As I reviewed the Story a second time, I’ve come to realize another small detail about Gregor that tells us a little more about his character. As we all know, Gregor was a traveling salesman. He supported his entire family, and received little gratitude for his efforts. Never the less, he didn’t let it stop him from bringing home the bacon. He worked most of the time, and didn’t take much leisure time for himself. It is apparent in the story that he favors his younger sister over the rest of the family. He was looking very forward to announcing that he would be sending her to the musical school.
What I just realized, however is that Gregor desperately wanted a female companion for himself. He actually fantasized about it. After he awakens to discover he is a bug, we’re provided with a description of his sleeping quarters. “Above the table, on which a line of fabric samples had been unpacked and spread out, hung the picture that he had recently clipped from an illustrated magazine and inserted in a pretty gilt frame. The picture showed a lady sitting there upright, bedizened in a fur hat and fur boa, with her entire forearm vanishing inside a heavy fur muff that she held out toward the viewer” ( Kafka 1999). The first time I read this I didn’t suspect anything unusual about it, but it really is not normal to clip a picture of a woman out of a magazine and frame it.
This picture is also the first thing Gregor tries to save when his sister and mother start removing furniture form his room. “And so while the women were in the next room, leaning against the desk to catch their breath, he broke out, changing direction four times, for he was truly at a loss about what to rescue first-when he saw the picture of the woman clad in nothing but furs hanging blatantly on the otherwise empty wall. He quickly scrambled to it and squeezed against the glass, which held him fast, soothing his hot belly. At least with Gregor now covering it up, this picture would certainly not be carried off by anyone” (Kafka 2018).
One of the major benefits of this blog is that new ideas are presented. Without your blog post, I would have ignored the fact that he wanted a wife. I thought that he showcased that picture to improve his selling tactic because it was mentioned with the fabric samples. “a line of fabric samples had been unpacked and spread out... hung the picture that he had recently clipped from an illustrated magazine and inserted in a pretty gilt frame.” I just assumed that he was trying to learn the latest fashions. Thank you for telling me a side of the story that I would have never realized on my own.
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