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Franz Kafka related to the metamorphosis
Analysis of metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
Analysis of metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
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In Franz Kafka’s story The Metamorphosis, Gregor Samsa falls victim, to some strange affliction which somehow turns him into a colossal insect of some sort. His bizarre and tragic story takes place in a European apartment in the early twentieth century; a time in which much stock was placed in both etiquette and the appearance of propriety. These standards found throughout the society in which he is placed leads to his ultimate downfall. When Gregor wakes up in his bed to find he has become an insect Gregor is only slightly concerned at his predicament. His first reaction is not what the reader might expect, anyone else probably would have panicked and worried about how this happened, but Gregor seems only to care about two things; how he will get out of his bed and how he will get to work on time. This is done by Kafka so that the reader can have a better understanding of just how strange a position Gregor is in both physically and mentally. The reader can see that by the standards of any society, with a mindset such as Gregor’s, his ultimate failure was inevitable. The Specific society in which Gregor undergoes his transformation is so rigid in its order that Gregor’s situation is handled by the family and the family only. Short of the boss and a few people that necessarily had to see Gregor, the Samsa household felt it better to conceal its problem than to address it, in order to maintain an outward Anderson 1 appearance of normalcy both to the community and to themselves. Their view of the problem was out of sight, out of mind. The predicament of Gregor goes far beyond the standards of the specific society he is in however. His problem is universal and, although in different societies it may have been h... ... middle of paper ... ...or Gregor’s needs. Ultimately, her inability to go against the grain of what those surrounded her accepted greatly contributed to Gregors death. The standard Gregor failed to meet the day he woke up and found himself as an enormous bug was humanity. When his family and employer found him to be no longer a human in form, they rejected him and treated him as an animal. It is true that Gregor only lost the form of a human, and not the mind or spirit that one associates with humanity, but the nature of the people surrounding him created an environment that refused to see him as anything but a bug that, for all intents and purposes, did nothing except serve as a memorial to what had once been Gregor. Gregor who was born human and died a bug through his metamorphosis, died because he failed to meet the standards of those around him and could not fend for himself.
... to do this every day Gregor would have had to have some sense of time. His dwindling human aspects are prominently marked in two places: the first when Gregor is incapable of communicating with his family and the sales manager and the second when he takes pleasure in rutting about in dirt and filth. Lastly, Gregor's loss of consciousness causes a polar change within his family. As Gregor is no longer able to earn money to support the family, everyone else is forced to take action to bring in capital. The most obvious change is in the father who transformed from a dead weight into a zealous worker. Despite Freedman's employment of flawed logic to formulate some of his theories, the majority of his conclusions are quite valid and probe deeply into the meaning behind Kafka's writing.
“What sorts of excuses people had used on that first morning to get unable to ascertain. Since he was not comprehensible, nobody, not even his sister, thought that he might be able to understand others.” (Kafka, 154) He is the humanoid beetle that doesn't fit in with the rest of the Samsa family. This is where the misunderstood part begins to take place. Gregor is bewildered in the fact that he fell asleep human and woke up as a bug. His family tends to think that it is not even him, and misunderstands how he could have turned into a bug. Things are not the same, because nobody can comprehend what has happened and why. One reason Gregor is so misunderstood, revolves around a feeling of hate. Gregor is the one who did the work to pay for his family. The father was lazy, and the mother has bad asthma. Gregor payed all the bills. Once he can no longer work, his family may think that he did not want to pay the bills, therefore, they pushed him away as if he was never there. Also important, near the end of the story, we find out just how little Gregor is cared for. One of the most important parts of this
In fact, his two friends immediately joined in with their opinions, ‘We also give immediate notice.’ At that he seized the door handle, banged the door shut, and locked it” (Kafka 66). In this scene, the three lodgers staying in the Samsa home spot Gregor for the first time, because Gregor was supposed to stay locked in his room always, and wasn’t allowed out. In coming out of his room, Gregor has betrayed his parents, and therefore also betrayed himself. Gregor, as a human, would never dare to disobey his parents, because he cared too deeply for them.
