In Plato’s “The Allegory of the Cave”, the prisoners were happy and embedded within their own ignorance. Which is why they were so outraged by the other prisoner who obtained so much knowledge. This is very similar to “The Metamorphosis”, Gregor was different from everyone else in his family. He is also shown as an outcast and was later killed. His family knows little about the world since they have never left their own cave (household); They do not see the real world as Gregor does. Gregor is the sole provider of the house, according to Kafka, “If did have to exercise restraint for the sake of my parents, than I would have quit a long time ago”(Kafka, 211). He is a prisoner to his family. Until he is faced with a different kind of reality. Once he becomes this huge monster, he is shown a harsher reality. Similarly, the other prisoners do not experience anything outside of the cave themselves; they only know through shadows. Gregor’s family only knows the outside world by having company over or guest. Since Gregor could not provide that to them anymore, and the escaped prisoner could not be a companion anymore, they were both marked as different. The outside men’s reaction to Gregor’s change was very strange, this is shown in the quote “The middle gentleman first smiled, shaking his head” (Kafka, 236). This shows how they reject him completely, they are almost amused by his change. This represents people in society and how they are very judgmental towards anything that is different. They are judged more harshly than any others because they go against societal norms.
-Kelly Kay
Your response reminds me of the type of heroes we learned in class. After reading your post, I began to try to categorize Gregor to see what type of hero he could be best described as; this is because I made an argument similar to yours and I couldn’t agree more with your point: “He is also shown as an outcast and was later killed. His family knows little about the world since they have never left their own cave (household); They do not see the real world as Gregor does”. Gregor is a hero who sees the truth when no one else does but not act on it. I believe Gregor does not act on the truth because he sees how purposeless it is to change the way his family thinks and sees the outside world, they heavily depend on Gregor, and that does not change until they are forced to find other means to live off of.
I really like how you said “he is a prisoner to his family” and I completely agree. I didn’t even see it in that way but it’s so true now that you pointed it out. To me, Gregor is like the same person as the prisoner in Plato’s story. They were unique, in a way, which differs them to the society. They were both restrained from doing the best they could because of the liabilities and labels they had.
This is an interesting perspective that I haven’t thought of. My initial thought was to focus on how the characters view Gregor having no more humanity. Yet, just like the prisoners in the cave, Gregor is a prisoner too. You explain, “His family knows little about the world since they have never left their own cave (household); They do not see the real world as Gregor does.” I completely agree, they heavily depend on Gregor for stability and are in shock when they confront the outside world. Each family member becomes employed and this a whole new world for them. Due to this, they begin to view Gregor as an inconvenience to their lives.
In a story there’s always one who stands out and becomes an outsider. In Metamorphosis it is Gregor, while in “The Allegory of the Cave”, it is that man who left the cave. As Kay points out:”His family knows little about the world since they have never left their own cave (household); They do not see the real world as Gregor does.” It was the chance of reaching the outside world that makes the difference. I agree on this point, but there’s still more. In my opinion, the metamorphosis which took place on Gregor serves to draw a line between him and everyone else in the story, and through being a peculiar thing which is truly different from every human being in the world, gives Gregor a chance to understand the meaning of love, or in other words, of proper connection between people. In the end, Gregor was really caring about his folks, and he understood the reason why his folks acted in their ways. As Kafka writes:” His conviction that he needed to disappear was, if anything, still firmer than his sister’s.” He wasn’t furious about father and sister’s curse at all, instead he understood their situation and finally got ready for death which will, in some way do good to his folks’ lives.
I strongly agree with your point that in Metamorphosis, Gregor “… is a prisoner to his family” , and think it really encapsulates just how restricting his existence was. Ultimately, as you mentioned, Gregor was unable to escape the shackles of his obligations to his family, and was therefore crushed under the burden of those responsibilities. I also felt your last point about the fact that the outside men judged Gregor more harshly because he went against societal norms was particularly insightful, and agree that had the men been more open and accepting of Gregor’s plight, it may have gone a long way towards Gregor’s well being.