One day Gregor Samsa woke up feeling different, he woke up as a “monstrous cockroach”. He was not prepared was the reaction that he was going to get when he exposed himself to his family and the surprise appearance of the Chief Clerk at his house. The reaction is quite different between the father and the clerk. The father came to be less understand and more aggressive towards the situation. As it was mentioned, “His father cliched his fist with a pugnacious expressions as if ready to push Gregor back into his room..” (217). The father is reacting to this with much anger towards what happened to his son, such as “clinching his fist”, not believing his eyes. He seems like the person that would need to solve the problem no matter what the cost is, even if that means to have to put some force into it. On the other hand the clerk seemed more in shock than anger with everything he is seeing. The clerk’s reaction was described as, “his hand pressed against his open mouth, and slowly retreating, as if being pushed by an invisible buy irresistible force” (217). Unlike Gregor’s father, the clerk seems to be scared of what is happening, and in shock of the whole situation. He wants to leave the place as fast as possible with the description of “retreating” from Gregor. He understands that this is weird and that the only possible scenario for him is to run away from the craziness that is happening.
Assignment (8)
November 6, 2015 Written by s.kazinets | 4 Comments
Categories: Uncategorized
4 responses so far ↓
aj166127 // Nov 6th 2015 at 5:57 pm
I agree to an extent. Yes the clerk is scared so he responds to this fear by means of retreating, but just because the father acted more aggressively doesn’t mean he wasn’t afraid as well. Some people act tough in response to fear. The father could’ve been just as scared as the clerk, but he dealt with his fear differently. The clenching of the fist doesn’t necessarily mean anger. When people are afraid sometimes they squeeze what is closest to them, whether it be a hand or an armrest. In this case the father basically squeezes his own hand. Great response though.
v.barreras // Nov 7th 2015 at 12:29 am
I agree that the clerk was scared and he reacts to the situation by running away. I wouldn’t say that the dad was angry at the fact that his bug was a giant bug. I think he went into his defensive mode in order to protect himself and his family. The mother was terrified at what happened and no one was sure what Gregor was capable of with his new change. I don’t think that he wanted to harm his son in anyway but at the same time he had to make sure people were safe. Just because he decided to fight doesn’t mean he wasn’t scared as well. If you had a family member turn into a giant bug, I’m you would be scared too, I know I would be. At the same time I wouldn’t kill them but keep them in an enclosed area so that others will be safe and I can figure out what is happening.
mi141990 // Nov 7th 2015 at 3:32 am
I do not think that the dad was angry at all that the fact that his bug was a giant bug. I think the dad just wanted to protect his family which makes total sense. Fathers will do anything to protect their families from negative things. The mother was terrified at the things that happened. The father did not want to hurt his son at all and he just wanted to do whatever he can to protect the family.
JMERLE // Nov 7th 2015 at 4:22 pm
Simona,
Yes, you have outlined an important difference in the two reactions of these characters, and you use nice quotations. As well, I very much like that you go back into your quotations to explore a bit more deeply. Your last sentence, as well, is quite interesting, because you imply that the chief clerk (essentially society, in a larger sense) has no interest in understanding the individual, but simply fleeing from whatever in cannot understand (and seeing as monstrous, possibly, what it cannot understand).
Nice, but please take more care when you’re writing, as you have several grammatical errors.
9/10