METAMORPHOSIS

WEEK 2

(Updated again bescause first post seems to have been corrupted)

The second chapter is a phase of adaptation and acceptance for the whole family. Grete seems to have changed into a woman who was ready to take responsibility, she helped out the family by helping out Gregor in his vermin form. She fed him, cleaned his room and also acted as a spokesperson for him. She had this feeling that she had some rights to making decisions for him. Gregor’s father who had become clumsy and gained weight when his son started earning for the family, took up a job in a bank showing a sense of responsibility.
While this phase was going on in the family, Gregor had an internal conflict between accepting his insect instinct or to stay with his human habits. He has got more used to his body and could now climb up ceilings too. When his furniture was being removed he thought about this again and decided to act on it, covering his beloved frame, only to see his mother faint at the sight of him. While Gregor even thought about the removal of furniture from his room which he didn’t need but at the same time the furniture had some human-like significance to his room. The chapter highlighted different phases the family went through to cope with this change they were experienced.

WEEK 1

“How about if I sleep a little bit longer and forget all this nonsense”

-Gregor Samsa

Not only does this quote explain the main protagonist’s mood when he wakes up in the morning, transformed into a ‘vermin’, it also conveys how I personally feel when I wake up each morning.

Well that’s not where the similarities end, Gregor throughout the first chapter talks about standing up to his father’s expectations which is something I struggled with when I was entering my teenage years (still in my teens) only to find out that my father didn’t have a lot of them and he was happy with who I was.

All this brings me to one of the major aspects of the novel, Parallels. After reading about the author, Franz Kafka, we come to know that this novel is almost an autobiographical account of his life. He struggled with his father, took up a job for his parent’s satisfaction and had an internal struggle. All of these qualities are reflected on to the character that he writes about in The Metamorphosis. There also seems to be parallels drawn from a Yiddish play called ‘The Savage One’. While telling his own life story Kafka manages to add the fictional element of a human transforming into a vermin while still keeping the story grounded to reality with his incredibly detailed descriptions about the events happening in the story. An example being how people tend to zone off into a trail of thoughts while being stuck in certain situations.*

Characters Gregor Samsa(Protagonist), Mr. and Mrs. Samsa (Gregor’s parents), Anna & Grete Samsa( Gregor’s sisters), the maid, Chief Clerk.

Gregor Samsa is a travelling salesman who finds himself transformed into a vermin when he wakes up one morning. He is not on good terms with his father which is evident when his father drives him back into his room like an animal after seeing his transformed self. His mother is a caring woman, she defends him from the chief clerk’s inquiry saying that he is not well. She breaks down when she sees Gregor’s vermin-self. Gregor’s sister Grete is shown to be caring and sensitive too. She breaks down when Gregor doesn’t open the door in the morning. The chief clerk comes to their house to inquire about Gregor’s absence is simply stunned when he sees Gregor and decides to step away and get out of the house.

*Themes The first chapter tells us about Gregor’s background and how he feels ‘alienated’ in his lifestyle only to find out that he is quite literally transformed into something which is physically different from the people around him.

Patterns Gregor’s Father is a reflection of Kafka’s father, both of them are burdened by responsibilities, Gregor with his family’s debt and Kafka with his father’s shadow. Both of them have their mothers and sisters as a caring figure in their life. They seem to be doing a job for other’s sake that they don’t like, Kafka an accidental insurance agency clerk and Gregor a travelling salesman.

Metaphors There are various phrases in the story which point at Gregor’s isolation from the outside world and his family. The word ‘vermin’ itself is a metaphor and paints Gregor in a picture of what he was before transforming into an actual vermin.