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226-41-9821 Erin Sheetz Dr. Hanenkrat World Lit 212 May 8, 1999 Kafka and The Metamorphosis Many people would think that you wouldn't group Kafka among the existentialists. After all, here was a man who was not a trained philosopher or disciplined writer. Kafka never indicated that he was expressing a deep philosophical theory in his writings, especially in Metamorphosis. But, when you really begin to consider the theories Kafka, then you see an existentialist. What is an existentialist? This type of person attempts to describe our desire to make rational decisions despite existing in an apparently irrational universe. After reading the story Metamorphosis, by Frank Kafka, I realized that it related a lot to my life. The story that Kafka wrote was released in 1915, about a man named Gregor Sasma, who was a travelling salesman working to support his parents and younger sister, Grete. Overnight while Gregor was sleeping he awoke to find out that he had turned into a huge cockroach. He turned into the varmint of life, the lowest, because that is how he had treated people throughout his life. Days passed and his family began to forget about him and lock him into his room. Only his sister continued to give him food. One day he broke out of the room and his own father, flesh and blood, threw apples at him to chase him away. The apple becomes embedded into his back, and eventually the Sheetz 2 apple becomes rotten and infected. When Kafka dies, the family forgets about him and the cleaning lady sweeps him away with the trash. The significance of the story relies on the fact that Gregor's entire life changes once he is turned into a cockroach. His abilities change, his sense of meaning in life changes, and more severe, his feelings toward people and how he has treated people have changed. He has the "dream of reality". Meaning that this is the dream that showed him how he too was treating people badly. It was too late though, the time had come and he waited to long to figure out how to really treat people. He didn't have the love and the care that he should have had even though he was working hard to support the family. First the family was weak and passive while Gregor was supporting them, but as soon as the death of the cockroach (which was long waiting) took place, they regained strength and pursued the pressures of everyday living. This story had an impact on me because I have always had a hard working father that worked eight to ten hour days, but when he got home from work he never really had time for the kids. He wanted to sit down, order us around, and drink a beer. While I was reading the story Metamorphosis by Kafka, I began to visualize my father becoming this cockroach. I caught myself smiling, and then I realized that one-day he too would learn the hard way. I felt that if my father had the change of life that Gregor had, he would realize what it actually means to have the world look at you in a different light. Gregor had to learn that life wasn't just work and paying for things. There was love involved in it as well. When Gregor received no love and was shut out by his family and friends he decayed and everyone forgot about him. As one can now see that Kafka shows his existential views by portraying how the society has a need for love and care. A man named Heidegger, another existentialist, said that "The structure of man's world, in a sense, is revealed affectively--i.e., through care, anxiety, and other existential attitudes and feelings. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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