Kafka From the Very Opening Essay

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Total Length: 1100 words ( 4 double-spaced pages)

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They attempt to achieve normalcy at points by allowing Gregor to witness the family interacting through his opened door. Still, he begins to view his family with a detached hostility as they have clearly begun to treat him with shame and revulsion, rather than as a member of the family. Though his sister still attempts to feed him for a time, she can no longer bring herself to address him directly. Likewise, the mounting unhappiness in the family results in a total neglect, where his room is left to descend into filth, underscoring the idea that Gregor himself is, on the basis of his ghastly appearance, filthy and to be cast out.

This would be particularly difficult for the reader to witness, as Gregor undergoes his descent with seemingly little internal reflection. Much as is the case with his life in service to his job, Gregor is driven only by the practicalities of survival. If in some degree Gregor had ever failed to fully give of himself emotionally to his family, his condition would relegate these parts of himself even further to oblivion. There is clearly a conflicted emotional dilemma for the family, who we might conjecture is saddened by the loss of Gregor but, in quite apparent reality, appears as far more deeply impacted by the presence of the thing which has come to replace him. This causes us to think of the insect as a Gregor which is present but dramatically diminished to the point of invisibility to his love ones, perhaps analogous to a man who leaves early for work before his family is awakened and returns late as his family prepares for bed.

It is thus that with Gregor's ultimate passing, the family experiences something which is ultimately positive.

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The relief experienced in resolution by Gregor's family is particularly demonstrative of the thesis in the study by Charmaz. The text's discussion on the dehumanization which occurs with debilitating or terminal illness is closely correlated to the sense of relief often experienced by loved ones once finally removed of the burden reflected in the long-standing compromise of lifestyle. Notably, Kafka's final point of observation in a narrative which has largely taken its focus from Gregor's perspective concerns those by whom the transformed man is survived. Of the family, Kafka tells that "all three left the apartment together, something they had not done for months now, and took the electric tram into the open air outside the city. The car in which they were sitting by themselves was totally engulfed by the warm sun. They talk to each other, leaning back comfortably in their seats, about future prospects, and they discovered that on closer observation, these were not at all bad." (Kafka, 44) Here, an incredible transformation has taken place in the family, even if such an internal transformation never occurred directly within Gregor. In the final stage, Gregor's passing releases this horror and delivers them to a final place of brightness and optimism, suggesting that though Gregor's character did not adjust to the dire nature of his circumstances and his passing, his experience would offer a profound set of insights to his family.

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