One thing that we discussed tonight
that really helped me, was relating Gregor’s story to Kafka having TB. Kafka was confined to his parent’s house
after getting sick and thinking about that, this story is much more
understandable. As TB is a transferable
disease, no one would want to be around you when you are sick. Just like Gregor, being confined to his room
after he turned into a bug. His family
didn’t even want to have anything to do with him. His sister tried very hard to take care of
him and do the right thing for a while, but eventually, even she gave up on
him. Gregor’s father really seemed to be
driven by money. When Gregor was no
longer to work to take care of the family, his father really didn’t want
anything more to do with him. Kafka did
not have a great relationship with his father either. At first, after reading this book, I was
really unsure if it had any meaning at all, but after the lecture and the
discussion tonight, it has become clearer to me that this story could relate to
Kafka’s life more than just Gregor turning into a bug.
In addition, we spent some time
discussing if Gregor had really turned into a bug or if he was just sick and
the metamorphosis into a bug was just a metaphor. Personally, I believe that in the story,
Gregor really had become a bug. The fact
that he climbed walls, left goo behind, and the references to his limbs and antennae,
made me believe that he had turned into a bug.
However, some feel that he was ill and that as no one else in the family
actually ever commented on him not being human, he was just thinking he was a
bug. However, to everyone else, he was
just a sick human. I guess this could be
the way Kafka intended, but I am still leaning towards him actually turning
into a bug. Although, as most of this
story didn’t make much sense to me, I could be off on this and he could be just
sick.
I think the bug is a great metaphor for having TB or another illness like it. It secludes the person suffering and as much as others want to help they are forced to look on and watch the person they love slowly fade away.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. This can be related to so many debilitating happenings in life. It's hard to watch a loved one suffer. Maybe this is why Grete in the end wanted to just give up because she felt so helpless to the fact that Gregor was never going to get better. I work in a nursing home with alzheimer's and dementia and it is so hard for families to accept this fact that it's only going to progress and get worse. It's hard to watch a family member suffer. Gregor didn't want to watch his family suffer in poverty so he took on the responsibility of the financial aspect of the family. Kafka I feel like wishes he could've don the same in his lifetime but was in the end debilitated by TB and ultimately died before he could provide or help they way he so badly wanted to!
ReplyDeleteI do believe that there were many similarities with Karka and Gregor. Any person in a family being sick changes the relationship and dynamic of everything. There are many similarities between them. I am torn between whether Gregor was a bug or if he was sick. We were reading the novel mainly from his perspective so we could believe anything. The mention of the goo and all could have been part of a great illusion. It is one of the lingering questions the book has is did Gregor really transform?
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree that being a bug is a great metaphor for being sick, recall that this book came out BEFORE the advent of Kafka's illness. He got TB after this book was published, so the two facts--Gregor's seclusion and Kafka's--are just a coincidence.
ReplyDelete