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This year, last May, my family and I visited the Czech Republic, specifically the city of Prague. It was an amazing experience, during which we learned very much about it’s past and present history. We admired the beautiful Romanesque architecture, we walked along the famous Charles Bridge, and we were able to watch the amazing astronomical clock and many places more, all of them full of beauty and interest. One day, exploring the Jewish Quarter, we came across one of Franz Kafka’s monuments. There, for the first time, I heard about Franz Kafka, one of Prague’s most famous writers. Our tour guide also introduced us to one of his best-known works: ‘The Metamorphosis’. Out of curiosity, I started reading the book The Metamorphosis. Pretty soon I was engaged in the tragedy of Gregor Samsa’s miserable life. In ‘The Metamorphosis’, the theme of life changes, and the way the author thinks of humans as insignificant and meaningless creatures demonstrates Kafka’s personal feelings and struggles to become what his father and family expected of him.
In ‘The Metamorphosis’, Gregor Samsa the main character was a young salesman constrained to what he thought were his obligations to his family. Nevertheless, through the horrible situation he experienced, when one morning he awoke transformed into a gigantic insect, is where he finally realized the true feelings of his family towards him. Gregor felt like if he had been used by his family before his transformation. “He had been able to provide such a life in so nice apartment for his parents and sister. But what now if all the peace, the comfort, the contentment were to come to a horrible end?” (Kafka 7). After his tragedy, Gregor was unable to work, and his family did not need him anymore. In fact, they thought he was a burden, that he was no longer part of the family and even worst, that he should have been eliminated to avoid family disintegration. Of all, Mr. Samsa, Gregor’s father, was the less sympathetic of his family. His reaction to Gregor’s catastrophe was hostile, rather than loving and protective.
“No plea of Gregor’s helped, no plea was even understood; however humbly he might turn his head, his father merely stamped his feet more forcefully […] he drove Gregor on, as if there were no obstacles […] his father gave him a hard shove, which was truly his salvation, and bleeding profusely, he flew far into his room’’ (Kafka, 9).
Again, Gregor’s family and specifically his father’s behavior was brutal. Instead of trying to help him somehow, and to emotionally support him, he is more intended to punish the poor Gregor. Moreover, not only Mr. Samsa was mean to Gregor, Greta, his sister, after being kind and tender, turned into a mean character. On one occasion, she refused to grant Gregor the title of brother and called him “monster” (Kafka, 38). In contrast to the rest of the family, Mrs. Samsa, Gregor’s mother, maintained her love and concerned about her son, until, against her will, she was forced to be away from him (Kafka, 19). After I finished reading ‘The Metamorphosis’, I learned the experiences of Kafka’s life were portrayed in his writings. I believe Kafka’s way of explaining his feelings through the character of Gregor was very effective. What he wrote in the book of ‘The Metamorphosis’, left me with the feeling that we all have to be very careful in the manner we treat others. We have to be respectful about their feelings and their personality. Furthermore, something I disagree with Kafka in his book ‘The Metamorphosis’ was the end. I have always liked happy endings and in the book, the story end was very sad. I did not like what happens to Gregor, he just dies, and his family ignores him completely and goes into a trip to the city thinking about Greta’s future.
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