister Greta that implies that they should get rid of the furniture in his room. She starts to feel that she does not recognize her brother anymore. Gregor tries numerous times to get his families attention so, they could maybe try to understand more what was happening to him. With every attempt, he tried he failed and was injured by his father in the process. Which caused him to stop eating and drinking water.
He 's become a burden in her life. Her sympathy for him is completely gone. He is no long her brother, just a vermin. In conclusion, Gregor and Grete’s relationship drastically changes in The Metamorphosis.