Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” portrays Gregor Samza as the bread winner, someone that is depended on to keep the whole family out of poverty. However, Gregor later finds that his hard work was the leading catalyst to his demise. A biography of Kafka’s life exposes his awkward relationship with is father, “Kafka's father had a profound impact on both Kafka's life and writing. He was a tyrant of sorts, with a wicked temper and little appreciation for his son's creative side”(Franz). Gregor Samza and Franz Kafka’s life seem strikingly congruent at times, an uncanny and troublesome relationship with his family, while not completely feeling recognized for his hard work. Working hard to get ahead truism is not a reality; In Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” Gregor works hard, but his hard work leads to his alienation.
Gregor Samza is unknowingly bamboozled by his family to work hard and take care of their needs. Kafka writes, “Well, there's still hope; once I've saved enough money to pay back my parents' debt to him - that should take another five or six years - I‘ll do it with out fail. That's when I'll make the big change”(kafka,54). Gregor , still lying in bed, late for work, thinks to himself about the day he will be able to quit his job. He is bitter about the situation he is in; however, still loyal to the needs of his family. The debts that he is paying are not of his own and shows how loving Gregor is to his family and can be easily taken advantage of by them. As his family notices that Gregor is still home they become worried:
She had probably only just gotten out of bed and hadn’t even begun to put on her clothes yet. Well, why was she crying? Because he wouldn’t get up, and let the chief clerk in, because he was i...
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Gregor, unknowingly, was never able to really find out what type of person he really was or what he wanted to do for himself. In the time period that “The Metamorphosis” takes place a good income generating employment might not be growing on tree’s, but the idea of business is just as prevailent as it is today. If an individual falls short of their duties at an firm as an employee they are noticed and are most likely on the verge of being let go. Gregor, however, is in a much different situation doesent mean that the pressures of life cant at
Works Cited
"Franz Kafka Biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, 2014. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.
Kafka, Franz. "The Metamorphosis." The Sons. New York: Schocken, 2011. 53-111. Print.
"Literature, Arts, and Medicine Database." Kafka, Franz : The Metamorphosis. N.p., 29 Dec. 2009. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.
From the beginning of the tragic novella, it’s made clear that Gregor values the comfortability of his family over his own. Working as a traveling salesman his whole life, Gregor resents his monotonous job and manager who “...talks down from the heights to the employees…” (Kafka 4) Yet he still goes to his job every day to help pay off debts that his parents owe to his manager after his father’s business failed five years earlier.
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.
Franz Kafka’s, The Metamorphosis, is a novella about Gregor Samsa, a man who devotes everything to fulfilling the needs of his family. Kafka’s existentialist perspective on the meaning of life is illustrated through the use of the protagonist of Gregor Samsa. Existentialism is a philosophy concerned with finding self and the meaning of life through free will, choice, and personal responsibility (Existentialism). Gregor is unable to fulfill the existentialist view of finding meaning in one’s life; he acted according to what his family wanted. Kafka’s belief that there is no meaning to life and that the individual has to create his own meaning in life is entirely missed by Gregor. Kafka uses the juxtaposing mindsets of Gregor and his family members to express the importance of an individual fulfilling his own needs.
The story of Gregor Samsa and his metamorphosis is one of sorrow, but more a story to unveil the cruelties of Humankind. Kafka’s brilliance and understanding of human nature can not be fully grasped by quickly reading the story, but instead divulging into the hidden messages Kafka inserts within the text.
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.
People want their family to love and support them during times of need, but if they are unable to develop this bond with their family members, they tend to feel alone and depressed. In the novel The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, Kafka describes the theme of alienation and its negative effect on people and their relationships with the people around them. This theme can be shown through Gregor Samsa, the main character in The Metamorphosis. After Gregor’s metamorphosis, or transformation, he is turned from a human being into a giant bug which makes him more and more distant from the people in his life. The alienation that Gregor experiences results in his eventual downfall, which could and would happen to anyone else who becomes estranged from the people around them. Gregor’s alienation and its effect on his relationship with his family can be shown through his lack of willing interaction with his family members due to his inability to communicate to them, the huge burden he puts on the family after his metamorphosis, and his family’s hope to get rid of him because he is not who he was before.
In the novella “The Metamorphosis”, Franz Kafka focuses on the topic of alienation and considers its underlying effect on the human consciousness and self-identity. The alienation Kafka instigates is propagated towards the main character Gregor Samsa, who inevitably transforms into a giant cockroach. The alienation by family relations affects him to the extent that he prioritizes his extensive need to be the family’s provider before his own well-being. This overwhelming need to provide inevitably diminishes Gregor’s ability to be human-like. Kafka also enforces the idea of the ability to resurrect one’s self-identity following psychologically demanding events. In this essay, I utilize Gregor Samsa’s metamorphosis to address that alienation, in its various forms, is instrumental in the dehumanization process and can also oppositely induce a restoration of self-identity. The metamorphosis acts as a metaphor to express the inhumane change of state that occurs to a victim of alienation; it also formulates Gregor’s epiphany. He suffers through three forms of alienation: exploitation, violence, and neglect. The joint presence of these three external forces deprives him of a human distinctiveness, but in turn, influences a final realization that enforces the restoration of his self-identity, and therefore human identity.
In The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka manifests naïveté of Gregor Samsa by prolonging his realization of societal banishment due to underexposure. Revelations made by Samsa later prove his ignorance of his purpose in the eyes of his family. In addition to the many instances in which Gregor is trialed, Kafka’s continuous stream of distractions mimic Gregor’s persona.
Long before the story takes place, Gregor Samsa's father had a business failure that left him deep in debt. His son, Gregor, works as a commercial traveler for the company to whom he owes money; in effect, Gregor is slowly working off his father's debt. Gregor is not happy with his job, which Greenburg calls "degrading" and "soul-destroying," but believes that his family's existence depends upon him "sacrificing himself by working at this meaningless... job," and so he continues (274). Heinz Politzer goes far enough to say that Gregor is a slave to his boss (276), which would imply that there is no escape for Gregor- at least, no conventional escape.
... to do this every day Gregor would have had to have some sense of time. His dwindling human aspects are prominently marked in two places: the first when Gregor is incapable of communicating with his family and the sales manager and the second when he takes pleasure in rutting about in dirt and filth. Lastly, Gregor's loss of consciousness causes a polar change within his family. As Gregor is no longer able to earn money to support the family, everyone else is forced to take action to bring in capital. The most obvious change is in the father who transformed from a dead weight into a zealous worker. Despite Freedman's employment of flawed logic to formulate some of his theories, the majority of his conclusions are quite valid and probe deeply into the meaning behind Kafka's writing.
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...
In a similar manner The Metamorphosis, Kafka's pneumatic Gregor Samsa finds himself as a material expression, but after his form is altered, he begins embrace the freedom alienation can provide. Through the character of Gregor Samsa, Kafka suggests that, although one may be continually defined by others as an outside form is altered, if any independence is achieved it can be crushed by society. Kafka believed soc...
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.
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.
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...