great works ii – 2850 jta 12:25-2:05: love letters from the world

Kaspar and Metamorphosis

Rebecca:

I view Kaspar as the exact inverse of The Metamorphosis. Gregor transforms from being a talking, walking, working human being that supports his family into a motionless, helpless being. Kaspar, on the other hand, transforms from being a motionless, helpless being to a talking, walking, working human that can find a job. The similarity between the two is that both are working in a routine, rote, way, simply because of what is expected of them by the people around them. But both are, at the same time, completely self centered, and needing constant attention from others. “Just as it doesn’t occur to me that there can be anyone else outside me.” (Kaspar) Both Kaspar and Gregor are self consumed and craving and depending on attention from others.

Michelle:

The short stories The Metamorphosis and Kaspar both have their similarities. In The Metamorphosis, Gregor Samsa, wakes up as an insect, a cockroach. The odd thing about what Gregor did as soon as he found out he transformed an insect rather than a human being is that he went back to sleep to forget about what happened. Kaspar is locked away in a cellar but the similarity this short story has to The Metamorphosis is that Kaspar does not question nor worry about why he is in a cellar as well as why a man in all black keeps coming to visit him. Gregor and Kaspar remain calm in both their situations. As Gregor goes from a insect that couldn’t do much with his new body, he starts adapting to it by climbing the walls and and the ceiling. Kaspar goes from someone who just lays down, sleeps, and eats in his cellar to someone to slowly learns how to talk and walk. Both, Gregor and Kaspar adapt to their situations slowly but surely. Another small similarity in the short stories is that both characters find pieces of bread and milk in their rooms at some point.

Songyun:

The Metamorphosis and Kaspar have different endings. If we can accept Gregor’s passing as a natural culmination of life, without passing moralistic judgement, the ending is quite happy. Gregor’s family is happy, but they also mourn has passing. They feel relieved and the future seems bright to them, The parents notice that their daughter has grown up and decide that it is time to find her a husband. At the end of the trip, she is the first to stand up and stretch. Still the fact that they forsook their family member always remains upsetting. The family described “sitting back, comfortable in their seats, they discussed the prospects of their future.” In Kaspar,  the man on the floor misses his father, it seems as though he is unable to walk, but he actually learns how to walk once the man in black comes back and teaches him. He simply does not want to walk or learn. The man in black seems to give Kaspar a sense of purpose. In the end, he is left standing in place as if he is lost or does not know what to do with himself.