We humans who live on the surface of the earth are all Overlanders! This is what I found out when I read Gregor the Overlander, a book written by Suzanne Collins. It is the first book in the Underland Chronicles series. This book was 311 pages of Underland adventure. The story begins with the protagonist, Gregor. He is a bony eleven year old boy. He lives in a hot, cramped apartment with his poor, struggling family. He is living in a state of frustration. His seven year old sister Lizzie gets to go off to camp, while he is stuck at home watching his 2 year old sister, who is called Boots. His father is missing, his mother is working all the time, his grandmother is senile and calls him Simon. There is an odd woman named Mrs. …show more content…
There are also many other minor characters who are guards and workers. Vikus informs our heroes that they may not leave, but Gregor has decided that he doesn’t want to be kept Underland. He tries to escape with Boots down the waterway. He is pursued by the Regalians and flees to a beach. There, he and Boots are confronted by two giant, talking, aggressive rats! The rats have a hatred for Overlanders and decide to eat Gregor and Boots. A fight ensues. Gregor and Boots are rescued by the Regalians, but not without casualties. They are taken back to the city. There, Gregor finds out about a prophecy called ‘The Prophecy of the Gray’. Vikus thinks will be fulfilled by Gregor. Now it is time to start the Quest to save Regalia from the Rats. But, Gregor is a reluctant warrior. He doesn’t think that he is really the one to save them all. He doesn’t want to believe that the responsibility is his. Vikus reveals the information that Gregor’s father is alive and being held prisoner by the rats. Gregor learns that where there is life, there is hope! Gregor now has his own quest, to rescue his father from the rats! Gregor captures the imagination of anyone who has some frustrations in their life. I can relate to Gregor’s wanting to make his life better. My problems are not near to the level of Gregors, but I would enjoy a bit of an escape into a grand adventure. During his adventure, he took care of Boots and made her a priority. I
His boss tells him that he is causing his parents unnecessary worry, but his parents are not worried at all or they would have busted into his room to see if he was okay. Whilst in the middle of all of this Gregor is starting to get scared of what the change is bringing into his life and causing unnecessary worry. In chapter 2, Grete brings in food for Gregor and for a change he is being treated somewhat correct and they notice he has became a full time crawler. This causes the family to question what he is doing is not human and they are starting to fear his new abilities as a “bug”. As an example, his mother and Grete take out the furniture to give him more room to crawl. Losing all faith in Gregor they take the furniture out because the fear is too great they may never get their son back and they have to accept the fact Gregor is a nasty vermin.
becomes free of his wishes. Gregor's new identity as a giant beetle doesn't allow him to
Throughout the story there is a metamorphosis that is taking place in his home. He has traded places with the family and is now living the life they had previously embelished in. His father begins to work along with his sister and his mother must now work and do the cooking and cleaning. Gregor on the other hand does nothing but daydream, crawl, and nap through his days. One ironic statement from his sister “He must go, if this were Gregor he would have realized long ago human beings can’t live with such a creature, he’d have gone away one his own accord. This creature persecutes us, drives away our lodgers, obviously wants the whole apartment to himself, and would have us all sleep in the gutter.” How selfish of her, had he not taken care of them and he was not the only one working
Gregor maintains submissive personality and does not defend himself. Gregor’s physical change into a bug is the only aspect of him that changes. Gregor continuously allows himself to be abused. Upon Gregor’s transformation, he is unable to go to work. Therefore, the chief clerk visits Gregor to force him to come to work. Gregor remained locked in his room and would not leave for work. So, the clerk became extremely impatient. The frustrated clerk divulges into a cruel and demoralizing speech. He maliciously accuses Gregor of hiding because of unethical involvement in cash receipts. Later, Gregor’s family and the clerk become restless and want to see Gregor. The door to Gregor’s room is unlocked to open and reveal Gregor in his insect form. Gregor’s family and the clerk react with horror. The clerk and Gregor’s mother run away from him in fear. Gregor’s father grabs a stick and a newspaper and dashes toward Gregor, herding Gregor back into his bedroom with prods and fierce language. Gregor injures himself badly while trying to fit back through the doorway. Gregor’s door is slammed shut behind him and he his left alone, frightened and injured, in his room. The events subsequent to Gregor’s transformation exhibit his passive nature. Clearly such passivity was not useful to Gregor.
