Gregor's Relationship With His Family example essay topic

Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis is a masterfully written short story about Gregor Sams a, a man who devotes his life to his family and work, for nothing in return. Only when he is transformed into a helpless beetle does he begin to develop a self-identity and understanding of the relationships around him. The underlying theme of The Metamorphosis is an existential view that says any given choice will govern the later course of a person's life, and "since God does not exist all things are possible" (Dostoyevsky) therefore the person has ultimate will over making choices. In this case, Gregor's lack of identity has caused him to be numb to everything around him.

This story uses allegorical symbolism to represent all six basic themes of existentialism; existence precedes essence, anxiety or anguish directed at nothing in particular, all existence is absurd, nothingness-no essence defines me, death-the final form of nothingness, and alienation or estrangement from ones self (Encyclopedia Britannica). One of these main views is alienation or estrangement, which is demonstrated by Gregor's relationship with his family, his social life, and the way he lives his life after the metamorphosis. Although Gregor doesn't realize it, the relationship between him and his family is not good. Gregor has taken over his father's responsibilities made plans to send his sister to a good school without discussing the idea with her.

To make things worse, Gregor even goes as far as to lock his own bedroom doors at night. He thinks that his family is content with what he is doing, but the only thing that Gregor accomplishes is to alienate himself from his family. To symbolize the theme of existence precedes essence we see Gregor devoting himself to a life of work and self-sacrifice, following every order and expectation to a scurrilous degree. He life could be likened to that of a drone in an ant colony, and thus gives explanation to Kafka's logic when he transformed Gregor into an insect. Through his insect transformation, Gregor abandoned his mislead obligation to society and instead devoted the rest of his life to himself.

Because of this, Gregor's family quickly grew to resent him as a burden to the household. Society and his family had no further use for him, so Gregor starved to death is his bedroom symbolizing both the nothingness and death themes. His existence ends with his being discarded in the waste bin the epitome of nothingness. Antithetically Gregor's father began the story as a lazy and non-productive human being who relied solely and completely on his son.

After Gregor's transformation, his father followed suit becoming a proud and productive individual of the lower bureaucracy. He found the existentialistic balance between work and leisure that Gregor could not. According to Kafka and existentialism, people have dual natures one to self the other to society. It is our choices that moderate the two keeping them in balance. If a person chooses himself over society, he will loose the support of society; however, if a person chooses society, he will lose his individuality. Gregor initially chooses society over himself, which in turn transformed him into the working drone he was.

After his physical transformation, he is forced reassert his focus to himself, and society abandons him. Through Gregor's plight, his family became cohesive and productive in society, each contributing through work and leisure. Gregor learned to live for himself too late to become a whole person. The Metamorphosis advances the existential view that choice is the opportune of the individual.

It is the responsibility of the individual to maintain a balance between work and leisure.