The Repercussions of Cruelty Cruel actions lead to cruel endings. Gregor Samsa, the protagonist in Franz Kafka’s novella The Metamorphosis, is turned into a bug from the mental and emotional abuse by the hands of his own family. The cruelty in the Samsa household is apparent from the beginning of the storyline. Their neglect and lack of compassion for Gregor's condition immediately sets the dark and miserable mood of the novella. Gregor’s whole existence has been about caring for his family and making sacrifices for their well being.
Transforming and Romanticizing a Storyline The Metamorphosis, a novella written by Franz Kafka, attracted the attention of many of its readers due to the writing framework and shocking concepts. The story depicts a man named Gregor Samsa who has befallen the fate of a cockroach- literally. After being transformed into a large bug, Gregor goes through the struggles of misunderstanding, neglect, and loss of his family relationships.
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.
Joanna Martinez Ms. Tobenkin AP Literature, Period 4 November 14, 2015 Metamorphosis Quotes: 1-3 Chapter 1: “When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from unsettling dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin.” (Kafka 3) This quote indicates George’s characteristics. It shows how Gregor sees himself and how he is accepting of himself.
Neither Kafka nor Gregor followed the existentialist idea of freedom of choice in a person’s life. They both had a life they didn’t ask for and responsibilities they were forced to assume. This principle of lack of freedom is clearly shown by the unexpected transformation of Gregor, waking up as an insect and obtaining the freedom he lacked, emancipating himself of obligations, injustice and final duties. He is freed from the obligation to work to maintain his family and liberated himself from his tyrannical father. Although he turned into a horrible insect, the metamorphosis did not change the beauty of his soul.
In the story “The Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka the main character Gregor and his family dealt with the conflict of his past life as a human, and his current life as a bug. This begins with the opening sentence when it is made clear that Gregor has truly transformed into a bug. The author states, “One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that in bed he had changed into a monstrous insect” (719). Instead of the main character beginning to panic about this transformation he actually began to stress about the job that he has chosen. Gregor thought, “The stress of trade are much greater than the work going on at head office, and, in addition to that, I have to deal with the problems of traveling, the worries about train connections irregular bad food, temporary changing human relationships which never came from the heart” (720).
In the Metamorphosis, Kafka convey’s Gregor’s fear of being judged and his internal reflection about how he feels through Gregor's transformation into a bug. Gregor shows not very much courage, well mainly little to none, him turning into a huge bug is foreshadowing how he feels in society. Therefore it leads to Gregore not feeling understood,“I cannot make you understand. I cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside me. I cannot even explain it to myself”
Change. It is a microscopic aspect of life that everything on earth experiences at one point during their existence. Change is inevitable; it is everywhere, even when one does not take the time to notice it. To some, change is a normal part of life, and when it occurs, they learn how to adapt to that new change and they continue on with their lives. For others, change can be very drastic.
An allegory a story that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral. Metamorphosis that was written by Franz Kafka is a good example of an allergy because it is basically an inference about people coming out of the closet. People who have came out of the closet have been pressured to hide from society, they also had thought of running away. People who have came out of the closet have also gotten their families mad at each other. People that come out of the closet is an allegory to Gregor.
Sakura is introduced in chapter two on the bus ride to Takamatsu. While sitting at the bus stop, Sakura comes and talks to Kafka. When asked how old he was he replied 17, while he is not truly 17 as a boy, the identity of Kafka is now 17. Moreover, Sakura has a brother that is about that age that she hasn’t seen in an extremely long time. Through this it is known that Sakura could be Kafka’s long lost sister.
In Metamorphosis, Gregor’s love for his sister, Grete, is what brings him happiness and the ultimate reason why he stays alive. His love for his sister, is what allows him to continue living as a transformed bug, but once his sister rejects Gregor saying, “He must go… this creature
Franz Kafka, heavily influenced by Ovid’s Metamorphoses, devises the character Gregor Samsa in order to portray a detailed experience of an individual’s metamorphosis. Kafka’s narration style differs greatly from Ovid’s, in that, the narration begins with a first person perspective and changes to a third person narration, which remains consistent to the end of the novel. Unlike the stories within the Metamorphoses, there is a clear contrast in the portrayal of Gregor’s transformation. Ovid and Kafka’s depiction of a metamorphosis incorporates the concept of identity in the individual’s transition, however Kafka emphasizes the family dynamic and the hostility Gregor feels. Gregor’s family’s inability to look past Gregor’s exterior appearance
The latter demonstrates the fragility with which society, represented by Samsa’s family, endeavors maintain the thin barrier between it and the void of meaning, while the first is a literary parallel. To elaborate, the title, ’The Metamorphosis’, doesn’t just refer to Gregor. It is an accusation on all men and women, to Grete, to Gregor’s parents, to the lodgers, and even the boss, an accusation that everyone undergoes the ‘Metamorphosis’ when one is separated from one’s values. Indeed, the thematic brunt of the story is that Man can and will be alienated from his values, just as Gregor was from his status as his kin’s caretaker. Finally, by providing a darkly comic ending of the family enjoying life after their son’s and brother’s demise, Kafka underscores the
With such a title, one might expect that this story will express the metamorphosis of a caterpillar to a beautiful butterfly, but with Kafka’s troubled upbringing, abuse and feelings of being devalued for most of his life, it’s easy to see how Kafka felt the need to symbolically dehumanize himself. Kafka’s choice of human-to-insect transformation exudes self-loathing because there’s nothing lower than a cockroach. While Gregor is the one who took on the grotesque transformation, it’s actually his family’s behavior towards his change which conveys complete hostility. Grete, for one, had enough near the end when she said, “If it were Gregor, he would have realized long ago that it isn't possible for human beings to live with such a creature, and he would have gone away of his own free will” (Kafka). It’s very disheartening knowing that his own family couldn’t handle his transformation when his first thought in the morning was getting to work on time for their
In franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, Gregor is a bug. The only way to prove such a supernatural cause, would be to prove that Gregor is not insane. We know that Gregor is not insane because when he was first transformed “he wanted to get up calmly” (Kafka 2). In other words he did not want to be a bug; this is important because if he was insane, he would have imagined himself as something he wanted to be.