The parents of Gregor ultimately failed to care for him in a time where he needed the emotional support. They also neglected Grete as well and handicapped her true potential as a musician. The biggest betrayal of all; however, took place after Grete quit believing in Gregor and left him to die. While Gregor changing into a bug did put new stress on the family, it was the betrayal of each other that lead to their demise. In conclusion the Samsa family proved to be unloyal amongst each other, and Gregor happened to lose his life because of
Gregor started feeling more isolated due to his transformation to a bug. One of the things that bothered him was his appearance. Sheldon Goldfarb agrees alongside with this by stating “Even Gregor realizes this, and tries to hide his repulsiveness from his mother and sister when they enter his room. He spends hours arranging a sheet to cover himself so they will not have to see them.” Gregor is afraid of what he has become and believes the... ...
Relying on Gregor to support their lifestyle for years, Gregor’s mother, father and sister, Grete, no longer have any use for him once he is transformed into a bug. The transformation is more of an inconvenience to them than a tragedy. Now, the must go out and get jobs, and instead of Gregor taking care of them, they now are responsible for taking care of Gregor. Grete uses her brothers new outer casing as a way to gain respect and power in the family by becoming his caregiver (1093).Grete continues to gain power in the family, as Gregor begins to descend to the bottom of the family hierarchy. His entire family is disgusted by his new form and terrified of his next move. They resent Gregor and consider him to be a burden, taking care of him slowly begins to ruin their lives. Gregor’s family only seem to care about themselves and ignore the blatant issues that Gregor must be going through
Arguably one of Franz Kafka 's most brilliant works, The Metamorphosis provides many ambiguities for readers to consider. One of the many thought-provoking aspects of Kafka’s story is Gregor Samsa 's transformation into a bug, rather than any other animal. What is Kafka trying to say by using this symbol to describe Gregor? One explanation for this may be the many qualities that Gregor 's character shares with bugs and how they are perceived by humans. Through the details presented in the story, it is clear that Kafka has chosen for Gregor to become a bug because, like an insect, he has a robotic-like work ethic, an altruistic nature, and lacks of significance to others.
Gregor’s major transformation occurred not when he turned into a bug, but through the changes in his life. Gregor’s life before the change into some sort of bug was like a bumble bee. He would go through life doing as others told him. In the story Gregor said, “For the time being, however, I must get up because my train leaves at five” (Kafka 4), which explains how he was just someone going through life on a schedule, just like a worker bee. But even before his time as a traveling salesman, he was someone else, “On the wall just opposite hung a photograph of Gregor from the time of his military service” (16).
There are many different meanings related to this story but I think the most significant is the careless critique of how we run our lives meaninglessly. Gregor’s transformation into a giant bug symbolizes how he felt as a human, alienated and separated from society. He has a job he doesn’t like, a boss he doesn’t care for, and family who he doesn’t bond with at all. In Gregors case, being a bug was an outward manifestation and transformation of a situation that had already existed. Throughout the story we are introduced to many different forms of symbolism. I think the transformation into an insect was a symbol of the relationship Gregor and his father had. Before his transformation Gregor had already felt small and trapped, just as he did after he was locked in his room.
Because Gregor is no longer capable of filling the role of "provider", his actions no longer define the lives of his family, and they are freed from inauthenticity by this revelation. Much like the philosophers of the existentialist movement, Gregor's family realizes that in the face of absurdity, the only choice one has is to define their own existence. As time wears on, Gregor's family becomes contemptuous of the burden which comes from caring for him and hiding him from the eyes of the public. In reaction to their contempt, each chooses to prevent Gregor's new dependent role from hindering their authenticity. The father feels a sense of renewed pride in once again being the head of the household.
