A metamorphosis “a change of the form or nature of a thing or person into a completely different one, by natural or supernatural means” (Dictionary). The protagonist, Gregor, goes through the most significant change throughout his whole family; Gregor somehow transforms over night into a giant cockroach. Gregor was the supplier of money to his family, he paid all the bills and was working truly to only pay off his parents debts; after finding a good job as a traveling salesman, he was able to help his family with a steady income and support. "They had simply got used to it, both the family and Gregor; the money was gratefully accepted and gladly given, but there was no special uprush of warm feeling" (95). Gregor was making great money …show more content…
In the beginning stages of the story, Gregor describes his mother as having severe asthma, which "kept her lying on a sofa every other day panting for breath" (97). The mother seems set to be a bystander, incapable of working or taking action. However, as the story progresses, she desires to see her lost son and develops a more adventurous spirit. She cries, "do let me in to Gregor, he is my unfortunate son" (100). She slowly begins to emerge from her mindless world and realizes the harsh reality of her son's metamorphosis and the effects of his transformation on the family. With this realization, she also begins to find a life of her own, taking up sewing for "an underwear firm" (111). The mother's sewing allows her to move forward rather than remain static. Now she is contributing to the family, as well as securing her own identity. She leaves behind her shell and discovers the independent and resourceful woman within …show more content…
She enjoys "dressing herself nicely, sleeping long, helping in the housekeeping, going out to a few modest entertainments and above all playing the violin" (97). However, as Gregor changes, Grete does as well. She begins to make herself a stronger presence in the household, becoming the sole caregiver to Gregor. She slowly journeys into adulthood and takes on a more independent role. Soon she obtains a job as a salesclerk and begins "learning shorthand and French in the evenings on the chance of bettering herself" (111). Grete becomes an active participant in life, rather than an observer, assuming responsibilities and expanding her knowledge of the world. She not only contributes to the family by providing some income but also attempts to improve herself through learning. By the end of the story, Grete has transformed into a "pretty girl with a good figure" (132). While Gregor ends his transformation, Grete continues with one of her own. Like a caterpillar, she is emerging from her cocoon and blossoming into a new being. She has created meaning for her life through her work and schooling, and she can now move on to a better future. Her parents realize the possibilities, saying that "it was like a confirmation of their new dreams and excellent intentions that at the end of their journey their daughter sprang to her feet first and stretched her young body" (132). They are prepared
Grete’s shifting feelings, actions, and thoughts toward Gregor makes her go through her own transformation. This transformation which she goes through is a central theme in the story. Grete goes from being a powerless child to a decision making women. Gregor’s transformation leads to his inevitable downfall (death) and Grete’s transformation ends in the power and responsibility which Gregor once held.
Change, it comes in many different ways shapes and forms, in Gregor’s case it was a physical change into a bug. There is another major change in this story and that is a mental change that is portrayed through Grete. In the beginning of the novella Grete is shown as a happy caring sister, but as the story progresses Grete’s true colors begin to show. Grete uses manipulation to reap respect from her family and, indirectly, Gregor.
The human truth in The Metamorphosis can be seen in various ways depending on your point of view of Gregor and Franz Kafka. Gregor Samsa was working for his family in result of the family needing money (so he thought); his parents and sister did not work. He is the only working child in the entire family. His father forced him to work, but he dislikes his job, and this does not make his life any easier. Gregor had to give up his own ambitions to provide for his family. Gregor finds himself trapped in a bubble. “Gregor’s goal to sustain his parents’ debt and provide for the family becomes more important than his own happiness”(Sadler). He struggles with the burden of providing for his family and maintaining himself simultaneously. The truth at this point of the book contains the little facts we know about Gregor, alienation will get you nowhere in life and will hold you back from accomplishing goals in life. Gregor takes notice to his transformation, but “does not seem to find it terrifying or even that unusual, merely an inconvenience or perhaps a delusion” (Smith). I think Gregor is transforming into a bug like creature due to his financial burden, his depression, alienation, guilt, and his terrible job.
the family representative of Gregor, in a sense, to a mother who does not understand and a father who is hostile and opposing. The father is physically violent toward his metamorphosed Gregor, pushing him through a door in Part I: "...when from behind his father gave him a strong push which was literally a deliverance and he flew far into the room, bleeding freely" (20). Grete appears to concentrate on protecting Gregor from this antagonistic father and an indecisive mother. In Part II, when Grete leads her mother into Gregor's room for the first time, we see the strange way in which Grete has become both the expert and the caretaker of Gregor's affairs (Nabokov 271). She convinces her mother that it is best to remove all of the furniture from his room. Kafka attributes her actions partly to an adolescent zest: "Another factor which might have been also the enthusiastic temperament of an adolescent girl, which seeks to indulge
Gregor Samsa's metamorphosis occurs one morning when he wakes up from unsettling dreams and finds himself changed into a monstrous vermin. This change makes Gregor dependent on his family members and reverses his previous situation in which his family was dependent on him. As a bug, Gregor is useless to his family and can no longer perform simple human tasks, let alone support his father, mother, and sister.
