How should someone’s family react to their kin becoming a large bug? Hate them, of course. In “The Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka, Gregor Samsa wakes up one morning and he was no longer a human, but as a “monstrous vermin” (Kafka, “The Metamorphosis 1156). His family reacted unsympathetic and as the short story progresses the hatred towards him grows, mostly from Gregor’s father. Franz Kafka, the writer, also had many father troubles in his life time. Gregor Samsa’s relationship with his father is fashioned after Franz Kafka’s personal life.
“The Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka, not only tells the troubling story of Gregor Samsa but of the underlying autobiographical influences of Kafka himself. The first similarity is the unhappiness in both men’s careers, both induced by their strong-willed fathers. In the short story, when Gregor awakes he realizes the problem is not that “he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin” but that he will be unable to do his job, that pays for his parent’s debt (1156). Franz spent his life, unhappy but successful just like Gregor. Franz majored in law to please his father. Both men strived for similar family duties, Gregor to pay off his father’s debt and Franz for a false sense of hope that one day his father would love him (1157; Sulkes).
Out of Franz’s three siblings, Ottla was his favorite and was loved dearly by Franz just as Gregor loved his sister, Grete. Ottilie, nicknamed Ottla by Franz’s family, was also disliked by Hermann and letters sent between the two have been published as book, “Letters to Ottla”, which shed some light on their childhood and their relationship (Franz). The two siblings supported each other and sometimes boarded together as adult, and by 1918 Franz was helping Ottla search for and be admitted to an agricultural school, which was very uncommon for women to during that time, just as Gregor planned to help pay for Grete’s way into the musical conservatory before he became unable to (1171;Wagenbach). Franz loved Ottla as much as Gregor loved Grete, even as she “shoved any old food into Gregor’s room with her foot.” (1182). While Gregor died of starvation “he thought back on his family with deep emotion and love. His conviction that he would have to disappear was, if possible, even firmer than his sister’s.
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka is the story of Gregor Samsa, his turning into a bug, and his ultimate death. In the beginning of the novel Gregor wakes up as a bug and struggles to become used to his new body. Gregor is locked in his room and late for work; he is the only one who works in his family, so it is important that he shows up and earns money to pay off his parents debts. His office manager shows up wondering where he has been and everyone is shocked to see Gregor’s transformation when he finally makes his way out of his room. Upon seeing him, his father shoves him forcefully back into the room, scraping Gregor’s back. Grete, Gregor’s sister, is his primary caretaker throughout the book and she makes certain he is receiving the food he wants and is the only one to clean his room for him. Gregor’s mother and father do not pay much attention to him at all throughout the book. The mother occasionally checks on him, but can barely stand the sight of him. Eventually, Grete starts working and stops taking care of him too, leaving Gregor all by himself. Betrayal is evident in The Metamorphosis and contributes to
and Mrs. Samsa. Gregor describes throughout the novel his sister’s passion for music. He also points out the fact that their parents do not assist Grete in pursuit of this type of career, “Often during Gregor’s short days in the city the Conservatory would come up in his conversations, but always merely as a beautiful dream which was not supposed to come true, and his parents were not happy to hear these innocent allusions” (Kafka 26). The Samsa’s hindered Grete’s potential which forced her into a path she did not want to follow. Another example is how she was forced to become the primary caregiver for Gregor.
Grete’s isolation from society stems from her passion and interest for her loved ones. Grete spends all her time at home caring for her family members. Kafka describes her as “perceptive; she had already begun to cry when Gregor was still lying calmly on his back” (Kafka 16). Throughout the text she becomes the sole reason Gregor stays alive. Grete spends her days worrying about the various foods Gregor likes and dislikes, how to make his room more comfortable, and trying to make him feel more comfortable. Gregor is not the only family member whose health is cared for by Grete. “Now his sister, working with her mother, had to do the cooking too; of course that did not cause her much trouble, since they hardly ate anything” (Kafka 25). Kafka incorporates household chores and her mother’s illness, escalating Grete’s isolation. During her mother’s many asthma attacks, Grete arrives first
Gregor Samsa awakes one morning to discover that he has been transformed into a repugnant vermin. One may never know what initiated this makeover, but the simple truth is that Gregor is now a bug, and everyone must learn to live and move on in this strenuous situation. In Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, the characters that interact with Gregor, including his mother, his father, and his sister Grete, must come to terms with his unfortunate metamorphosis, and each does so by reacting in a unique way. Gregor’s family members are constantly strained by this unusual event, and all three of them are pressed to their breaking point.
People want their family to love and support them during times of need, but if they are unable to develop this bond with their family members, they tend to feel alone and depressed. In the novel The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, Kafka describes the theme of alienation and its negative effect on people and their relationships with the people around them. This theme can be shown through Gregor Samsa, the main character in The Metamorphosis. After Gregor’s metamorphosis, or transformation, he is turned from a human being into a giant bug which makes him more and more distant from the people in his life. The alienation that Gregor experiences results in his eventual downfall, which could and would happen to anyone else who becomes estranged from the people around them. Gregor’s alienation and its effect on his relationship with his family can be shown through his lack of willing interaction with his family members due to his inability to communicate to them, the huge burden he puts on the family after his metamorphosis, and his family’s hope to get rid of him because he is not who he was before.
