How would you feel when a family member becomes a burden in the family? Mad, sad, compassionate, hate? In “The Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka, the protagonist, Gregor, became a burden for the family after he transformed into a vermin. The living attitude that the family held was pretty positive, because every member worked hard to earn income to support their living. However, the way they treated Gregor was changing from positive to negative.
Although every member had different responses toward Gregor’s transform, as a whole, I feel there was a process on their attitude toward Gregor. At first, the family was surprised and scared. Then, they felt sad and hoped for Gregor to be recovered one day. After a period of time, they were like used to his sickness and lost their hope on him. They worked hard on themselves to earn money. Since Gregor no longer contributed anything to the family and all family members had their own jobs, they were like forgetting Gregor and not caring about him so much. Later on, they even locked him in his room. At the end, Gregor just died in the room.
I admire that the family‘s living attitude of not giving up their living when their family’s main income supporter is sick. However, I really do not like the way they treated Gregor. They ignored him, threw things at him, scared him and locked him in the room. Their attitude toward Gregor really made me feel pitied for Gregor. I do not think Gregor who had contributed to the family so much in the past deserves this kind of treatment when he is ill. Also, his situation reminds me of a popular debate topic “Euthanasia.” While I was reading this short novel, I keep thinking Gregor as a person that gets a strange disease in real society and got locked up in a room in hospital. If a person in real life gets this kind of disease, I think it would be better for the person to get euthanasia. The person gets no more happiness through his life, because he treated as a family’s burden and no one wants to get closed to him even his family members.