The Metamorphosis as Social Criticism Society often works against itself in one way or another. In reading Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka one could presume the work to be a social criticism. Throughout this story Kafka shows how society can be split into different sections, with Gregor representing the working man at the time, and his family representing all the other kinds of people throughout society. This story shows how Gregor has worked for his family in the past, and how he subconsciously thought he had control over them. He works at an intolerable job of hard work to support his family, and gets little respect for this. It shows what happens to him when he stops working for them, he transforms into a huge cockroach. He is rejected by his family, and he is not cared for properly which results in his death. Following Gregors death is a gleeful ending, which eventually implies that the cycle will be repeated, though this time through his sister. It is apparent even in the first sentence "As Gregor awoke one morning from uneasy dreams, he found himself transformed into a gigantic insect" (P862, Ph1) that Kafka meant something underneath the surface. Awakening from uneasy dreams could mean awakening from an uneasy, labored life by quitting it all. His transformation could mean how society can compare him to a cockroach for his giving up on them and treat him as if he was less than human. Gregor has obviously had a life of hard labor at a job that he finds to be unbearable; as he states "Oh, God what an exhausting job I've picked" (P862 Ph4). He feels that he must work though. He feels that his family is incapable of supporting themselves. His mother has asthma, his father is old, and his sister is very young. As it turns out though, in the end, his family was perfectly capable of supporting themselves; In fact his father had been saving up money the entire time. In reading this first portion of the story one would be led to believe that Kafka is making a statement of how the working man feels that his life, and others would be in jeopardy if he were to stop working. Maybe Kafka is representing Gregors family as the lower class. Once Gregor gives up working for his family he finds himself transformed into a big ugly cockroach, the lowest form of life. It's clear why gregor gave up working for his family when he turns the key to the door and says "They should have called out keep going, turn that key!'" (P868 Ph3) what he needed were words of encouragement, words he never received. This could plausibly be a metaphor that the working people in society are way overworked, and get very little respect for it. It is obvious that Gregor appears disgusting to others that see him when the chief clerk runs away at first glimpse of him. This is his punishment for not working. His grotesque figure represents what he thinks people think of him. In a way this is saying, When the working man, stops working he believes people will very him as a disgusting figure one that can do nothing but live off of others. At this point Gregor's position, and respect in the household decrease rapidly to a point of near nonexistence. He can't even talk to people, this is established earlier on in the story when The chief clerk says "that was no human voice" (P867 Ph4). His family locks him in his room, and feeds him old rotting food. They completely desert him, and try to move on with their lives. Gregor at this point experiences feelings of lost empathy, and longs to communicate with others. This could represent the working mans fear of poverty, it has been established that when the working man quits he becomes a disgusting creature in his and everyone's eyes; now that's not the main fear in the working man, it's loss of being cared for, and loss of communication in being poor, dependent, and powerless. His not being able to speak represents the lower class man's being silenced. How his family gives up on him, and deserts him is how society gives up on the poor, or the homeless. Throughout Gregors life as a cockroach, he finds himself to be treated more like an animal each day, like being served "a piece of cheese that he would have called uneatable"(P873 Ph1). He even finds himself to be acting like an animal, "he quickly devours the cheese"(P873 Ph1). He appears to have given up on life. He is not cared for properly, and eventually withers away, and dies. This shows how society doesn't really care about the working man. In fact, it shows how society couldn't care less if he died, in fact it would brighten up their day. Even his own mother says "'now thanks be to god'" (P890 Ph2) upon first discovery of the body. In the end though, after Gregors death the mood suddenly changes from gloom to glory, a surprising twist of what one would think. The mood is peaceful, they family goes out on a stroll. Everyone appears to be in a good mood. The double twist is when Gregors father looks at Grete, and thought of the kind of man she could marry. This is actually a funny ending because it shows just how horrible Gregors family really is. All they can think of is who will fill Gregors shoes as a care taker for them. This is symbolic of what society thinks of the average working man. They use you, abuse you, throw you away, and then ask for seconds; "It was like a confirmation of their new dreams, and excellent intentions that at the end of their long journey their daughter sprang to her feet and stretched her young body"(P892 Ph1). I believe that the overall moral to the story is how society should give much more credit to people who keep the world running, and that life should not be all about work, silence, and punishment. I also think it is about society's moralities, and how they have reduced to such a despicable level, I think Kafka cries change. It should now be clear that Kafka shows how society can be split into into different sections, with Gregor representing the working man at the time, and his family representing all the other kinds of people throughout society. Society often works against itself in one way or another.
Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis is so strikingly absurd that it has engendered countless essays dissecting every possible rational and irrational aspect of the book. One such essay is entitled "Kafka's Obscurity" by Ralph Freedman in which he delves down into the pages of The Metamorphosis and ferrets out the esoteric aspects of Kafka's writing. Freedman postulates that Gregor Samsa progresses through several transformations: a transformation of spatial relations, a transformation of time, and a transformation of self consciousness, with his conscious mutation having an antithetical effect on the family opposite to that of Gregor. His conjectures are, for the most part, fairly accurate; Gregor devolves in both his spatial awareness and his consciousness. However, Freedman also asserts that after Gregor's father throws the wounding apple, Gregor loses his sense of time. While his hypothesis certainly appears erudite and insightful, there really is no evidence within the book itself to determine whether if Gregor has a deteriorating sense of time. If Freedman had only written about Gregor's spatial and conscious degradation, then his entire thesis would be accurate.
Gregor Samsa, a hard working salesman providing for his family in need, has sacrifice his own freedom for the sake of the survival of his family. As a provider, his family is expecting him to work, be successful, and bring home the wealth. Although Gregor doesn’t enjoy his tedious job in the slightest, he still agrees to do it. This is more influenced by his father’s debt rather than his own morals. “If it weren’t for my parents, I would have quit long ago, I would have gone to the boss and told him off” (Kafka 2). This shows that he is a frustrated individual. Gregor is someone who would likely hold in his own personal feelings to preserve the family name. A night of nightmares later, Gregor awakes to see his many little legs flailing about. He isn’t initially shocked by this horrid transformation and however terrible it looks to him, his primary focus is how is he going to get to work? In spite of everything, he is still in the mindset of working no matter what the cost. After all, he doesn’t want to lose the tr...
Gregor Samsa awakes one morning to discover that he has been transformed into a repugnant vermin. One may never know what initiated this makeover, but the simple truth is that Gregor is now a bug, and everyone must learn to live and move on in this strenuous situation. In Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, the characters that interact with Gregor, including his mother, his father, and his sister Grete, must come to terms with his unfortunate metamorphosis, and each does so by reacting in a unique way. Gregor’s family members are constantly strained by this unusual event, and all three of them are pressed to their breaking point.
After the family business goes bankrupt, Gregor picks up the slack to pay off his parents’ debt by taking a job as a traveling salesman. Though he hates the early mornings and tedious travel, he does so anyways because he knows his family is counting on him. His family, content with living off the fruit of his labors, do nothing to help contribute financially as well, though all are well and able too. When he turns into an insect and is unable to work, they are all able to find employment, demonstrating that they did not require Gregor to strain himself so hard for them. Gregor sacrifices his hopes and dreams for his future for his family, as well as his happiness, for hardly anything in return. He is generous and selfless, and this quality is taken advantage of by his
The Metamorphosis is said to be one of Franz Kafka's best works of literature. It shows the difficulties of living in a modern society and the struggle for acceptance of others when in a time of need. In this novel Kafka directly reflects upon many of the negative aspects of his personal life, both mentally and physically. The relationship between Gregor and his father is in many ways similar to Franz and his father Herrman. The Metamorphosis also shows resemblance to some of Kafka's diary entries that depict him imagining his own extinction by dozens of elaborated methods. This paper will look into the text to show how this is a story about the author's personal life portrayed through his dream-like fantasies.
Politzer, Heinz. Franz Kafka: Parable and Paradox. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1962, Pp. 37-41.
Nonetheless, the first thing on his mind was about his job and was worried more about missing the bus to attend work rather than himself. In the text, Gregor says: “It’s a lot more stressful than the work in the home office, and along with everything else I also have to put with these agonies of traveling-worrying about making trains, having bad, irregular meals, meeting new people all the time…” (Kafka 118). Gregor was more concerned about missing work rather than accepting the fact that he had lost his form as a human being. But, he was not the only one who was concerned about his well-being, but his family as well. The problem was his family only viewed him as the money maker; without him, the family will likely be poor without his support. Gregor’s family relied on him to provided them since his salary helped them a lot due to his traveling as a sales person. Kafka writes, “‘Gregor,’ a voice called-it was his mother- ‘it’s a quarter to seven. Didn’t you have a train to catch?’” (Kafka 120). The mother was concerned about Gregor not leaving the house on time to go to work. Although, readers/audience may assume that the mother was performing her role as a mother and checking on her children. But, if the mother was concerned about her son, she would of helped him instead of relying on him all the time. Gregor’s identity had been revealed when he is no longer
...in. For the past five years, he provided for his family, and when he needed them, they did not care. After his metamorphosis, they all got jobs, something Gregor thought they were incapable of. After his death, they moved out of the flat, which was too expensive for them, leaving all of their memories, starting anew without him.
