The Metamorphosis

    This week I watched a documentary about the great book: The Metamorphosis, therefore, I want to talk about the relationships between Gregor and his family during his transformation.

    First I want to introduce his mother. At first sight she saw Gregor turning into a bug, she was so shocked that she fainted. She does care about her son, but she just couldn’t help but shows her fear and disgust of the bug. But, she tries to show her sympathy toward Gregor when Grete refuses to let her see Gregor, she shouted and insist on meeting him as you can see in the quote. However, as Gregor has been losing his humanity gradually, she faints in terror once again. She becomes more bothered by him just like everyone else, and she gives up at the end and feels relief when Gregor is dead.

    Then I’ll go on to Gregor’s father. Actually, we can see that there isn’t much changed in Gregor’s relationship with his father throughout the story. He appears as an unkind man, concerned only with money. When he first saw Gregor as a bug, he tried to threaten him back to his room with his fists and then cried. But I guess he wasn’t crying for his son’s misfortune, but simply worrying about where the money should come from in the future. After that, his father becomes abusive, harms him more than once, and becomes increasingly frustrated with Gregor. Eventually, he throws apples at Gregor which stocks in Gregor’s back and later kill him.

    The last I’ll talk about Grete. Gregor's relationship with his sister changes greatly throughout the plot. She initially shows great concern for Gregor. She feeds him and cleans his room. Consequently, she becomes Gregor’s primary caretaker. However, she undergoes her own metamorphosis, and her pity for Gregor slowly diminishes. Eventually, she regards the job as a duty which defines her position in the family, and she becomes territorial about caring for Gregor, not wanting her mother to be involved. By the end of the story, she became annoyed with Gregor and didn't want to deal with him anymore. Therefore, she comes to resent the role and decides they must get rid of Gregor.

When Gregor becomes an insect he loses language ability, becomes inconvenience in movement, and needs for care. This situation is close to what happened when a person is terribly sick or getting old.

    In this novel, you might find that people becoming bugs is absurd, but if you think it as a person becomes terminally ill or old, the reaction of the family becomes real and cruel. Those family will be very concerned and very sympathetic at the beginning. But when the patient gradually loses all kinds of abilities and becomes the family's economic burden, complaints and impatience will arise. And when the patient turns out to be the biggest obstacle for the family to start a new life, the family will even be happy for his disappearance. However, the patient won’t feel resent, on the contrary, they feel guilt just like the way Gregor does.

So, is it right for us to give up on the burden in the family? This might be the issue behind the story that is worth discussing.