Kafka essay

Ashley Kim

1st period

Why did Gregor had to die?

In Kafka’s novel, The Metamorphosis, the main character, Gregor Samsa, is a caring young man who loves his family so deeply that he works without rest to pay his parent’s debt. He lives an isolated life with little communication between his family members due to his work. One day, Gregor turns into a bug and the family becomes cruel to him. It’s ironic that such a wonderful human being suffers the most than any of his family members who are worthless and cruel. Kafka tells the readers that being loving is beautiful and certainly nice but it can destroy one’s life.

Gregor’s family are like parasites which steal energy from him and abandons him when Gregor has no more to give. Foster explains, “A nasty old man, attractive but evil, …, steals their innocence -and coincidentally their ‘usefulness’” (Foster 16). Like vampires, the family make Gregor work and take the money for themselves. Also “Generally, eating with another is a way of saying ‘I’m with you, I like you, we form a community together’ and that is a form of communion” (Foster 8). Throughout the novel, sister is the only one who brings food to Gregor but the family never eats with him. This proves that the family has no intention of building a relationship with Gregor. Moreover Foster describes, “Nearly every religion has some linguistic or social ritual involving the coming together of the faithful to share sustenance” (Foster 8). Gregor’s family lacked this ritual thus lost the chance to become a group.. Gregor had a loving heart and a good soul but he lacked conscious thus didn’t know his family aren’t making an actual communion with him. His innocence and love blinded Gregor from seeing the truth.

Gregor realizes that his family are not as nice as he thought they were at last. But when he realizes it, it’s too late. Gregor says, “As he heard his mother’s word Gregor realized that the lack of all immediate human contact” (Kafka 14). Although Gregor knows he lacks social contact with his family, since his turned into a bug, he cannot rebuild the relationship with them. Wallace tells, “‘, and there the corner stands the trap that I must run into,’ ‘You only need to change your direction’” (Wallace 1). Gregor, in The Metamorphosis, already turns to a bug thus it’s too late to go back. Kafka bring the point to illustrate how modern people are chased in their works that they miss the important values.

Moreover, Gregor dies because he has been naive. When the sister announces to get rid of Gregor,“... Gregor did not have any notion of wishing to create problems for anyone” (Kafka 24). Gregor does nothing to protect himself and instead sits quietly waiting to die. Gregor’s love toward his family at the end ruins him. If Gregor stood up and cared for himself, the situation may have been different. Also Gregor still loves his family. He quotes, “he felt a great pride that he had been able to provide such a life for his parents and his sister in such a beautiful apartment” (Kafka 9). Gregor, even with the hate from his family, feels proud of himself for establishing such a luxury for his family rather than getting mad at them. Wallace explains “No wonder they cannot appreciate the really central Kafka joke, that the horrific struggle to establish a human self results in whose humanity is inseparable from that horrific struggle” (Wallace 3). Gregor had to know that, the horrific days he has been having will not suddenly change. Gregor’s thinking about sending his sister into a Contrary while the sister is thinking of killing Gregor. He was naive to his family thus lost his life.

Therefore since Gregor’s innocence and love results in a tragedy of him getting killed, Kafka is suggesting that one’s innocence can result in a destruction of one’s life. If only Gregor noticed that his family is not caring fast enough to make a turn and not be naive, The Metamorphosis may have a different ending to it.