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The Metamorphosis of Gregor

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The Metamorphosis of Gregor
The Metamorphosis of Gregor

1)Metamorphosis - a change in form, structure, or appearance. Change is a major theme throughout Franz Kafka's novella, The Metamorphosis. Not only is the theme puzzling, but also how Greg Samsa didn't give up on living because of his family or anything like that. It was the mere fact that Gregor had nothing to live for. There is a significant relationship between the title, The Metamorphosis, and the theme of change. Kafka's main character, Gregor Samsa, undergoes many changes and his transformation evokes change in his family.

2)Several metamorphosis take place involving Gregor. First, a physical change occurs "When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from unsettling dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin." After that happened, Gregor's voice changes from human into the voice of a bug. "That was the voice of an animal," Gregor's manager said, but the words seemed perfectly clear to him. Beginning to see things less and less, Gregor experiences a change in his vision. An example, would be Gregor seeing the hospital less and less distinctly. A mental change in Gregor occurs when he starts not caring about or having no consideration for his family. " It hardly surprised him that he was showing so little consideration for the others; once such consideration had been his greatest pride."

3)Everyone in the Samsa family experiences changes brought on by Gregor's metamorphosis. Since Gregor's physical change renders him no longer able to work, the family's financial situation changes. Gregor's mother, father, and sister have to get jobs. Mrs. Samsa, Gregor's mother, sews lingerie for a local clothing store. His sister, who took a job as a salesgirl to help the family, also learns French in the evening so she might get a better position in the future. Mr. Samsa, Gregor's father, takes a job as a messenger for banking institutions. Turning into a bug, Gregor causes a lack of harmony among the family

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    The first of these characters is the charwoman, whose matter-of-factness in dealing with his needs and presence convey greater acceptance of Gregorʼs infirmity than his family could ever muster. In fact, her attitude is one of disgust, but not at his appearance; rather, it is Gregorʼs allowance of his loss of humanity that mildly disgusts her, as if she has contempt that he could not gather the will to regain himself. He is pitiable to her in his inability to keep his humanity and his nearly complete acceptance of his present state. The other character, the three boarders who function as a single entity, unknowingly reside alongside the pitiful wreck for some time before that evening, when Gregor scuttles out to hear his sister play the violin. This scene reveals something of the nature of Gregorʼs true need and hunger, as he jealously regards the three boarders who take for granted the family in which they participate, and for which he has had greater and greater need, though without fully realizing that need. When they catch sight of him, they are angered, and regard him as pitiful. He is to them a monstrous family secret, but they react to him like another boarder would react to find out that prostitution was occurring in the same house, or the family were hiding an alcoholic or derelict. Gregor himself rapidly diminishes. At the beginning he finds himself in this insect-like condition because of his inability to connect with the family to which he is devoted, but who have taken him for granted. His persistent condition and fading human self serve to further isolate him by repulsing his family members one by one, as first his father shuts him out, then gradually his mother and even the sister that he once adored. It could be argued that on some level, Gregor has intentionally shut himself away within this new armor and purposely cut himself…

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