Gregor's Existentialism And The Bug Crisis

     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

Once I’ve got together the money to pay off the parent 's debt to him— that should take another five or six years—I’ll do it for sure. Then I’ll make the big break.”(pg.5) In other words, Gregor is working so much for his parents and the debt that he needs to pay off. As a result of that, Gregor is overworked, he never really goes out, and spends his time reading the newspaper or looking at the bus schedule. Kafka writes, “The young man has nothing in his head except business. I’m almost angry that he never goes out at night. Right now he’s been in the city eight days, but he’s been at home every evening. He sits there with us at the table and reads the newspaper quietly or studies his travel schedules.” (pg. 15) Gregor has lost his sense of humanity and spends his time thinking about business. He has also lost all sorts of creativity he had before he started working so much. He is pretty much used to a routine based lifestyle, which lacks creativity because he has a set schedule that he follows almost everyday. This resulted into his metamorphosis. His parents relied on him to work so much, they forgot that Gregor is human just like themselves. Gregor is human who needs basic human essentials. Like going out with his friends, relaxing, and learning to appreciate the things and people around him. He could not do so because he was stuck paying off debt with a job that he hated.

Gregor’s metamorphosis brings many positive and negative changes in himself as well as his family. His family used to rely on him for his income as he was the only source of money in the family, but now they all worked and earned money themselves that is a very big positive change in the family. The negative change was bad for the Gregor himself as he couldn’t face the world with his new appearance,

In the story The Metamorphosis, written by Franz Kafka, Gregor Samsa experiences in existential crisis that is extremely unique. Instead of feeling the usual sense of purposelessness or boredom, Gregor is transformed into a bug and so he loses his purpose. His reaction to his transformation is the most disturbing because he does not care and in fact, tries to act like nothing has changed; however, things will never be the same. He is unable to work and unable to help his family whop he had supported for years by working at a bank. Without work, Gregor’s mind, which was still human, devolves into that of a bug which does not seek purpose and does not care about life. Gregor is truly an existential hero because of his struggle with his purpose and what to do after his transformation.

Being on the go all the time made Gregors social life nonexistent. He may have met people every day, but he never had enough time to get to know them and make friends (Wyllie). Gregor was socially deprived to a certain degree. Not establishing social relationships with others caused him to be lonely which eventually lead to him having feelings of depression. Gregor lead an unhealthy lifestyle that caused his body to shut down from all the lack of care and transform into a vermin.

In the beginning of the novella, Gregor undergoes a transformation. Many readers view his transformation as he turns into a bug because of the way Kafka describes Gregor. Kafka may have been undergoing a transformation of his own. Kafka dealt with many issues growing up such as self doubt, issues with his father, and eventually, health issues. Like Kafka, Gregor deals with issues with his father and within himself and begins to feel less and less like himself as the novella continues. He awakes from his sleep to ask himself, “What’s happened to me (Kafka, 3)?” With the conflicts Gregor has with his family, especially his father, he begins to feel unwanted and unappreciated. Gregor also feels that he is becoming less sensitive when that used to be one of his main traits as a human (Kafka, 24). Seeing that Gregor is losing his sensitivity, that shows that he is truly losing himself since he is losing one of his main traits. Feeling less like himself, Gregor becomes more distant with his close

The deterioration of Gregor's life was in part due to the ostracism associated with his being turned into a bug. Once his family found out what happened, they banished him to his room, and his parents could not even bear to look at him. Prior to his metamorphosis, Gregor was an integral part of the family. He provided the money by which the family survived. Yet as soon as he changed, he was labeled an outcast, who was useless to the family, and therefore not paid any attention. He felt this ostracism, and it made him not want to continue on in life, he gave up because he felt unloved.

