Reflection Of The Metamorphosis

Daniel Lemaire Dr. Odysseus Makridis Humanities Seminar

2 December 2017

The Metamorphosis

Kafka's Metamorphosis looks from outside the perspective of one's own thoughts. Gregor the main characters of Kafka's Metamorphosis views his new lonely life in a externalized manner affected his relationships and his work. Gregor is reduced to a cockroach to show how man has grown to be selfish and disgusting in its modern presence. Kafka had a negative view that the less self–absorbed someone is the more they are taken advantage of. Kafka's view was that in society one should be treated by their actions. He wanted everyone to be treated like family regardless of what physical state they are in. However, in the Metamorphosis Gregor is shunned by his family because of his disgusting appearance. To add to this Gregor is feels guilty and a burden because he was the bread winner of the family and provided for them. Since he has changed he is unable to work. Kafka goes to show that the family was readily taking advantage of Gregor when was working and able to provide income. When he becomes ill in his insect like state his family begins to feel the financial pressure but only blames Gregor for the inconvenience to them Kafka further drives this home showing that after his family accepts his state the family moves on and sees Gregor's life as an insignificant tragedy. They move on from him to pursue their own fates.

In The Metamorphosis Gregor Samsa does what most people do he trains in a

Get more content

In the book, The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, Gregor has moved down the social ladder to the worst because of the loss of money. The novella follows the Marxist theory where Gregor who represents the lower class, is exploited and eliminated. As part of the proletariat who sells his labour power for wages, he does not own the means of production and thereby has no authority over his very life. His limited power results in torture, mistreatment, exploitation, and ultimately death. In the first section, Gregor demonstrates the power he once had because he brought in money for the family to spend. Because of this power and authority, he was able to get away with a lot of things like freedom. However overall, the one with all the power is the family. They were the ones demanding resources because Gregor was actually under them. Once Gregor was not able to work he was quickly dropped by his family and shunned. He was sent to a room for himself and he was supposed to live there for the time being. The family did not realize they had after begging Gregor's manager to have Gregor keep his job. Their desperation showed the amount of power money had on people and it determined the ranking. Without any more money the Samsa's had to work for their own and their bitterness started to build up. This phenomenon hurt the whole family because "they had lost all consideration for the future" (15). The family's first reaction to this was that "Gregor had to handle the situation himself," Get more content