“Gregor's father seized the chief clerk's stick in his right hand (the chief clerk had left it behind on a chair, along with his hat and overcoat), picked up a large newspaper from the table with his left, and used them to drive Gregor back into his room, stamping his foot at him as he went. Gregor's appeals to his father were of no help, his appeals were simply not understood, however much he humbly turned his head his father merely stamped his foot all the harder” Mr. Samsa compromised the safety of his own son, just so he could try to keep the little money he had coming in,
Secondly, his transformation symbolizes wishful thinking. At the beginning of the novella, Gregor goes on about how stressful his life is with all the work load he has, he is fed up with everything “To the devil with it all!” (Kafkas 4) He wants something different, change, a less stressful job or even a new life itself; oddly enough his wish comes true. This “new life” of his wasn’t what he pictured at all, this is where wishful thinking comes into play. “Be careful what you wish for.” is the best way to describe what happened to Gregor. He wished for something very vague and got it. Everyone has heard the line before, it happens, we need to think before we act. Unfortunately Gregor didn’t, he got an alteration of what he wished for and it affected not only himself but his family members as well.
Diversity relates to gender, age, language, ethnicity, cultural background, disability, sexual orientation or religious belief, including that people are different in other respects such as educational level, job function, socio-economic background, personality profile, marital status and whether or not one has family. Diversity and demographic differences can impact individual behavior by creating conflict in the workplace. The success of an organization depends on the workforce of the organization. A workforce made up of diverse individuals from different backgrounds can bring the best talent to an organization. There are many types of diversity and demographic characteristics and each one has an impact on individual behavior. Ethnicity, gender, age and personality traits diversity will be discussed along with an examination of the impact each of these have on individual behavior.
" Visible forms of diversity include characteristics such as race, age, and gender. Nonvisible difference includes individuals variations in educational socio-economic background, personality, and values." ( Griffith, Dunham, 2015).
Ethnic groups are often associated with race and incorporate the view of skin color differences with language, culture, or nationality (Lewis, 2003, para. 9). Racial groups are usually formed from two or more ethnic groups such as Hispanic-Americans, Irish-Americans, Japanese-Americans, African-Americans, etc (Lewis, 2003, para. 9). People of color are projected to be the majority of the U.S. population by the year 2060 and 30% of the population will be Hispanic (Schermerhorn, 2005, p. 30). With the numbers of different ethnic groups on the rise, organizations that employ individuals from many different ethnic groups may benefit from the differences in views and backgrounds that these individuals bring...
Diversity is an ideal that allows for interpretations of the concept to vary on an individual basis. For example, some believe that diversity is based solely on race, however, it is my own personal belief that true diversity goes more in-depth. Although the mixing of different races and ethnicities certainly will improve the overall diverseness of a community, the practice of being diverse is much richer. Diversity is more about bringing together different perspectives and different ways of thinking in order to achieve a greater understanding of issues and to offer the best solutions to problems. True diversity encompasses individuals with varying characteristics, including but not limited to: race, gender, ethnic groups, age, education, religious beliefs, socioeconomic backgrounds, sexual orientation and those from different geographic locations. As the result of a historical lack of diversity, today’s society is taking steps to become more multicultural. Since each culture has its own set of values, issues, and concerns, there are numerous advantages to maintaining a multicultural workplace.
Diversity in the workplace refers to the range of differences between people in a business. Diversity encompasses gender, age, race, ethnic group, personality, education, organizational function, background and a lot more. Not only does diversity involve how employees within an organisation perceive themselves, but how they view others like their colleagues, managers etc. Now for businesses becoming increasingly global it is important that managers have a well-rounded understanding of diverse workforces and countries as the more diverse your workforce is and the more diverse your business is means you will attract a more diverse consumer base. Also organisations can achieve nothing without the efforts of their individual