Gregor Samsa is the main character in the book “The Metamorphosis” written by Franz Kafka and published in early 1915. The book which is primarily centered on Gregor and his family takes readers on a journey into the seemingly disturbing life of Gregor Sasma and how major changes in his life take him on a downward spiral of depression and eventually, death. The changes evident in Gregor did not only affect him, but also affected his immediate family resulting in attitudes of awkwardness, pity, and blame from certain family members towards Gregor. At the beginning of the book, Gregor is portrayed as a diligent, hardworking young man, with a relatively disciplined work ethic. He is the sole provider in terms of his family’s welfare. The family on the other hand appears to only be interested in the money Gregor brings into the home in a bid to have their debts liquidated due to a failed business. Kafka, in this story depicts Gregor as a man who leads the normal day to day life of a travelling salesman. There are really no interesting moments in the life of Gregor until he awakens one morning to find himself completely transformed in the physical sense. Gregor Samsa is transformed into something completely unknown to him. In investigating the notion of depression, we are forced to analyze whether the physical transformation of Gregor resulted in a transformation of his emotional sense. Did the main character in the book, “The Metamorphosis” lose his

The existentialist is one who is concerned only with that intense moment of awareness with only his senses at his disposal, never looking to the future – the most living awareness. McCandles, the protagonist, in Into the Wild has come to the realization that existence is already being dead and accepting the fact that life is absurd and marvelous. He embraced the sublime absurdity of existence by renouncing the language games society plays. What is so enticing about the existentialist is that he is not concerned with the pressure of appearances and small talk which society employs to lie about what they think and feel. Existentialism is accepting the inevitability of death and living life for the moment without entertaining hope or falsities that distract one from living and accepting truth. The existentialist sees the simplicity in life and the absurdity of complicating it with pretences and lies, the existentialist is a naked man, he is one who becomes one with the rest of creation in accepting his fate on this earth and not hoping for anything more – he simply exists.

Theo Decker, the protagonist of the story was sent on a quest to find his individuality at a young age. He learned that life isn’t always fair but one can still write their own rules and make life the best for them. Existentialism can be seen throughout the book with many decisions that Theo makes are risky. Still, existentialism would not apply to the whole story.

At one point in life, we all begin to question the meaning of our existence. Gregor Samsa experiences an existential crisis in the story The Metamorphosis. Gregor undergoes an existential crisis as he believes since he transformed into a pest, he can’t provide for his family anymore, Gregor tries to adapt to his new lifestyle, but ultimately can’t. The primary outcome of Gregor questioning his existence leads to him deciding to kill himself and his family deciding to move on and look for a husband for Grete.

In the beginning of the novella, Gregor undergoes a transformation. Many readers view his transformation as him turning into a bug because of the way Kafka describes Gregor. Kafka may have been undergoing a transformation of his own. Kafka dealt with many issues growing up such as self doubt, issues with his father, and eventually, health issues. Like Kafka, Gregor deals with issues with his father and within himself and begins to feel less and less like himself as the novella continues. He awakes from his sleep to ask himself, “What’s happened to me (Kafka, 3)?” With the conflicts Gregor has with his family, especially his father, he begins to feel unwanted and unappreciated. Gregor also feels that he is becoming less sensitive when that used to be one of his main traits as a human (Kafka, 24). Seeing that Gregor is losing his sensitivity, that shows that he is truly losing himself since he is losing one of his main traits. Feeling less like himself, Gregor becomes more

Gregor, prior to his transformation into an insect, is a person who works to support the family, which determines Gregor's power in the family. When he first wakes up, his initial reaction is how "strenuous [an] occupation" he has (14). This reaction does not focus on his immediate transformation but something else that seems irrelevant to his current situation. He even despises his occupation, but he continues it to help his parents: "If I didn't hold back for my parents' sake, I'd have quit ages ago" (14). Gregor's desire to continue his work although he has no passion for it demonstrates how important he views his work

From the story, Metamorphosis, the reader learns that Gregor led a lonely lifestyle. In part one of Metamorphosis, we get a glimpse of Gregor’s past life. “On the wall directly opposite hung a photograph of Gregor from his army days in a lieutenant's uniform, his hand on his sword, a carefree smile on his lips, demanding respect for his bearing and rank” (part 1) From the passage we can conclude that Gregor was once happy. He held a high ranking in the army and led a carefree life. Gregor heard about his family’s financial troubles and came back home to take on a job as a traveling salesman to work off his parents’ debt. Although Gregor felt the constant need to make sure his family lived a comfortable life, his job made him miserable. Not only were the working conditions grueling and demanding, but it did not satisfy a feeling of accomplishment. After working as a traveling

Existentialism is a philosophy that emphasizes the uniqueness and isolation of the individual experience in a hostile or indifferent universe, regards human existence as unexplainable, and stresses freedom of choice and responsibility for the consequences of one's acts (Bigelow 134). Basically, existentialism addresses man's existence. An existentialist