Research Paper On Franz Kafka

“An important aspect of human life is attachment [...] a longitudinal study found that toddlers who received lower quality care developed into young adults who had trouble forming strong romantic connections.” (Kalat, 2013, p. 167). This statement strongly ties in with Franz Kafka and the relationship he had with his parents and partners. Kafka’s father was a wicked, unsupportive, tyrant. His mother who lacked “intellectual-depth” failed to understand his passions (Biography.com Editors, n.d.) and the relationship he had with his partners was anything but normal (Kakutani, 1988). Kafka’s writing was affected by the relationships he had with his father, mother, and partners.
By no means did Kafka have a healthy relationship with his father,

Julie was a homemaker that lacked intellectual depth which in result, weakened the bond between her and Kafka, much like Gregor and his mother, Mrs. Samsa. In The Metamorphosis, unaware of the extent of the problem, Mrs. Samsa tries to help Gregor once she found out that something was wrong with him (Kafka, 1996, p. 32). She even tried taking the furniture out of his room so, he had more room to climb around (Kafka, 1996, p. 34). She also begs Mr. Samsa to stop throwing apples at Gregor (Kafka, 1996, p.38) . However, towards the end of story, Mrs. Samsa begins to grow tired of having to care for Gregor. This is a parallel to Kafka’s life. He portrays Mrs. Samsa as the loving parent that tries to help Gregor at first but, eventually she gets tired of taking care of him; this is just like how Julie tries to understand Kafka but, does not have the capacity to do so in result, Kafka feeling like his Mother does not care about

During the second part of the story, when Gregor’s sister and Mother are removing furniture from his bedroom to create more space for him to crawl around (Kafka, 1996, p. 34), he is adamant about saving a picture of a nearly naked women that he had on his wall. “[...] the picture of the lady dressed in nothing but furs. He crawled up to it in haste and pressed against the glass, which held him fast and felt good on his hot belly.” (Kafka, 1996, p. 35) It is bizarre that Gregor found comfort in the photograph and that he is so possessive of it. However odd this may seem, it relates back to Kafka’s romantic life. In a series of letters that Kafka sent back and forth to his former fiancee, Felice Bauer, in 1913, another side of his personality appeared. In the letter Kafka goes from being passionate to possessive and bossy (Kakutani, 1988). In one of the letters he even wrote, ''I am jealous of all the people in your letter, those named and those unnamed, men and girls, business people and writers'.” (Kakutani,