Metamorphosis, hm, where to start. It is a strange book that is for certain. The beginning is probably the strangest part for me. I mean yeah, he is a cockroach the whole book which is alone very weird but the fact that he is so, indifferent about his metamorphosis is what really bothers me. He just gets up one day and is like “Damn, I’m a bug.”
That is NOT how I would have reacted given the circumstances. My reaction would have been more along the lines of “OH GOD WHAT HAPPENED WHY AM I LIKE THIS” etc etc. Basically a lot of screaming and freaking out, as most logical and reasonable human beings would do.
That is the part of the book that really threw me off guard. But overall I did enjoy the book, granted I was like
for almost the entire book I still really liked the symbolism and meaning behind it. I perceived the book as a study of society. There is so much emphasis on being a perfect worker, and Gregor became so obsessed with this image of perfect worker that he didn’t care about anything else. I mean he became a COCKROACH and was WORRIED ABOUT BEING LATE FOR WORK! He became nothing to society and was easily forgotten about because he did nothing more with his life than work. He did not contribute to society and society rejected him.
The ending of the story is probably one of the saddest endings I have ever read. It’s not heart breaking, Romeo didn’t die, and it’s not like the whole kingdom fell to pieces, but it’s the fact that a family is so OK with a member dying. They became indifferent to Gregor and his existence and that really bothered me. I don’t know how much I would be able to put up with a sibling being a Cockroach but I like to believe I’d at least mourn their death. He may not have been in his normal human form but he still was a part of the family and deserved more respect than he received.
Wow, you hit that right on the head. The whole entire part one i was wondering why he was so comfortable with being a bug after 3 seconds of acknowledging it. He was so calm about it and was still planning on working for the next 6 years to pay off his families debt. Then, he insisted that his voice was changing due to a common cold. Did he forget he was a giant cockroach??? I also agree with what you said about the end of the book. Once he died, they were all perfectly content. They were happy about his death, and i didn’t like that.
Ken, I completely agree with your initial point that Gregor’s nonchalant attitude about waking up and finding out he’s a cockroach was confusing, if not infuriating. I think everybody’s reaction would have been along the lines of what you suggested, and not worrying about if you’re going make the next train to work. I don’t know if Gregor felt pressure to be the “perfect worker” as you put it; making a living to support a family is certainly enough pressure in it’s own right, but I do think that society does put a lot of pressure on people to perform at high levels in the work place, and they don’t want to hear excuses either. While the end of the book is sad in that his family wanted him dead, they did not want him dead at the beginning of his metamorphosis, it was a long and arduous process until, ironically, Gregor’s sister wanted him dead. Nonetheless, I agree that he was a member of the family, and tragically, his family stopped acknowledging that.
I agree that Gregor’s indifference to his transformation was surprising. It was annoying how being a good worker took precedence over his personal needs. I feel if that situation had happened to me I would react exactly as you stated you would. Being that I really do not like bugs, if I was to ever wake up as one I would probably also pass out from shock.
The lack of respect Gregor’s family had for him also was painful to read. Gregor was a member of the family, he was their main provider. Even though such a horrible thing happened to him, as a family would you not expect them to do whatever was necessary to help a loved one. When Gregor died I felt the family did not show a correct emotional response and I resented them for it.
I feel as though Gregor’s family became unable to associate the giant cockroach with their son/brother, which is why they reacted the way they did throughout the whole story. Logically, they had to know it was Gregor, even if they couldn’t explain why he had been transformed; emotionally, though, I think they simply couldn’t muster up the same love for the cockroach that they could for Gregor. I feel that for most people, the senses of sight and sound are key when it comes to feeling affection for someone. Since Gregor’s family only saw a giant, repulsive cockroach, and weren’t even able to communicate with him and at least know that his personality was the same, how could they feel any of the same emotion that they had before?
I’m sort of able to understand Gregor’s mentality in the beginning of the story though. Despite having become this giant, monstrous creature, all he was concerned about was going to work. In high school, a lot of my friends would fake sick so that they could stay home and study an extra day. I, on the other hand, would never miss a day of school for any reason, and even the one time I was too sick to go, I dreaded the thought of all the extra work I’d have the next day. In Gregor’s situation, missing a day of work meant missing a day of pay and possibly even losing his job, and since he’s been kept on such a high strung wire by the chief clerk about paying back his family’s debt, he seems used to the idea of not missing work for any reason, not even being transformed into a bug.
I completely agree with your last statement that Gregor deserved more respect, Ken. I, like you and many others, was shocked and saddened at how Gregor was treated in the end. It is true that Gregor was a burden on the family, but the fact that the family almost completely forgets that Gregor is a son/brother and only sees him as a giant, disgusting bug is very depressing.
Dear Ken dog,
I had the same exact initial reaction. If I woke up one morning and had transformed into a bug i would’ve flipped out. There is no way being late to work would be a worry in my head. Instead plans of “how to fix me” would take over my brain. Gregor’s lack of reaction made him that much un- relatable. He was not a human, but a machine. He had no self respect or self ambition. All of his focus was on his family. He didn’t even have the time or desire to worry about his own well-being.
Unlike Gregor, although I worry and care for my family, i still take the time to provide and attend to myself. I believe you have to “put the gas mask on yourself” before placing on your loved ones. If you are not breathing, you can’t make someone else breath. Gregor did not understand this concept; ultimately leading to his undocumented death.