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Metamorphosis Family Roles Essay

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Metamorphosis Family Roles Essay
Family Roles
Bobby Knight, a retired Indiana University basketball coach, once said, “People change over the years, and that changes situations for good and for bad.” Knights thoughts about people changing closely relates to the book Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. In Metamorphosis, the main character, Gregor Samsa, turns into a bug. This transformation deeply affects his family members by solving some situations, but also creating new problems. Kafka’s change in characters reveals a larger theme of family roles.
The first character change occurs at the beginning of the book in Gregor, he has transformed into a bug. In the first chapter it states, “One morning, when Gregor Samsa woke from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin” (Kafka 7). This physical change
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Gregor’s sister begins by taking care of Gregor. In the second chapter it says, “In order to test his taste, she brought him a whole selection of things, all spread out on an old newspaper” (Kafka 21). His sister shows she cares for him by feeding him and giving him foods he likes. However, later in the book, she changes and betrays him. She says, “We can’t carry on like this. Maybe you can’t see it, but I don’t want to call this monster my brother, all I can say is: we have to try and get rid of it” (Kafka 39). She has changed her views on her brother and her role in the family has changed. At first, she was the caretaker and now she does not pay attention to Gregor and wants him dead.
In conclusion, Kafka’s character changes have reversed and showed true roles in the family. These changes have made some situations better, but have also made some worse. His transformation solved the problem of Gregor working for the family, but created the problem of his family resenting and hating him. These examples have proved Knights opinion that people change which leads to making a situation better or

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