ENG 2850

The Metamorphosis

The Metamorphosis

This is a story about a human translate to a “bug”.  In the first part of The Metamorphosis, Gregory found himself change to a “huge beetle”, panic and melancholy.  His father was furious after discovering and drove him back to his bedroom.  In the second part, Gregory changed and developed the living habit of the beetle but retained the consciousness of the human.  He was unemployed and still cares about how to pay off his father’s debts and send his sister to the music school.  However, a month later, he became the burden of the whole family.  His father, mother, and sister changed their attitude toward him.  In the third part, in order to survive, the family had to work to earn money, and could not take care of Gregor.  The sister finally proposed to take Gregory away.  Gregory was hungry and sick, and fell into despair.  After that, he died, and the family began to live their own new life.

The following paragraph makes me feel a lot: (“He must go,” cried Gregor’s sister, “that’s the only solution, Father. You must just try to get rid of the idea that this is Gregor. The fact that we’ve believed it for so long is the root of all our trouble. But how can it be Gregor? If this were Gregor, he would have realized long ago that human beings can’t live with such a creature, and he’d have gone away on his own accord. Then we wouldn’t have any brother, but we’d be able to go on living and keep his memory in honor. As it is, this creature persecutes us, drives away our lodgers, obviously wants the whole apartment to himself and would have us all sleep in the gutter. Just look, Father,” she shrieked all at once, “he’s at it again!” And in an access of panic that was quite incomprehensible to Gregor she even quitted her mother, literally thrusting the chair from her as if she would rather sacrifice her mother than stay so near to Gregor, and rushed behind her father, who also rose up, being simply upset by her agitation, and half-spread his arms out as if to protect her.)

I believe as a family, all members should love for each other, help for each other.  However, Gregor’s family thought that Gregor could no longer support the family, regarded him as a burden, and eventually abandoned him.  After that, Gregory died, but his family did not grieve and sad.  I feel this is a sad world after I read this paragraph.  In that period of capitalist society, under the high pressure of machine production and survival competition, people gradually become non-human, people’s nature is lost, and even going to the opposite side, people can’t accept the real world, and the real world can’t accommodate people.  This story is about a human become to a bug, and this is exactly a Symbol of a change, it symbolizes the change of human beings, the change of human nature, and the change of interpersonal relationships under the money or wealth.  For example, Gregory’s sister, she used to like her brother, but she changed to hate him at the end when her brother is a burden

 

 

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-hD-6Qxj_E

 

Text: http://www.zwyx.org/portal/kafka/kafka_metamorphosis.html.

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