But, as time goes on his sister Grete, who had been the one to care for him the most, begins to lose faith in his humanness. She says to her parents, "You must just try to get rid of the idea that this is Gregor. The fact that we've believed it for so long is the root of all our trouble." This same idea is reiterated when Gregor finally dies and his mother says, "Well, now thanks be to God." His family was convinced after a short while that it wasn't even their own Gregor underneath that hard exoskeleton.
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.
In The Metamorphosis Franz Kafka tells the story of a young man named Gregor who observes the radical changes in his life after transforming into an insect. Gregor’s life was centered on his job as a traveling salesperson and his family. One morning Gregor woke up transformed into an insect. Afraid of the transformation Gregor stays in his room and ignores calls from his family. When Gregor realized that his new body did not allow him to have a normal life, he tried to adapt. After his metamorphosis, Gregor is abandoned by his family and only maintains a small relationship with his sister Grete, who is in charge of serving and provide him with food, but always leaving some distance because of his ugly appearance.
The plans for a new dwelling for the Samsa’s have been postponed, once more due to Gregor’s condition, his father is not pleased. As days pass Gregor dwells in his bed complaining of soreness every time he moves about. For the past few days all Gregor does is gorge down food and sleep an unheard of amount of hours. A week later Gregor decides to get up from his bed, he enters the kitchen and he finds no servant, but instead his sister Grete, who before departing for work makes him something to eat. She still works as a salesgirl, nothing had changed in the Samsa’s residence, only Gregor’s exterior. He pulls up a
Change is unavoidable and inevitably in every moment of our lives. In every second of our lives, changes appear and disappear, impacting our lives. Humans perceive change differently and it reveals the true nature of our heart. It is due to the dissension of change between humans that determines the differences in our individual perceptions. In the novel, “ Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka, the word change is taken to a entirely absurd degree as the main protagonist, Gregor Samsa is illogically transformed into a bug. Although Gregor’s thoughts still shown traces of his human self, Gregor’s family is unable to cope with his hideous form and isolates him from their world. Once perceived as the breadwinner of the family, Gregor is now seen
He was the son, the sole breadwinner of the family. Before Gregor’s transformation Grete really had no place in the family. Now since Gregor was unable to help the family Grete became important, needed and most of all appreciated. “He often heard them expressing their appreciation of his sister’s activities, whereas formerly they had frequently scolded her for being a somewhat useless daughter”(99). Now Grete’s parents need her for something. Grete by making herself responsible for Gregor gains a certain power over her parents. This however in not presented to the reader clearly because Gregor is unable to grasp the fact that his sister might have ulterior motives.
Furthermore, Gregor’s descent into social and physical abjection then forces his family to change radically in order to support themselves. In the beginning, Gregor starts off as the provider for his family. He hates his job, but he still goes above and beyond the call of duty to give his family a more comfortable life, even indulging the expensive endeavour of his sisters’ dream of studying the violin. However, after the metamorphosis, he is thrust into the role of a dependant – forcing his family to take responsibility and support themselves. His sister steps up to the plate in the beginning, giving him a selection of foodstuffs to find what he likes and even cleaning up after him. His parents are still in denial at this point, so much so that they refuse to see him at all. But as time goes by, his family begins to accept the situation and even try to help Grete out. His father produces some money from his previous failed business venture and his mother and sister try to make life more comfortable for Gregor. Grete in particular changes the most noticeably; Gregor himself notes at the beginning that her life up till that point had been “enviable”, consisting of “wearing nice
Gregor's existence before the metamorphosis was much like after it; limited to work and family, he went unnoticed by both. After changing into a cockroach one night, Gregor is forced to live a life of isolation with a family who is appalled by him. He is placed in a "dark bedroom, in the jumble of discarded furniture and filth" a " monstrous vermin, a grotesque, hidden part of the family" (Eggenschwiler 211). Shock and terror, resulting in Gregor being locked away, marked his family's reaction to his metamorphosis. His sister is the only one that, while frightened, would tend to Gregor's room and meals. She even took the responsibility so far as to get angry with anyone who
Change plays a major role in one's life. It is what makes one’s life unique and different. In the novel, The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, Gregor Samsa, the protagonist, initially appears as a respectful young man working as a traveling salesman to pay off his family debts and provide for his family. But then Gregor goes through a transformation that turns him into a gigantic insect. Even though Gregor’s sister, father, and mother undergo many changes, the most significant transformation that occurs in the story is the change in Gregor, from an ordinary working man to a gigantic insect. This initial transformation becomes only the first impulse, which causes a lot of changes in his external and internal world along with forcing him to adapt to his new position in the family.
Metamorphosis is often described as a change of the form or nature of a thing or a person into a completely different one, by natural or supernatural means. Gregor Samsa led an ordinary and rather mundane life as a traveling salesman who spent the majority of his time on the road with little time to form friendships or relationship with anyone outside of his small family. Once filled with gratitude by providing for his family, he is soon filled with resentment and obligation as his family adjusts to their newfound income. All of which comes to a halt when Gregor wakes up late to work and is horrified by the sight of his new appearance with countless sets of legs and a hard-shell-like exterior. His family soon finds out about his physical