What does The Metamorphosis. suggest about caring, patience, communication, love, loyalty, shame, secrecy, duty in the context of family life?
The definition of family dynamics refers to the way members of the family interact with each other in relation to the group as a whole. A lot of influences affect the dynamics between family members such as traditions, communication styles, behavioral patterns and emotional interdependence. In Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis relates to how humans and their offspring are capable of changing and interpreting different life experiences in the family that can transform the dynamic bond.
Metamorphosis is a story about a family who depends on the responsible child, the caretaker of the family. As the caretaker, he has a specific duty to his family and isn’t able to separate himself from it. And this is what we see in Metamorphosis with Gregor.
Kafka’s shows the shifting in the structural dynamics when Gregor’s new formation changes the attitudes from supportive to neglect when his needs affect their wants, needs and lifestyle. Gregor’s sense of duty to family was his main propriety towards his family. Even though he loathed his job as a travelling salesman, his devotion to financially clear his parent’s debt and care for his sister Grete was more important. He dreamt of fleeing the tightly coiled grip from his parent’s hands, but his loyalty was a pertinent family duty. To Gregor, this was what family was all about.
Kafka brings secrecy and shame twice in Metamorphosis by having Gregor bottle his hatred for his sales job and burden his parents place on him. His family has no clue that Gregor feels this way. The other secrecy and shame is of Gregor’s metamorphoses into an insect. The Samsa’...
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...generation. Kafka’s story proposes family dynamics as a natural ancestral foundation that’s pre-developed and set from early life stages.
By Mr. Samsa’s stowing his pain in his proverbial soul effects his actions in life and the people surrounding him including his children. His childhood equally lacked a health structure. When family coexists under the same household, especially children, they begin to take on certain roles in the family. Grete’s role in the family structure was the one as the initiator. She’s the one who suggested killing Gregor or disposing of him and the father followed pursuit in agreement.
Metamorphosis explains that many variables can cause instability in family structures and relationships. These variables have pivotal measures on how a family functionally adapts to situation for example, Gregor’s transformation into an insect.
Franz Kafka’s clear isolation of Gregor underlines the families’ separation from society. In The Metamorphosis, Kafka emphasizes Gregor’s seclusion from his family. However, Gregor’s separation is involuntary unlike the family who isolates themselves by the choices they make. Each family member has characteristics separating them from society. These characteristics become more unraveling than Gregor, displaying the true isolation contained in The Metamorphosis.
But everyone’s family bonding is quite different. As far as Kafka novella, this family state has lack of communication and feelings. However, when it comes to financial support, the Samsa family depends on Gregor. Sadly, while the oldest child is the family breadwinner, he is better yet the most divided one. But overall, he would rather have his family live a better life than having them worry about anything.
Many views of existentialism are exposed in Kafka's Metamorphosis. One of these main views is alienation or estrangement which is demonstrated by Gregor's relationship with his family, his social life, and the way he lives his life after the metamorphosis. Namely, it suggests that man is reduced to an insect by the modern world and his family; human nature is completely self absorbed. Kafka reflects a belief that the more generous and selfless one is, the worse one is treated. This view is in direct conflict with the way things should be; man, specifically Gregor should be treated in accordance to his actions. Gregor should be greatly beloved by his family regardless of his state. This idea is displayed in three separate themes. First, Gregor's family is only concerned with the effect Gregor's change will have on them, specifically the effect it will have on their finances and reputation. They are more than willing to take completely gratuitous advantage of Gregor; he works to pay their debt and they are happy to indulge themselves with luxury. Gregor is the soul employed member of his family and this is their primary interest when Gregor is transformed. Secondly, Gregor is penalized for his efforts to be a good son, and a good worker; his toils are completely taken for granted by his family. The Samsa family is not interested in Gregor beyond their own needs, outsiders are reverentially treated. Thirdly, it is displayed by the positive changes that occur in the Samsa family as Gregor descends into tragedy and insignificance. As Gregor's life becomes more painful, isolated, and worthless the Samsa family becomes more functional and self-reliant.
“Love is whatever you can still betray. Betrayal can only happen if you love.” John le Carr. The novel Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka is a story about the transformation of a man named Gregor who turned into a bug. The story takes place inside an apartment and describes the struggles Gregor goes through with his life and family. Throughout the entirety of the writing he is met with different challenges and obstacles. Grete, his sister and his parents have a unique bond that is not always the strongest. Gregor has not been close with his parents for awhile, but Grete especially at the beginning was the only person who truly cared about his predicament. This conflict results in the desertion of Gregor and the downfall of the family. These negatives compound, causing the his suicide. The Metamorphosis portrays how the betrayal of Gregor and Grete by their parents, and Gregor by his sister, leads to the demise of the family.
Gregor’s relationship with his father shows resemblance to the relationship between Kafka and his father. Kafka, as a child, suffered abuse from his father. Kafka viewed his father as a forceful monster, which resembles Gregor’s father. Gregor wanted nothing more than the love of his family, especially his father, just as Kafka had wanted. His reason for writing “The Metamorphosis” could also relate to the situation which he lived in. He was a Jew raised in Austro-Hungarian Empire, modern day Czech Republic. He was a Jew in an area of the world which Jews were not well accepted. Gregor was described as cockroach, something that Jew were often equated to during this time period. Jews were treated like vermin, they were thought of a creature that was to be rid of. Gregor experienced similar treatment from his family. They discussed leaving or getting rid of Gregor during the story. Experiences of Gregor are similar to those that Jews would have experienced during Kafka’s life. “The Metamorphosis” could also demonstrate the issues that normal people face every day. People face trials and tribulations every day that change their lives dramatically, nobody has ever been transformed into a bug, but it does represent the extreme circumstances that may
Kafka’s The Metamorphosis takes on an wide variety of main themes. One of the most important of these is the collapse of morality and mercy, even among those people who are expected to be most fair and compassionate. Gregor’s metamorphosis is indeed terrible, but more terrible still is the psychological corruption of Gregor’s family. Their inability to adapt to the changes that have occurred signal a total breakdown in the family structure, and offer a cautionary tale about the fragility of notions of justice and mercy and how a certain change can change a persons perception of them.