Franz Kafka illustrates in his book the struggle that most humans have throughout their life: ‘Who am I?’ He demonstrates this through his radical and exaggerated formation of The Metamorphosis, a man becoming a bug; or a bug always thinking he was a man, then realizing that he is and always has been a bug. This bug, Gregor Samsa, goes through an immense psychological realization at the beginning of the book; he had been deceived by his own mind from the beginning of his life. Throughout Gregor’s Metamorphosis, Gregor experiences the loss of his self actualization, recognition, belonging, security, and physiological needs. His situation had taken away all the basic psychological needs of any human as illustrated by Maslow’s Hierarchy of
... was, in my opinion, the leading factor towards Gregor difficulties with dealing with himself. The complete lack of help from his parents, and the mild disgust with which his sister took care of Gregor’s even the most basic needs might also point to emotional neglect, and could have been the main reason for his issues with identity in the first place.
His family used to care about him but after the transformation, they were no longer concerned for him. Every time the family talks about money, Gregor feels guilty and embarrassed because he can no longer provide for them. When he was able to work before, he had brought money home and “They had simply got used to it, both the family and Gregor; the money was gratefully accepted and gladly given, but there was no special uprush of warm feeling” (Kafka Ch 2 pg 6). Now that he can no longer provide, the family had to come up with ways to keep up with finances. Gregor is dehumanized each time his sister Grete walks into the room to look after him because she cannot bear the sight of him so he hides each time. Each day following Gregor’s transformation, the family’s behavior towards him became more cynical and resentful towards him. They do not allow him to leave his room and worry about how they can go on living with him. They think of him as being a creature, losing their view of him as a human being and no longer important. When Grete decided to take his furniture out of his room, Gregor feels he is dehumanized because they are taking away the link to his humanity. When it came to Gregor’s father, Gregor would “run before his father, stopping when he stopped and scuttling forward again when his father made any kind of move.” His father then threw at apple at him which ‘landed right on his back and sank in; Gregor wanted to drag himself forward, as if this startling, incredible pain could be left behind him” (Kafka Ch 2 pg
To the Samsa’s, because Gregor has lost his ability to provide for them, and now requires caretaking on top of this, he has lost his spot as a member of their family. They increasingly see him as a burden when they have to find income through other means, and begin to neglect him because he has lost all his humanity to them. There is a link between humanity and usefulness also seen with Grete’s story at the end, when Mr. and Mrs. Samsa begin to fully value their “beautiful and well-built girl” (52) once they realize they can marry her off and make money off of her. Gregor and Grete had contrasting transformations in this sense: Gregor quickly losing his role as a member of the family when he lost his ability to provide, while Grete becomes essential to the family, when she proves to be beneficial. Other characters are only present because of their usefulness, such as the lodgers, only there for the income they provide. When they were necessary, the Samsa’s went out of their way to be as accommodating as possible, but the minute they weren’t, the Samsa’s kicked them out, watching them go down the stairs thinking “the lower they got, the more the Samsa family lost interest in them” (51). This highlights the idea that one’s essence is determined by the impact they have in society, or in this case, the Samsa family. Kafka’s writing of the Samsa family and their relationships with Gregor, Grete, and the lodgers highlights how humanity can be determined by some by the usefulness of a
Both Gregor and Meursault have pivotal experiences with denial, the first stage of the grief process, in their respective novels. While Gregor refuses to accept his transformation in order to remain a part of society, Meursault denies God in the religious culture of Algeria, proving his individuality while isolating himself. Gregor’s denial takes place when he prepares for work, ignoring his transformation, “First of all he wanted to get up quietly, […] get dressed, […] have breakfast, and only then think about what to do next” (Kafka 6). By characterizing Gregor as determined, Kafka shows his protagonist’s resolve to remain firm in ignoring his transformation for his family’s sake. Typically, such a metamorphosis would warrant panic, but Gregor is so selfless that he denies his own emotions to be useful for his family. Through the sequential syntax employed in this quoate, Kafka shows that Gregor does not want to stray from his usual routine. This attribute, along with his physical transformation, separates Gregor from humanity. With his unfamiliar mindset, seen through the denial of his metamorphosis, and his lack of human physical charac...