Metamorphosis and the Life of Kafka - Research Paper Example

Download file to see previous pages Though physically a person will eventually change, his mind and emotions will always be the same. The more a person will deny it, the more obvious it will become. The body can adjust faster to its environment but the mind could not. It was one of the realizations Gregor grasped when furniture in his room was being removed to give him more space to move. The movement made him at ease physically but a sense of agitation is enveloping his mind. A person may adapt to his environment almost at an instant but what that person is in the inside would not change, at least not as quickly as the physical adaption can occur (Kafka & Jarvis, 3-30). There is a certain connection between Kafka’s relationship with his father and Gregor’s relationship to his. Both of them have a estranged with their fathers. Franz Kafka wrote to his father in 1919 (Bataille, 3), “What I would have needed was a little encouragement, a little friendliness, a little keeping open of my road, instead of which you blocked it for me, for instance, course with the little good intention of making me take another road. But I was not fit for that” (Kafka-Franz.Com). Gregor said his father now from the room to his left, "the chief clerk has come round and wants to know why you didn't leave on the early train. We don't know what to say to him. And anyway, he wants to speak to you personally. So please open up this door. I'm sure he'll be good enough to forgive the untidiness of your room" (Gutenberg.Org).
Not even asking if there is something that is bothering his son, Gregor’s father nonchalantly talked to him while there was still a wall separating them. Mr. Samsa is obviously more concerned as to what will transpire with Gregor’s work and not with his condition.
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Mr. Samsa is obviously more concerned as to what will transpire with Gregor’s work and not with his condition. Instead of talking to his son with a calming tone to gain his trust to find out what was truly happening, he spoke to him fiercely to inculcate fear in his son as a way to make him follow his instructions. Metamorphosis seems to mirror the author’s personal relationship with his father: I was a timid child. For all that, I am sure I was also obstinate, as children are. I am sure that Mother spoiled me too, but I cannot believe I was particularly difficult to manage; I cannot believe that a kindly word, a quiet taking by the hand, a friendly look, could not have got me to do anything that was wanted of me (Kafka-Franz.Com). Further Kafka wrote to his father, “As a father, you have been too strong for me, particularly my brothers died when they were still small and my sisters came along only much later, so that I alone had to bear the brunt of it – and for that I was much too weak.” In this passage in Kafka’s letter to his father, one can see the connection in the emotions of the author and protagonist. However, the protagonist stood up from the expectation and proved to his father that he can do whatever it is that is expected from him. It was not the case for the author. Kafka stood his ground and did what he wanted to do. He did it not to please anybody but he has done those things because that is what pleased him (Begley, 15). As the author did not have the same characteristics as his father did, he wrote: When I look at my whole way of life going in a direction that is foreign and false to all my relatives and acquaintances, the apprehension arises, and my father expresses it, that I ...Download file to see next pages Read More