He supported his mother, father and Grete. Now that he cannot work, his family is desperate for money. The father decides to go back to work to bring home money. To make some more money on the side, they rent their apartment out to three lodgers. One night while the lodgers were there, Gregor was seen, which made the lodgers freak out and leave. This marks a turning point in how Grete feels about Gregor. She comes to realize that he has no humanity left. The reader sees this when Grete explains to her father, “It has to go,’ cried his sister. ‘That’s the only answer, Father. You just have to try to get rid of the idea that it’s Gregor. Believing it for so long, that is our real misfortune” (Kafka 1107). Grete no longer thinks of him as Gregor, but refers to him as “it”, showing that she really has no regards for him. This ultimately adds to the decision that they should get rid of
Grete undergoes a change in perspective to such a degree that by the end of the novella it is she who declares, “we must get rid of it” (84). This change in perspective shows how Kafka believes that members of society often stop sympathizing with the isolated group when it becomes inconvenient for them to continue doing so. Gregor’s mother reacts in an initial manner somewhere between the father and sister since when first seeing him she “went two steps toward Gregor and collapsed right in the middle of her skirts” (23). These conflicting desires continue through the novella, such as when Mr. Samsa tries to kill Gregor, “she begged him to spare Gregor’s life” (65) but at the same time she is repulsed by him. This illustrates how she wants to help him and tries to think of him the same way she did before his transformation, yet is unable to. This resembles the idealists in society who theoretically support the alienated person but often succumb to social pressures when they are forced to face the problem. These three reactions to Gregor’s transformation as a result of the initiation of his isolation by the manager demonstrate the spectrum of reactions. From the immediate acceptance of the hierarchy represented by Mr. Samsa, to the true compassion of Grete and the idealism of Mrs. Samsa, Kafka shows how a wide variety of reactions is expected from society, and how people often change their opinions.
Gregor woke up one morning noticing something strange. This so happened to be that he was a enormous bug. His family that he took care of did not know what to think of it so he just felt helpless. His sister is the only one that takes care of him and gives him rotted food, which he wanted. However his mother saw him on the wall and freaked out, and the father, thinking Gregor attacked his own mother, spin
With this in mind, Gregor, being an allegory for Kafka, portrays his feelings towards his family and his involvement with them. He portrays most of his feelings through his sister, and father, who are mainly static characters
Characterization of Gregor: Kafka depicts Gregor’s thoughts as depressed and hopeless in order to show that he does not believe his situation will get better. This is done in order to show that Gregor no longer has any humanity left because he repeats the same tasks every day which has numbed him.
Kafka utilizes a new narrative perspective in the last passage of his work to expose the one-sided love between Gregor and the rest of his family. The majority of the story had been told in a free indirect discourse restricted to the mind of Gregor. In this position, Gregor’s humanity —despite his inhuman exterior— and his genuine love for family is revealed. As the only source of income for the family, he works with every fiber in his being to overcome the debt that plagues them, as “He felt great pride at having been able to give his parents and sister a life like this in such a beautiful apartment” (411). This compassion is clearly not reciprocated when the narration shifts to the remaining family following Gregor’s demise. Instead they critique the shelter that Gregor
In the fantasy fiction book Gregor the Overlander, by Suzanne Collins, the main character Gregor faces rats, bats, crawlers and all, to save his dad. It starts with eleven-year-old Gregor, who is stranded in his tiny New York city apartment with his hallucinating grandmother, little sister, and cockroaches, while his other younger sister, Lizzie, goes to summer camp. He takes his sister downstairs to the laundry room, so he can keep an eye on her while he goes about his chores. Suddenly he notices that it is too quiet, there is no patter of his sister’s boots. To his horror, he watches her get whisked away into the air vent behind a dryer. He throws himself down the tunnel, in hopes of finding her. From there, everything happens very quickly.
As readers of metamorphosis we can assume that before Gregor’s transformation he was the main provider of the family. Gregor provided so much that the rest of his family does not work, due to the fact that they completely rely on Gregor. However thanks to gregor's being unable to work his family
Worried about their son, his entire family urges next to the door and demands Gregor to unlock it. At that moment, his manager angrily storms to his house and demands an explanation for his delay. His mother tries to pleads his manager by complimenting Gregor’s devoted and hardworking attitude. She didn’t want her son to lose her occupation as she still perceived him as the successor of the family, and if anything were to happen, it would only disrupt the sustainability of her family. Finally, Gregor opens the door and witnesses the repulsive and scared faces of his family and manager. The horrified office manager backs away, his mother who was "already in tears...yelling" (12-13) passes out, and the father cries. Nevertheless, Gregor “[filled with] assurance and confidence” continued to see himself as his human self, and tries to protect this identity by delivering a long explanation. However, he doesn’t realize that no one saw him as Gregor, and regardless of how strongly he believed in his perception of himself, his family simply saw him as a disgusting creature. Courageously, the father shoves him back into the room and isolates the hideous Gregor into the room.
In the third and final chapter, the family found the new drudgery of their lives. Their “overworked and tired-out family” (p. 880) increasingly neglected Gregor. He longed for responsibility and was “often haunted by the idea that next time the door opened he would take the
Gregor’s transformation to a Vermin created a new life of separation and isolation for him. Before Gregor’s transformation he already felt isolated and stressed out because he was the only one working and he didn’t have that good of a relationship within his family. Kafka states “Constantly seeing new faces, no relationships that last or get more intimate.” Gregor is a traveling salesman who sees new people