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Symbolism Of Gregor And Gregor In The Metamorphosis

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Monia: Gregor becomes a vermin because that is what he feels he is. He feels like a vermin so he turns into one. Gregor is a very depressed and self-hatred man. He is also clever enough to realize that he is very inferior in his family. He is the patriarch only because he makes the cash that grants his family a cozy life. Gregor is just showing on the outside, in his spider-likeness, how he feels on the inside. If he receives proper care and love rather than alienation, disrespect, and neglect from his family, he could have been able to transform his outside back into human form. Symbolism plays a great role in The Metamorphosis. Two examples from the text can be drawn to illustrate this point. First, Gregor assumes that it was a dream when
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Gregor’s initial reaction to his transformation shows his preoccupation with work. His confusion over his radical transformation does not last long, quickly becoming concerned with work and disregarding that he woke up physically transformed into a monstrous vermin. Immediately after realizing he had transformed, Gregor explains, “Well, I haven’t given up hope completely; once I’ve gotten the money together to pay off my parents’ debt to [the boss] that will probably take another five to six years… But for the time being I’d better get up, since my train leaves at five” (4). The quick transition of Gregor’s thoughts from the initial shock to his economic duties reveals his ironic nonchalant attitude towards his nonsensical transformation and

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1. Almost from the very beginning of Gregor’s metamorphosis, Mr. Samsa has been unwilling to accept Gregor as his son. Furthermore, Gregor’s transformation into an offensive form of an insect, constantly reminds Mr. Samsa of the grotesque, feeble, and pathetic aberration that he has fathered. Consequently, now that Gregor has genuinely revealed himself in all his audacious behavior, his cruel father is driven to destroy him. In his eyes, Gregor has become everything loathsome to him—scrawny, parasitic, and futile—not the kind of son this once successful and ambitious storekeeper could be proud of.

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This change has long since happened but is in full affect more than ever since the transmutation. Overall Gregor has changed both physically and emotionally. He was mutated into a giant bug at the beginning of the novella. His emotional connection changed between his parents for the worst. The spark between them has faded as the money Gregor made grew.

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Most notably, his reaction is extremely calmer than normal people would be. As a human, Gregor accepted the hardships he faces by his family without complaint. He is a naive and decent person. He works in anonymity without uttering words to earn money for the whole family even he did not even like this “exhausting job he’ve picked on”(p89) since his dad’s failure in business. Similarly, when he first realized he had transformed into an insect, he was not disgusted by his looking and condition, he did not wonder how he turned to an insect and how to transform back to a human.

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In The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, there are numerous symbols of Jesus Christ. These symbols show how Kafka uses Biblical alliteration to portray Gregor as a Christ-type. The most prominent symbols are the number three, Gregor being like a sacrificial lamb, and Gregor as a Christ figure. These symbols portray Gregor as a Biblical figure. Kafka uses repetition of the number three to show Christ through a biblical analogy.

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In the story we are only mentioned about Gregor’s metamorphosis and no one else really. But if you read the story closely, you start to realize that another character is also going through their own metamorphosis and that person is Gregor little sister, Grete. Grete metamorphosis is a little different from Gregor, mainly since he becomes into a giant insect, because she turns from a child into a very well presented adult. This is mentioned near the end of the story when her parents say that she has become into a fine young woman. This discussion will be a comparison of the two sibling’s metamorphosis on how they are alike and different.

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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.

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Gregor enters the classic short novel “The Metamorphosis” as a bug. The traveling salesman believes the transformation has occurred from lack of rest, after all, the confused man works constantly to pay the debt of his parents so hallucinations could be an accurate response. The character of Gregor transformers throughout the story from a human trapped in a giant vermin to nothing more than a dung beetle. The morning that Gregor awakes from troubled dreams, he is described as having an armor-like back along with a brown belly with many tiny, thin legs. Many arches divided his slightly domed, brown belly into sections.

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As the main character, Gregor Samsa, transforms from human state to that of a beetle, there are many aspects that are left unexplained and seemingly unstable. For example, in the novel, Gregor’s transformation into a beetle is left unexplained by Kafka. Kafka opens up the novel by stating, “When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from unsettling dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin” (Kafka 1). There is no scientific or physical evidence as to why this transformation occurred, but it can be ascertained that it is a psychological transformation.

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In Franz Kafka's classic drama novella The Metamorphosis, Gregor is a hard working traveling salesman with little to none social life when he wakes up one morning to find that he has been transformed into a cockroach. Gregor is vary calm at his unfortunate predicament unlike his family who freaks out and nearly kills him the first morning of his transformation. Throughout the story Gregor is always vary calm while everyone around him loses composure. Towards the end Grete says “We have to get rid of it”(47 Kafka) after gregor hears this he is left will no will to live and starves himself to death. Kafka creatively uses several different symbols to create a “more than meets the eye” feel with his story.

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When thinking about transformation in The Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka, the reader’s first thought is Gregor Samsa’s transformation from human to insect, but Kafka’s changing descriptions of Gregor’s father, and sister leads the reader to believe they also go through a metamorphosis just as significant as Gregor. Although Gregor’s transformation ultimately leads to his death, it changes the rest of his family for the better. His father and sister both step up to support the family. “Gregor’s metamorphosis was necessary for his freedom, as his death was necessary for the family’s freedom.” (McCarty.60-61) Before Gregor’s transformation, he was the soul provider for the family.

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742 Words | 3 Pages

Gregor is noticing alterations in his mind: “Moreover, the milk, which was his favorite drink, and for this reason the sister had certainly prepared it, did not taste good to him at all…”(Kafka 32). This is the first difference in Gregor’s mind he realizes. Gregor used to like milk but now that he has transformed into a bug he doesn’t like what was once his favorite drink. This is a very significant event in the novella because it’s showing Gregor’s mind is transforming from a human into a bug state of thinking. Gregor no longer feels safe in his room: “...in which he was forced to lie flat on the floor made him anxious, and he could not find out the source of his anxiety, because for the past five years, he had inhabited this room,” (Kafka 33).

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1857 Words | 8 Pages

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

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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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In fact, Kafta mentions Gregor’s transformation in the first sentence of the story. “One morning, when Gregor Samsa woke from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin”. Kafta does not specifically mention how or why Gregor transformed into a monster like figure, but implicitly indicates that Gregor’s absurd life is imminent. Moreover, the transformation of Gregor illustrates the absurdity of himself as a human being. The existence of Gregor as a monster-like creature brings extreme disruption to the household, in which Gregor’s parents begin to work due to the lack of income.

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