A Changing Perspective

This was not the first time I read Metamorphosis; just last year for my AP English Literature class I did. At that time I was struck by how first Gregor, and then Grete, did to support their family. They take most of the responsibility upon themselves to make sure the family is taken care of. The parents had completely given up all efforts to work themselves, instead choosing to allow Gregor to become a travelling salesman, something he clearly did not want to do as he wished he could have brought “much nearer the day on which he could quit his job,” and calling Grete “a somewhat useless daughter” (96, 99). Then I was certain that Gregor must be bitter towards his parents because he gave up so many things for them, and as I read it again, I set out to find evidence of this fact.

As I expected I found that Gregor would have quit his job if he “didn’t have to hold his hand because of [his] parents” (69). Gregor continues to complain about his job, and his lack of friends due to his constant travelling, however beyond that evidence was scarce. Gregor shows no regret when he thinks of how his “sole desire was to do his utmost to help the family” (95). Although the family has “no special uprush of warm feeling” for each other, even when giving and receiving as important a thing as income, on Gregor’s part at least, there seems to be no hard feelings (95).

Even as a bug Gregor does what he can to make the family more comfortable. The first morning of his new life, Gregor is so intent on helping the family deal with the chief clerk that he is “heedless of the fact that he was undoubtedly damaging [his jaws] somewhere, since a brown fluid issued from his mouth” (80). Physical pain means nothing to him when confronted with the prospect of his family in need of him. Later, he spends “four hours labor” on putting the bed sheet over the couch to keep the sight of him from disturbing Grete. He is haunted by the too hopeful idea that he could “take the family’s affairs in hand again” (114). As Gregor is returning to his room for the final time, he makes the decision that he had best leave. In his final moments he thinks “of his family with tenderness and love” (127).

Until the end Gregor seems to be happy to help his family, although he does get frustrated at times towards the end. Sometimes “he was only filled with rage at the way they were neglecting him, after the years of work they put in for him, it seemed so wrong for them to put him to the side the way they did. Because of these occasional slips, I have now come to think that perhaps Gregor is a failed Jesus rather than simply a bitter son.