The Metamorphosis is filled with ideas given its short length, but one major idea was missing for me to consider the novel complete.
Each (major) character in the novel is given an extremely rich and unique personality. Every member of the Samsa family had their own quirks and traits which become clearer and clearer through the novel. For example, Gregor Samsa's father is portrayed as an easily angered, frail yet strong, and aged man. His encounters with and treatment of Gregor say a lot about his virtues (that he relied on his son quite a bit and expected as much).
While each character had their unique traits, none of them, the father, mother and sister of Gregor, seemed inhuman. In fact, Kafka gives the family a very strong (and expected) family-type bond, in the way that they rely upon each other. For this reason, I do not understand at all why nobody in the whole novel ever even showed the slightest sign of action towards curing Gregor's condition as a cockroach. Sure, Gregor's sister Grete takes care of Gregor by bringing his food and complying to his apparent needs, but never does she interact with Gregor directly, as if assuming that watching over the insect would truly do anything progressive. The only moment of the novel in which anyone considers the possibility of Gregor changing back into a human is when Gregor's mother worries about taking away Gregor's humanity by removing his furniture. This thought (which should have lasted much longer in a normal situation) is short lived when Gregor remembers his humanity and ends up getting in trouble. In fact, even Gregor takes for granted his situation, on occasion, even enjoying his condition. This completely inhuman ignorance of the situation is quite confusing and my only explanation is that the mother and father already gave up hope, and there was a mutual expectation that the situation would resolve itself (which is outrageous).
Everyone continues to wonder if the treatment that Gregor's family gave to him nearing the end of the novel was fair, and I plead that it was. Take a step back and look at the irrationality of this situation, in which Gregor, not once, seems to want to be proactive and find a way to fix the problem. In fact, I believe that Grete's kindness towards Gregor at the beginning of the book was only a product of hope that Gregor would find a way to repair himself. After months of waiting and realizing that Gregor was not showing any signs of trying to fix the problem, it was only logical for Grete to stop caring and truly wonder if there was any humanity left in Gregor.
I felt as if Gregor and his family were just waiting for his life to end. None of the family members showed any expectation of having the sudden transformation fixed. It was as if Gregor had no capability of rationalizing the fact that he was an insect, and that his family was just deluded into sheltering some random, over-sized cockroach in their spare room.
However strange it may be that nobody showed the will to seek an answer to Gregor's transformation, the characters of The Metamorphosis indubitably symbolize something greater than just the members of a family that fosters bug-children. It may be unclear to myself and my narrow mind, but I feel that there must be a reason why Kafka excluded such a vital part of humanity: the will to face such a problem (or maybe it was because the situation was so absurd that the Samsa's did what many people would do, which is nothing).
1 comment:
You're right that the strangeness of this story doesn't end with the unexplained and fanstastical transformation that gives it its title. That's the big, obviously unrealistic detail, and the rest seems to reflect a more familiar world, at least on the surface. But there are plenty of strange and unnerving details throughout the story, and you're touching on a big one here. The prevalanet sense that such a monstrous absurdity must be borne (as Gregor becomes a literal burden to his parents--they would move, if they knew what to do with this *thing* in the other room!) rather than resisted (not least in Gregor himself, who seems to fully accept this fate by late morning on the first day) says a lot about these characters, and Kafka's view of how people just accept the absurd predicament that is life. In a way, it's a test, or an experiment (as Joey has suggested in class)--and your response, with its faith that something can be done, or at least *tried*, says a lot about you and your mentality. You see an obstacle to be overcome, or at least explained and understood. Kafka's characters have no such faith in human tenacity. They just live with it.
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