Does he care?
Does he even see what’s happening to him?
How is his work possibly more important than his current condition? Does he just not notice?
Too busy to notice how truly itchy his forehead is.
For much of the first section of the story, I was struck by how much Gregor was focusing on his work rather than on his current condition. He acknowledges that he has changed, yet his thought process for most of the beginning of the story focuses on his work. Granted, he is going over in his head how much he dislikes his job, but he still is focusing on it, which is what counts.
He’s a freaking insect.
Shouldn’t Gregor be bugging out?
There is no freakout. He focuses on his job. This is what I was hung up on for the majority of my time reading the book – I was incredulous as to how someone could have next to no reaction to transforming into a monster. It felt odd to me how someone could be so desensitized to themselves and be so focused on the outside world.
This line of thought led me to thinking about how often we get caught up in our lives around us and ignore ourselves and our feelings – sometimes our intake of all the events happening around us lead us to focus less on our inner selves. I’m a person who consciously tries to avoid this – I think it’s unhealthy to ignore or dismiss what we feel inside. Of course, a proper balance between our lives outside ourselves and within ourselves is in order, but it felt to me that Gregor really wasn’t paying attention to himself as much as he should have been.
… will lead you to ignoring how much of a monster you are.
I felt a disconnect between myself and Gregor because of his lack of attention to himself, yet I can understand why – the stress of the outside world has a way of pervading into our minds and affecting everything we do and feel. In this sense I could understand Gregor’s disconnect with his self in the beginning, though his focus on how much he disliked his job faded as the story went on, and shifted to how those around him were reacting to his new avatar. I never felt like Gregor truly took a step back and noticed himself, no epiphany as to how absolutely astonishing this transformation is or why it happened in the first place.
The mood that I had throughout the reading of this piece, because of Gregor’s lack of noticing himself, was a coldness, due to his lack of self reflection, as well as an astonished feeling, that if it were me, I’d never react to this metamorphosis in this manner. While my mood focused on what really is a small part of the story, it struck me in such a way that it stuck with me throughout my entire reading.
If I ever wake up as an insect, you better believe that I won’t care about my job.
I completely agree with you when you say there is a clear disconnect between any normal human being and Gregor. I think its really insightful to shape your mood diary that way. For him, it seems as if work is the only priority in life. I really like your last line, “If I ever wake up as an insect, you better believe that I won’t care about my job.” This is so very true, as any normal human would immediately react to the physical change, but instead Gregor continues to rant about how he can’t miss work.
Although this assignment was suppose to relate only to sensory reactions, I am very curious to why Kafka shaped the story this way. In my opinion, I think he is trying to over exaggerate the point that Gregor misses out on being a human through focusing solely on getting the job done. Through acting like a bug, he becomes a bug. In essence, if you don’t use it, you lose it.
I like how you started your blog off with questions. Gregor’s calm acknowledgement of his transformation really shocked me too. I was expecting some type of dramatic reaction but I guess this shows his priorities. Gregor is a selfless man (to the point where selflessness could be a bad thing) and would be content with working as a traveling salesman to support his family his entire life no matter how much he hated the job. I particularly liked how you related it to stress because that is definitely a strong factor to why Gregor acts this way. Gregor is completely bogged down by stress – stress from his manager and stress from his family and after the transformation – stress as being the burden of the family. We feel disconnected to Gregor because we are no where near as stressed out as Gregor is. Also, like you said, I was also surprised at Gregor’s lack of curiosity. You would think a person would at least want to know why they suddenly turned into a cockroach but nope, not Gregor. It just seems like Gregor lacks basic human qualities and that could very well be the reason why Kafka decided to turn him into a cockroach.