1.
The defining characteristic to Gregor’s life
prior to his metamorphosis is his job. He has no friends, and his family
mooches off his money he gets from his job. The sole purpose of his life is to
make money while doing his boring job he hates while being an outsider. After
the metamorphosis, his defining characteristic is the annoyance and
inconvenience he is to his family. Gregor loses his identity way before he
changes. I would argue that right before he dies he actually regains an
identity for loving his family.
2.
Yes, Gregor’s transformation into an insect is
merely an extension of his life before. Before his transformation, he was an
outsider. He did not socialize with any one and had no social skills. When he
transformed into an insect, he physically became what he was before he
transformed. Now he couldn’t socialize and talk to anyone.
3.
In Metamorphosis, the climax is in the first
sentence when Gregor wakes up as an insect. The significance of this structure
is to make us accustomed to the weirdness of the story. By starting off with
Gregor turning into a bug, the other events in the story do not seem to be as
odd and unnatural.
6. The ending of the story when
the parents and daughter are going to the country is so odd because they
suddenly forget about Gregor and focus right away on how the daughter should
get married soon. It is strange how quickly they move on from the whole
incident of living with a huge bug that was once Gregor. They are free from
Gregor’s burden, which is why the text is written so lyrically compared to the
rest of the text.
9. I think that Gregor transforms
into a bug because it makes his realize the importance of his life. In the end
of his life, right before he dies, he realizes that he does love his family and
that his job was important to helping them. He understands that the importance
of his life was to provide for his loved ones even though he did not realize
that he loved them before.
10. In my opinion, I agree with the statement that
Gregor’s alienation is an extension of the rage Kafka felt towards his own
father. Kafka, like Gregor, felt alienated from his family and especially his
father whom he disliked very much. Kafka was very isolated because he was an
intellectual and a Jew, so it was hard for him to find friends. Like Gregor,
Kafka was alienated from much of society. In the novel, the narrator explains
that “admittedly no one pay[s] attention to him” (46). At this point in the
novel, Gregor is climbing over to his sister while she is playing the violin, and
no one in the room notices him. This represents how Kafka feels around his one
family. He especially feels this from his overbearing father who forced him to
get a degree in law and to have a boring job at a government workers’ financial
office. His overbearing father is much like Gregor’s overbearing father who
only focuses on the debt Gregor is fixing for them. Gregor is stuck in the job
because of the debt much like Kafka is stuck in his boring job because of his
father’s pressure.
