The Metamorphosis Short Story Analysis

Non-western and Western texts have many differences and similarities in there writing styles, themes, characters, and the images they evoke in their stories. In the two stories, The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka and “I Beg You, Brother: Do Not Die” by Yosano Akiko, both portray the theme of family relations and how two sisters share the possible loss of their brothers. The nonwestern text, “I Beg You, Brother: Do Not Die”, and the western text, The Metamorphosis, both present a female character who is faced with a tough situation in which their family is put through hard times and reveals the inner character of those in that family. The two young women, Yosano and Grete, share the pain in which they end up in a situation of the possibility

The family reacts in such shock that they leave Gregor in his room and they are scared to even see Gregor in his bug form. While Gregor’s father and mother were both unable to look or even bare to take care of their transformed son, their daughter, Grete, took on the role as care taker of Gregor. The short story is written in such great detail of how Gregor was treated and what happened during the life of his metamorphosis. Throughout the story Grete continued to try to make Gregor’s situation better and it was impressive that she tried to do the things she did for Gregor, but near the end of the story she begins to question whether Gregor is still in the form that used to be her brother. Although the story ends tragically for Gregor, the story portrays Grete to grow stronger in the end and how she became a

One major difference between Grete and Yosano is the culture they live in and their ethnicity. Yosano is a Japanese woman living in the time around the Russo-Japanese War and Grete is living in American society during a time in which their family is in great debt and they lose their major or only income due to the transformation of Grete’s brother, Gregor. Yosano is an older woman, who loves her younger brother very much and does not want what happened to her father to happen to him while he is at war. Grete is a young woman around the age of 17 who blossoms into a strong woman as she takes on the role of helping her family and her brother. Near the end of the story, the reader begins to realize that Grete is beginning to take less and less care of Gregor and is losing faith that Gregor is even in the creature that was once him. Grete changed from trying to help her brother be more comfortable and taking care of him each morning to evening to barely opening the crack of his door to feed him after a scene Gregor scared Grete and her mother as they were trying to rearrange his room. The story shows Gregor noticing Grete slowly pulling away from Gregor, “But he could probably have stayed there for weeks without his sister’s showing any improvement; she must have seen the dirt as