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
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.
I chose Susan Peters to compare to Gregor. Susan Peters became paralyzed from the waist down after being shot in a duck hunting accident. From then on, she had to use a wheelchair to get around. Gregor and Susan Peters both face difficulties in their life. They’re different because Gregor’s whole identity changed, and Susan Peters lost her ability to use her legs.
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.
Collection 3 Essay Most people like positive change more than negative changes, however, there are people in this world who do not like change at all because sometimes it can affect them in a negative way. What you might learn while reading is how positive and negative changes affect three stories which are first Magic Island by Cathy Song, the second one is The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, the last one is The Cross Of Snow by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. In the story Magic Island by Cathy Song, there is a family that has immigrated from their old life to a new life and the family seems really happy for example, “It is a day and immigrant and his family might remember, the husband taking off his shirt to sit like an Indian before the hot grill.”. In other words, it affects the family positively.
Have you ever been through a metamorphosis? A metamorphosis is a change of the form or nature of a thing or a person into a completely different one. In the book The Metamorphosis, we learn that not only does Gregor undergo a metamorphosis, but his sister Grete does as well. Grete experiences the most significant transformation because she transforms from being meek, to caring, and then to being confident. “In the neighboring room on the right, the sister began to sob.”
Gregor’s isolation and loneliness begins to toy with his composure, he becomes unpredictable and frightening to his family. Although, Gregor’s slow transformation from man to bug eventually becomes beneficial to Gregor. For instance, Gregor’s bug-like appearance allows him to be released from his family's high expectations. As for his developing bug-like qualities helps him to register his inner anger he feels towards his father. Gregor now realizes his father shows no sympathy towards Gregor and instead punishes him for something he has no control over.
In The Metamorphosis, Gregor Samsa is a traveling salesman who works to provide for his family. One morning though, Gregor wakes up as a massive beetle type insect. The bug can no longer talk, and can barely even get out of bed.
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.
When translating a foreign piece of text, words may be interpreted differently. For example, the differences between the William Aaltonen and Joachim Neugroschel translations of The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka are noticeable yet relatively minor. The first dissimilarity is when William Aaltonen uses “troubled” to describe a dream that Gregor Samsa, the main character, had, while in the Joachim Neugroschel translation, he uses “agitated”. Both words mean quite differential things. “Agitated” seems more severe and is sharp, whereas “troubled” is softer and more intellectually inconveniencing.
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.
There are hundreds of works of literature out in the world, many of them are great, and some are not as great. What makes them great is the truth behind them, the true feelings, and what it truly meant to the author. Many great works of literature are influenced by several different things, in the case of “The Metamorphosis”, it was influenced by the life of Franz Kafka, the author, and his real- life experiences. The Freudian concept help explain why “The Metamorphosis” contains symbols and clues that can be used to compare certain relationships throughout Kafka’s life, one being with his father, and the other with woman who entered his life. Franz Kafka was a German man who worked as a lawyer who worked at the workmen’s Accident Insurance
Socrates dabs on the subject in the Theatetus- the conversation between Theatetus – a boy- and his mathematics teacher, Theodorus. However, he must admit that he did not come up with such a statement, rather reworded it from “the man is the measure of all things, of the things that are that {or how} they are, of the things that are not that {or how} they are not.” Or Protagoras’s homo-mensura (152a). This means that if the wind appears to be cold to a man, then the wind is cold to the man. Knowledge in the sense that Protagoras sees it is that whatever a human goes through, he has knowledge because he is individually experiencing color, sound, temperature, and any other relative senses in the matrix.
Hurry, get the doctor. Did you just hear Gregor talking?’ ‘That was a voice of an animal’” (12). Through Gregor’s perspective, one may assume that his response to his manager was heard loud and clear and the only modification to his identity is the physical change he has undergone which highlights the importance of Kafka’s change in perspective. Although Gregor believes himself to be in control of the situation, the third person narration as well as the other character’s remarks reveal quite the opposite.
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.
