How Gregor 's Personal Life

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.

Whenever Gregor leaves his room he causes an uproar which usually ends with him being physically punished and forced back into his room by his father. This can be seen in the first chapter when Gregor reveals himself to his parents and boss, and becomes injured when his father forces him back into the room. In addition in the second chapter Gregor sustains mortal injuries for following his sister Grete into the house to help his collapsed mother. In the end, with his injuries and seeing himself as a nuisance and a monster like his family did, Gregor dies.

In the first part of the book, Gregor wakes up and has evolved into a huge bug, or so he thinks. Doubting his ability to get out of bed, he looks for answers for the cause, but can not find any. Then, his mom comes to his room and is only concerned at the fact he is late for work and does not ask if he is all right. As said on page 5, by Gregor’s mother, “Gregor—it’s a quarter to seven. Didn’t you want to catch the train?” This is the only thing she asks her son Gregor when he wakes up unusually late. Expectedly Gregor was looking for a careful remark but this shows us that his mom is only concerned about the money Gregor makes instead of his well-being. In accordance, Gregor is starting to feel ashamed of this condition he must deal with, “Just don’t stay in bed being useless” (Kafka, 7). This shows us, Gregor feels useless because he cannot work for his family and help them at all. He made a ginormous effort to get out of his bed to work and yet is family is only worried about him losing his job instead of his well being. As we see, his family doesn’t love him genuinely and do not love Gregor like they should, being his family.

Anyhow, that might be quite a good thing for me, who can tell? If I didn’t to hold my hand because of my parents I’d have given notice long time ago, I’d have gone to the chief and told him exactly what I think of him.” They live in an upper class flat and they have hired help to wait on them, and Gregor is the one who supports it all. His father lost his business and his mother and sister do not work. The metamorphosis of Gregor is a dark blessing to him. It releases him from all of the pressures of daily life, his family, and at times he seems to enjoy being a bug. At one point he tells us how much he enjoys crawling up and down the walls and ceiling.

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.

Although Gregor’s mother defends him throughout most of the story, she starts to have her doubts once she sees how difficult Gregor has made life for the rest of the family. Before his transformation into this vermin, Gregor and his mother have a stable relationship. But, after Gregor’s metamorphosis is complete it was not until after “two weeks…[that] his parents could not bring themselves to come into see him,” (Kafka 29). The strength of the mother’s unconditional love for Gregor has diminished over the process of his metamorphosis, so much so, that she is repulsed by Gregor’s presence and is afraid to even be in the same room as him. The mother further rejects the physical state of her son by “pointing to Gregor’s room,” (Kafka 40) and telling Grete to “close that door,” (Kafka 40), therefore leaving Gregor in isolated and in the dark. Gregor’s mother has now caught on to the idea of distancing herself from her deformed son by

As soon as the Samsa’s returned to their flat, the family reminisces of the trials and ordeals which they were forced to endure upon their Gregor’s revolting transformation. Subsequent to discussing the matter the Samsa’s felt they could each hover above ground from the amount of anxiety which had been lifted from their shoulders. The Samsa’s decide they should clean their home and dispose of anything that brings the thought of Gregor to their minds. Mr. Samsa consumed with anger and disgust does not dare to go inside of Gregor’s dormitory. When the time comes however, to re-arrange what used to belong to their son, Gregor’s mother and sister enter the room.

Both of these instances show that Gregor’s father has completely given up on his son to the extent that he would seriously injure him just to get this ugly creature out of his sight. By Gregor’s father never trying to help him from the beginning it shows that he has completely given up on, and ultimately betrayed, him.

Gregor's physical transformation also sparks a streak of cruelty on the part of his family. It is understandable that they be frightened when he first appears, but they continue to lock him in his room without ever trying to communicate with him. The only person who ever goes in his room on a regular basis is his sister and she can barely even tolerate his presence. At one point when Gregor successfully escapes from his prison cell, his father ends up throwing apples at him with the intention of causing injury. "Gregor came to a stop in alarm, there was no point in running on, for his father was determined to bombard him." As Gregor merely sat there on the wall, his own father sunk an apple into his shell. After this event they leave him to whither away and die alone in his room. Gregor did not bring this horrid behavior upon himself by his actions, but instead they result because his different appearance and behavior led his family to think of

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

Throughout the novella, Gregor’s deeply rooted sense of guilt transitions from having the power to drive his actions to merely plaguing his thoughts. Immediately after his transformation, Gregor reveals that he has to “deal with the problems of traveling, the worries about train connections, irregular bad food, temporary and constantly changing human relationships…” (Kafka 4), in his daily work. Although he appears to hate his job, Gregor does not quit, as he has both intrinsic motivation to provide and extrinsic pressure from his family to keep them afloat. Rather than reflecting on his feelings and emotional baggage attached to his job, Gregor focuses on grievances set in reality, and allows this to occupy his conscious mind. After Gregor’s transformation, his

‘Gregor? Are you alright? Do you need anything?’‘Gregor, open the door, I beg you.’ Gregor had no intention of opening the door, but congratulated himself on his precaution, acquired from traveling, of locking all doors during the night, even at home.’”(page 7) Gregor not opening the door and answering his family face to face because he didn’t want to worry them, shows the reader the lack of communication the family has with one another. This also represents how isolated Gregor is with society because his main purpose is to be a good son and make money for his family. With this expectation, he goes to work every day and has no time to make friends. Therefore, Gregor fantasizes quitting his job once he is done paying off his father's debt.“If I didn’t hold back for my parents’ sake, I would’ve quit ages ago. I would’ve gone to the boss and told him just what I think from the bottom of my heart. He would’ve fallen right off his desk! How weird it is to sit up at the desk and talk down to the employee from way up there.’‘Once I’ve got together the money to pay off the parents’ debt to him—that should take another five or six years—I’ll do it for sure. Then I’ll make the big break.’” (page 5)

When Gregor inexplicably becomes an insect his family is primarily worried about how this will affect them, and their financial security. The morning Gregor awakes as a ‘monstrous vermin' is the first day he has missed work in five years; his family's immediate concern is for Gregor's job. His father begins to admonish him before he can even drag himself out of bed. When Gregor hears his sister crying at his door he thinks, "Why was she crying?? Because he was in danger of losing his job and then his boss would dun their parents for his old claims?" This is very significant to their relationship; he considers himself close to his sister, but feels her emotion spent on him is related to money. Gregor has been the sole breadwinner for years; working at a job he abhors only to pay his fathers debts. The family leads an extremely comfortable life of leisure; the father sits at the kitchen table and reads all day, the sister wears the best clothes and amuses herself by playing the violin, and all even take a mid-day nap. Gregor is extremely pleased and proud to provide them with this lifestyle; however, his generosity is met with resentment by his father and indifference by his sister and mother. Once the family grew accustomed to this lifestyle they no longer felt the need to be grateful, "they had grown used to it, they accepted the money, but no particularly warm feelings were generated any longer." At one point Gregor is deeply

As the story goes on, Gregor becomes more and more alienated from the family. His mother even passes out at the sight of her insect-son. His father, angry with what his son has become, begins to pelt Gregor with apples. “Suddenly something lightly flung landed close beside him and rolled in front of him. It was an apple; a second apple followed immediately; Gregor came to a stop in alarm; there was no point in running away now, for his father was determined to bombard him” (Kafka 90). One of the apples gets wedge into Gregor’s back, seriously injuring

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.