The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka features a man named Gregor Samasa who wakes up one morning as a bug. Not a small, true-life size bug, but a huge, bigger-than-human size bug. The only point of view we receive is that of Gregor until the end when he is dead. When I first read this story, I was furious with Gregor’s family. How could they take advantage of him? Making him work so hard while they stayed at home all day? But the class discussion revealed different thoughts that also made sense.
The first thought was maybe Gregor liked taking care of his family. “whatever he could to make the family forget as quickly as possible the business catastrophe that had plunged them all into utter despair.” (2013) He wanted to send his sister to a conservatory. “But Gregor’s ideas on the subject were very definite and he intended to make the solemn announcement on Christmas Eve.” (2013) He needed to feel needed. Many people are like this. They have a void if they are not helping someone.
The second thought that was brought to my attention is that in the past, children did take care of their parents when the parents got older. This was hard to remember because it is so different today. I know that in some cases, people do take care of their elderly parents, but overall, they do not. Because people are waiting to get married and have children, they are still raising their children when it is time for their parents to need assistance. I admit, my view on the matter may be tinted since I worked in a nursing home for a while.
The Metamorphosis was a strange story that could be viewed from many different angles. It is easy to feel bad for Gregor, because it appears as though he worked himself crazy. In his comments one could speculate that he had had enough of working all the time. It is extremely apparent that he is fed up with his job as a traveling salesman when Gregor say, "To hell with it all!" (Kafka 2000).
ReplyDeleteOne possible reason Gregor broke down could have been the lack of support he received from his loved ones. It is not clear the exact reason for his breakdown, but it is clear that he broke down and the likely reason was his job.