Have you ever wondered what makes a family unique and different from everyone else's? There are many similarities and differences between many families. In the story, The Metamorphosis, written by Franz Kafka the protagonist Gregor Samsa awakes to find himself alienated from the rest of his family and from his role as a salesman. Throughout Gregor's life, he has sacrificed a lot to create a better life for his family. My life is In some ways similar to Gregor's life and the samsa family is both similar and different my own family. So how does the similarities and differences from the Samsa Family relate to my own?.
The Metamorphosis is said to be one of Franz Kafka's best works of literature. It shows the difficulties of living in a modern society and the struggle for acceptance of others when in a time of need. In this novel Kafka directly reflects upon many of the negative aspects of his personal life, both mentally and physically. The relationship between Gregor and his father is in many ways similar to Franz and his father Herrman. The Metamorphosis also shows resemblance to some of Kafka's diary entries that depict him imagining his own extinction by dozens of elaborated methods. This paper will look into the text to show how this is a story about the author's personal life portrayed through his dream-like fantasies.
Gregor’s boldness about his desires to vacate his employment acts as a satirical commentary on his inability to make his achievable urges a reality, both before and after his transformation. The dissonance between Gregor’s aspirations and his actions during his human life is manifested by the literal discord he experiences after his metamorphosis. For example, the morning of his transformation Gregor found it difficult to get out of bed because he couldn’t control his “little legs.” Although he would try to bend them they would instead stretch themselves out. Gregor’s mind was incapable of forcing his body to cooperate with his desires, just as Gregor was incapable of acting on his wishes before his transformation. Gregor also finds that he is no longer comfortable with his sleep position, just as he was uncomfortable with his position at work, however now he cannot ignore the discomfort because it prevents him from sleeping. The literal metamorphosis of Gregor is Kafka’s representation of the choices that lead to Gregor’s dehumanization before his transformation. Although Gregor is trying to relieve his family from debt, he has allowed his job to take control of his life and hinder his human identity. Therefore, Gregor’s metamorphosis represents a loss of human identity in modern
Throughout his life, Franz Kafka’s relationship with his father, Hermann Kafka, seems very dysfunctional and even, non-existent. Kafka’s father was described as dominant and hot tempered, and that he did not approve of Franz’s passion for writing. Kafka also wrote that his father was abusive and that he uttered threats towards Kafka. This negative relationship between Kafka and his father can clearly be recognized in “The Metamorphosis,” and a parallel can be drawn to Gregor’s father in the novella. Both Kafka’s father and Gregor’s father are depicted as unkind, aggressive, and unsympathetic.
Grete is a character who appears to have the most tolerance for Gregor shortly after his metamorphosis. Gregor was apparently rather fond of his sister and had hoped to finance her education in a conservatory. He was also rather mesmerized with her violin playing. His inability to follow through with these planned acts of kindness may have led to a faster deterioration of Grete’s maintenance of Gregor’s room. Although she could never get used to Gregor’s new freakish appearance, she was his sole provider throughout his life after the metamorphosis:
At first after Gregor morphed into a bug, it seems as if Grete is that only one who cares for her brother, even though he has the body of a giant bug. She brings him food for him twice a day and takes the time to clean his room. She is even concerned about how his appetite might have changed and what he might now find desirable to eat. Even going to the length of, “in the goodness of heart/ she brought him an assortment of foods” (Kafka page 222) something that Gregor greatly appreciates. Grete also takes it a step further and takes not the role of spokeswoman. Giving “detailed reports” about how Gregor is doing. To Gregor his little sister becomes a
...which eventually becomes so meager that he starves to death. Upon hearing the news, the family did not show sadness, but instead relief. "Well... now we can thank God!" (Kafka 55). Gregor's father felt relief of the economic burden of supporting his son. Although the exact story told in Kafka's The Metamorphosis could not occur outside the realm of fantasy, it represents the real scenario of a worker being abandoned by his employer and family after becoming unable to work and support them financially. By looking at the novella from a Marxist perspective, we see that the underlying theme of the story is a conflict between proletariat and bourgeoisie. Economics supersedes everything else in a capitalistic society, a citizen who is unable to labor and earn wages is quickly abandoned. The result of this abandonment is often, as it was in Gregor Samsa's case, death.
Gregor’s transformation and existentialist outlook shows parallels to the author, Franz Kafka’s, own life. Born in the nineteenth century, Kafka was a very intelligent young boy. However, he spent most of his life shying away and feeling demoralized by his overbearing father (Loveday). Kafka openly and straightforwardly reflects upon countless amounts of negative aspects of his personal life, both physical and mental. The relationship between Gregor Samsa and his father is in several ...
People who does not meet the standards set by society are considered “outlandish” or “abnormal” automatically. This standard can make it hard for outsiders to make new friends and spread their wings in this unbalanced world. In the story Metamorphosis, Gregor did not chose to transform into an insect; he was forced into it by nature. He was instantly treated differently by his co-workers, friends, and family. His sister treated him like an alien: a disgusting vermin that needed disposed of quickly. “‘He must go,’ cried Gregor’s sister, ‘that’s the only solution, Father. You must just try to get rid of the idea that this is Gregor. The fact that we’ve believed it for so long is the root of all our trouble.’” This quote explains how Gregor is viewed in his sister’s, along with everybody else’s, eyes. Gregor had no control over whether he was transformed into an insect and, consequently, his family labelled him as an outsider. Gregor’s
families go through a change but the difference is that Gregor's families change is for the worse they push him further away to the point they don't care about him even though he still cares about them. Billy’s family change is for the better instead of pushing him away they support him and help him get to his goal to help him live a better life.