Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Who Killed Gregor?

Gregor dies at the conclusion of The Metamorphosis. At first, I thought his death was underwhelming in a way. Kafka opens the book by dramatically proclaiming that Gregor had been transformed into a giant insect. It was so absurd that for the first few pages, I wondered if it was only a nightmare. Based on the striking beginning, I initially expected Gregor to go out with a bang.
But, as we read, he dies peacefully in his room, shortly after dawn. His death is only really described in one paragraph. I think the nature of his death reflects what we've been talking about in class; how Gregor is reduced from the breadwinner to nothing more but a nuisance. His death seems almost emotionally insignificant to the family, which reflects how they have lost most, if not all sympathy for Gregor.
In contrast, as Gregor has slowly become this dependent creature, the rest of his family members have each becoming working, contributing members to society. So there's sort of a cycle, or reversal of roles.
I found the last part extremely sad to read. It made me dislike Gregor's family quite a bit. I guess I had a faint dislike for them ever since the beginning, where we saw Gregor groveling at his manager's feet while Gregor's dad was lazily enjoying his giant breakfast. I really disliked the fact that although the father was in debt, the whole family pushed the responsibility onto Gregor. Maybe I don't understand enough about family dynamics during the time period, but it seemed extremely unfair. It also made the family look a little pathetic.
The worst part to read was at the end, when Gregor's family had clearly lost all sympathy for him and decided it best to get rid of him somehow, and Gregor agrees. As he dies, all he thinks about is how he "must disappear", for the sake of his family. Despite how badly he has been treated by the family, especially by his father, Gregor still seems to be loyal and still has their best interests in mind.
This makes me wonder if he in a way, committed suicide. I know it's a bold statement, but by the end, Gregor was quite determined to die, to disappear. Perhaps he willingly lost the will to live (if that makes sense). In addition, most people who commit suicide do it because they feel as if they are a burden on family and friends. Gregor clearly feels this way.
Another way you could see it is that his family killed him. One huge blow was his father's apple throwing. Another was the lack of suitable food. It's possible that Gregor felt like he had no choice but to die, especially considering how weak he was due to his family's neglect.
No matter how you interpret Gregor's death, it's definitely a somber ending to an adventurous story.

6 comments:

  1. I'm a fan of the interpretation that Gregor committed suicide, in a manner of speaking. From the way the Samsa family dynamic is illustrated, it seems clear from the beginning that Gregor is the submissive do-er while the rest of the family acts as the dominant commander. Personally, I definitely see his suicide as a sacrificial act- if it were up to Gregor alone, he'd probably be content to continue living. In my opinion, him choosing to die based on the will of his family is one final, grand act in the list of things he's done solely by request the rest of the Samsas.

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  2. I don't think it's unreasonable at all to suggest that Gregor committed suicide - it goes along very well with the complete obsession with self-sacrifice that we see in his character earlier on. Personally, I thought the ending of the story kind of matched the blasé at the beginning. Kafka doesn't use dramatic adjectives or exclamations to describe that Gregor has become an insect and part of the humor of the beginning is that Gregor is so calm about the whole thing. Similarly at the end, Kafka tosses out the idea that Gregor has died as if it's no big deal, again turning our assumptions and preconceived values on their heads.

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    1. This story has intrigued me in that characters (mainly Gregor) seem to care just as much (or as little) as the characters we read in Hemingway's novel. Gregor doesn't care that he is an insect, and as you say, Kafka's description of Gregor's death is so nonchalant that our opinions seem to imitate those of Cohn, with his extreme sensitivity to other's words. When we read about Gregor's transformation, we were in shock, yet the tone of the writing seemed to suggest that we were out of place to react in such a way, as Cohn was out of place to react negatively to Brett and Mike being together.

      (I'm not sure why I wrote this as a reply to your comment - It is mostly just a thought that came into mind after reading the above post and then noticing your comment about the death of Gregor being "no big deal.")

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  3. I liked your contrast between the shocking beginning of the story and the quieter end. I was also expecting some sort of crazy finale. I completely agree with you in that I dislike how the family treats Gregor. Throughout the whole book they never really try to establish a connection with Gregor, and when we see them interacting with him they are disgusted by him and abuse him. I believe that the family ends up killing him not just because of their physical attacks but also their dehumanization of Gregor throughout the story. Their view of Gregor eventually gets transferred onto him, which causes him to lose the will to live.

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  4. Gregor does seem more interested in the welfare of his family over his on welfare. He finally dies once his sister informs him by way of explaining it to their father that he is no longer useful, and has not been useful since his transformation. I think this could support the suicide argument. In this way, his family 'killing' him is not mutually exclusive to him deciding to disappear and die since it could have been his sister's fault in this way.

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  5. Your theory that Gregor committed suicide is very interesting. Gregor is shown blame everything on himself- He wants to protect the others by hiding himself, for example. Also, he is very accepting of death in the passage where he dies: "His own opinion that he must disappear was if anything even firmer than his sister's." He regards himself as only a nuisance and problem for his family, and perhaps that led to a desire to kill himself.

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