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Metamorphosis Quote Analysis

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John Lennon once said that “ we have got this gift of love, but love is like a precious plant. You can’t just accept it and leave it in the cupboard or think it is going on by itself you have got to keep watering it. You have got to really look after it and nurture it.” This quote explains if you are not nurturing your relationships, they will die. In his novel, The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka demonstrates how the fear of alienation can cause people to act irrational. Through the book, Gregor, the main character, is desperate for attention. This causes him to work really hard, but it will ultimately alienate him from the relationships that he loved. Before his transformation, Gregor worked really hard to please his family. He alienated himself …show more content…

For Gregor, the more he is alone, the more desperate for a connection to his family he becomes, “ but even though Gregor couldn’t learn any news directly, he overheard many things from the adjoining rooms, and whenever the sound of voices reached he would immediately run to the appropriate door and his press his whole body against it.” [kafka 28] In making this quote Kafka urges us to learn that Gregor needs a human connection in his situation.For instance One day, Grete, Gregor‘s sister discovers that Gregor enjoys crawling all around the room, including over the walls and the ceilings she tries to move the furniture and invites the mother to help her. When Greta, and his mother try to move the furniture so he can move freely in the room, he clings on a picture to save the remaining of his humanity. This shows us that Gregor is aware that he needs a human connection so that he doesn’t lose himself and humanity in the …show more content…

Kafka states that “ he recalled his family with affection and love, his opinion about the necessity for him to disappear was, if possible, even firmer than his sister’s.” (Kafka 49) This is Gregor's death scene. He dies after being rejected by his sister, alienated from his family, indeed from any human being after his usefulness to everyone runs out. Kafka is saying that Gregor still loves his family after how they horribly treat him and he shows them affection and love even in his last breaths. Gregor dies in the deepest place of the abyss because he lost love and hope that he had from his family. Gregor ‘s love is unconditional while his family ‘s love is based on what amount of money he brings

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135 Words | 1 Pages

This correlates to the idea that Gregor’s dad represents youth. An important moment in the book is when Gregor attends a music camp over the summer and begins a relationship with a girl he meets there. The very next day, his dad passed. The fact that he died after Gregor passed a major milestone in

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507 Words | 3 Pages

He is willing to take on anyone in order to support his family, which plays into the theme of family duty. Also, Gregor’s determination and military experience (pg 12) is displayed in his plan making and strategizing to capture his manager. The loyalty to his family, displayed by working and trying his best to keep a job he doesn’t want, gives insight into Gregor’s character. The unhealthy relationship Gregor has with his family is very common for a character in Franz Kafka’s book. His own tumultuous relation reflected onto his characters lives.

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1552 Words | 7 Pages

Overarching Message: In the book, Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, Gregor’s alienation from the outside world creates a depressing cycle of dehumanization and isolation. “The door was slammed shut with the stick, and then it was finally quiet” (Kafka 955). This encounter of Gregor’s father locking his bug-transformed son in his room guarantees Gregor’s alienation from society. Throughout the book, Gregor is cooped up in his room all day, delighted to see even just one person come his way. When Gregor is about to receive help from two people that aren’t family, “He felt drawn once again into the circle of humanity and expected great things from both the doctor and the locksmith” (952).

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1044 Words | 5 Pages

“Earlier, when the door had been barred, they had all wanted to come in to him; now, when he had opened one door and when the others had obviously been opened during the day, no one came any more, and the keys were stuck in the locks on the outside” (Kafka 18). After Gregor’s death, they don’t feel very sad for him. Conversely, they find hopes for their future without Gregor. “Then all three left the apartment together, something they had not done for months now, and took the electric tram into the open air outside the city. The car in which they were sitting by themselves was

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278 Words | 2 Pages

As the only one working in the family, Gregor has managed to give the family all he wanted. To show this Kafka writes, “even though Gregor subsequently earned so much money that he was enabled to shoulder the expenses of the entire family, and did so”(18-19). This shows how hard Gregor is working to provide for the whole family. Also Gregor’s family took advantage of the money he was providing for them, and they got used to it like it was always going to keep on coming. To prove this Kafka states,

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484 Words | 2 Pages

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.

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804 Words | 4 Pages

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.

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1264 Words | 6 Pages

Throughout the story, Gregor reflects upon how his bodily changes have affected

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777 Words | 4 Pages

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

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1201 Words | 5 Pages

Kafka paints Gregor’s sister as this serene, elegant being that Gregor connects with through the music that she plays. Kafka mentions Gregor having to “lower his head to the ground” (Kafka, 14) in hopes that “his eyes [] meet hers” (Kafka, 15). Notice that in this scenario, Gregor must lower his head, almost like he is bowing to show respect to his sister. Kafka mentions this to create a disparity in the two characters' level of value, or their social class. Gregor, a tiny insect with dust covering his body, is moved by his sister's playing of music, and hopes to lock eyes with the one he admires.

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150 Words | 1 Pages

Throughout the entirety of the story, Gregor did his best to serve an ungrateful family who could hardly tolerate his presence. If anything, death was the best thing that came to Gregor throughout the book. He suffered his father’s wrath, feinted his mother, was betrayed by his sister, and witnessed his family’s status deteriorate because of him. After the family took everything

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1504 Words | 7 Pages

Kafka uses diction and symbolism to convey the family’s dissatisfaction and the deterioration in their family ties. Each family member acquires a job to compensate the loss of Gregor’s salary. Kafka writes: “They were fulfilling to the utmost the demands the world makes on the poor: Gregor’s father fetched breakfast for the petty employees at the bank, his mother sacrificed herself for the underclothes of strangers, his sister ran back and forth behind the shop counter at her costumers’ behest... And the wound in Gregor’s back would begin to ache anew when… Gregor’s mother…would say: ‘shut the door now Grete’; and Gregor was left in the dark again” (Kafka

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1329 Words | 6 Pages

Instead of grieving like a normal family, they spoke of the economic benefits that would come from his death and their future financial plans. Due to his inability to work, Gregor had become worthless to his family, and wouldn’t be missed at all. This shows how much Gregors family viewed him as an income instead of a son, no matter how much they loved him while he was an asset to the family, they couldn’t bring themselves to love him while he wasn’t able to provide money. The economic situation within their family outweighed any emotional attachment that they had towards Gregor. The family decides to leave the house, and as their sitting on the trolley with Grete they begin to talk about her upcoming marriage, and the economic benefits that her husband is going to have on their family.

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795 Words | 4 Pages

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

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1454 Words | 6 Pages

There are many circumstances in the book that tie to Franz Kafka’s life. Kafka was abused by his father as a child just as Gregor is abused by his father. “From the fruit bowl on the sideboard his father had filled his pockets, and now, without for the moment taking accurate aim, was throwing apple after apple” (Kafka 49). Gregor’s father is throwing apples at him just as Kafka was also abused by his father who would hurt him. The apple here is seen a weapon that later on leads to Gregor’s

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