Bernstein, Richard. “A VOYAGE THROUGH KAFKA'S AMBIGUITIES”. New York Times 02 May 1983. : n. pag. ProQuest Platinum.
Gregor Samsa’s outcast status sent him into a short lived life as a “monstrous vermin” (Kafka,7). While his predicament may have appeared avoidable, a life of constant selflessness to the point of severe adult naïveté remains inevitable in Gregor’s case. Kafka’s portrayal of a pitiful young man’s support of his family can produce none other than the childlike thinking of Gregor Samsa.
The story of The Metamorphosis starts out simply, with a human waking up no longer human, but rather like a giant bug. This existential novella is filled with absurdity, as well as betrayal. When Gregor Samsa, the main character, wakes up one day as a bug, his first priority is getting to his job, in order to make money to support his family. But as the story goes on, he is betrayed by the family he loves so much, but worse, he betrays who he is as a person. Betrayal in the novella The Metamorphosis contributes to the overall message of the story that anyone will betray you, regardless of whether they are family, enemies, or even yourself, through showing the actions of Gregor’s father towards Gregor, Grete’s actions against Gregor, and Gregor’s own actions against himself and his family.
When first reading a story about a family, the reader typically thinks of the perfect usually family that is portrayed in many movies and television shows to come. The father works and loves his family, the mother is a stay-at-home mom and takes care of the whole family, the son goes to college to make a life for himself, and the daughter goes to school and excels in everything she does. In the short novel The Metamorphosis written by Franz Kafka, the family is not portrayed in this way. The father stays at home and is abusive not only physically but emotionally as well, the mother does stay home but only to take care of the father, their son Gregor is the breadwinner of the family but he has no say in anything, and the daughter Grette stays in her room to avoid trouble. Kafka wrote all of his stories to express his emotions, but The Metamorphosis expressed it on a whole new level by Kafka used to write letters to his family, and his hatred towards his abusive father is shown in his letter Brief an den Vater (Letter to His Father).
Metamorphosis is a story that is easily related to this ever so cruel world and the life each of us live today. Each of us experience alienation just as Gregor did in the story. We experience from friends and even worse family. When changes arrive that we can't cope with,
“Nobody could understand him…nobody thought he could understand them.” Gregor, the protagonist in Metamorphosis, faces one of the most difficult issues in any society. Barriers. Language barriers, psychological barriers, emotional barriers, and overall communication barriers. Gregor is described through details, images, and rhythms as a caring, concerned character that makes others’ issues his priority, despite his metamorphosis. However, the longer he remains transformed, the more distant his family becomes, and one of the biggest complications that he faces is his inability to connect with his family and communicate to them how thankful he is. Gregor’s response demonstrates the greater meaning that intensifying barriers can completely sever relationships, even when undesired.
From the beginning of The Metamorphosis Kafka offers a comical depiction of Gregor’s “squirming legs” (Kafka 13) and a body in which “he could not control” (7). Gregor’s initial reaction to this situation was the fact he was late to his dissatisfying job as a salesman, but Gregor knows that he has to continue his job in order to keep the expectation his family holds upon him to pay of the family’s everlasting debt. When Gregor’s family eventually realizes that Gregor is still lying in his bed, they are confused because they have expectations on Gregor that he will hold the family together by working. They know if Gregor was to quit his job there would be a great catastrophe since he is the glue to keeping their family out of debt. The communication between his family is quickly identified as meager and by talking to each other from the adjacent walls shows their disconnection with each other. Kafka introduces the family as lacking social skills in order to offer the reader to criticize and sympathize for Gregor’s family dynamics. Gregor’s manager makes an appearance quickly after experiencing the dysfunction within the fami...
Kafka felt that “the powerful, self-righteous, and totally unselfconscious personality of his father had stamped him with an ineradicable conviction of his own inferiority and guilt” (Sokel 1). He felt the only way to ever be successful was to “find a spot on the world’s map that his father’s enormous shadow had not reached—and that spot was literature” (Sokel 1).... ... middle of paper ... ...
In Franz Kafka’s short story, Metamorphosis, the idea of existentialism is brought out in a subtle, yet definite way. Existentialism is defined as a belief in which an individual is ultimately in charge of placing meaning into their life, and that life alone is meaningless. They do not believe in any sort of ultimate power and focus much of their attention on concepts such as dread, boredom, freedom and nothingness. This philosophical literary movement emerged in the twentieth-century, when Kafka was establishing his writing style in regards to alienation and distorted anxiety. A mirror to his own personal lifestyle, this story follows the short and sad life of a man unable to break out of the bonds society has placed on him. These bonds are not only evident in the work place, but at home too. Being constantly used and abused while in his human form, Gregor’s lifestyle becomes complicated once he becomes a giant insect and is deemed useless. Conflicts and confusion arise primarily between Gregor and his sister Grete, his parents, and his work. Each of these three relationships has different moral and ethical complications defining them. However, it is important for one to keep in mind that Gregor’s metamorphosis has placed him into a position of opposition, and that he has minimal control over the events to take place. Conflicts will also occur between family members as they struggle with the decision of what to do with Gregor. In the end they all come to the agreement that maintaining his uselessness is slowly draining them and they must get rid of him.