Gregor's Relationship with his Family

Over time, as Gregor's family begins to realize that he will never be able to work, they begin to see Gregor in the self-deprecating way that he sees himself. They come to view Gregor as a burden on them. Their view of Gregor shifts to viewing him as less human as Gregor seems to become more human. At the beginning of the story, Gregor is solely focused on work and it seems like his whole life revolves around his job. He wakes up and leaves the house early and does not get back home until late. Even when he turns into an insect, he can only focus on how this change will impact his ability to perform his job. It seems like his only defining personality trait is that he works as a traveling salesman. In the beginning, Gregor sees himself as totally worthless because he can no longer work and provide for his family. When he first transforms, his family treats him as a human. While they aren't exactly the most welcoming of him, they do do things like provide him food and move the furniture out of his room so he has more space to crawl around. These small acts of kindness show that they care about him on some level. 

Eventually, Gregor stops being so focused on his work and starts to do the things that make him the most happy. He spends time crawling onto the ceiling and sort of fluttering down to the floor because it feels good to him. While this isn't something we'd consider normal as humans, pursuing interests and doing them over and over is very human. It's almost like the most humanizing thing that has happened to Gregor is turning into a giant insect. At the same time, Gregors family starts to treat him as less and less human. They neglect him more than they did previously. They start putting all the extra furniture they have into Gregors room despite knowing that Gregor likes the empty space. All this culminates in Grete telling Gregor that if he really were Gregor he would crawl away and die. This prompts Gregor to do just that. It's interesting that Gregor's humanity and his family's can be seen as inversely proportional over the course of the book.

Comments

  1. 1000gamesOctober 12, 2018 at 2:57 PM

    You could potentially compare Gregor with Kafka. Kafka wanted to go into writing but their parent was like NO!. I'm pretty sure Kafka went into writing anyway, much like Gregor so they were both much happier. However, their parents weren't so swell with their decisions. Kafka reciprocate a lot of thing with Gregor.

    I also feel like they were treating Gregor like a tool or a thing in the first place and didn't treat him as human. I compare Gregor to that of a tool. When a tool is brand new or still usable, people would try to upkeep it. This can be compare with them feeding Gregor and asking if he is ill in his room. So when the tool stop being usable, they would just throw it out, much like how they threw out Gregor.

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  2. GrantOctober 13, 2018 at 7:11 PM

    I think this is very interesting. People often talk about is Gregor more human than insect, but i think at the start of the story he is barely human. He works for a company who basically owns him and has no real life outside of work. Once he stops working he seems to develop some "hobbies" if you can really call them that. and this does make him seem a little human

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  3. Eli GarrettOctober 13, 2018 at 8:28 PM

    I think the idea that Gregor is seen as less and less human as the book goes on because he is indulging in activities that feel good for a bug is very accurate. Gregor can't talk to them and explain that he still has a human brain with a bug's instincts, and as he listens to his instincts his family gets more and more doubtful of him being Gregor.

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