Dear AP students:
Let's discuss a concept we have briefly touched upomn while reading Catcher in the Rye. Let's analyze The Metamorphosis from the Existentialist perspective.
According to one web site, Existentialism can be defined as follows:
"The term "existentialism" refers to a literary movement of the mid-twentieth
century which holds that man has complete freedom to determine his own fate. The
actions he chooses in fact determine his existence. Existentialists believe that
a particular individual is not the way he is because God made him that way, or
because he is part of a great human community with common characteristics. He is
the way he is because -- that’s how he is. He is an individual; he is unique and
independent. His destiny is his own, his choices are his own to make, and he
should make the choices that are right for him. No general rules apply. It is
this singular individuality, in fact, that allows him to exist at all."
"Existentialist literature deals extensively with the theme of alienation,
because existentialists believe that each individual human being is
fundamentally alone. One’s essential lack of communion with others makes the
individual ultimately responsible for his or her own decisions. For this reason,
the existentialist avoids doctrine and ideology..."
"Existentialism disavows a sense of "pattern" in the universe, a
grand scheme in which we all play a part. There is no ultimate meaning, they
argue; all people have to forge their own meaning for themselves, and therefore
one person’s decisions have no cosmic interrelationship with another’s."
Absurdity also plays a significant role in Existentialism because an Existentialist recognizes the absurdity in a world in which there is no pattern or logic. However, an existentialist does not bemoan the fact that the world is full of absurdity. They believe there is a certain nobility in struggling aganst this absurdity. Think of the myth of Sisyphus. Sisyphus was punished by a King to spend the rest of his life pushing up a boulder to the top of a hill...but each time before he reached the top the boulder would fall back down to the bottom...all was in vain. The Existentialist recognizes that Sisyphus continues to struggle alone against this absurd situation and finds this struggle a noble act, and not a situation that should discourage him.
So, as seen from the lens of existentalism, what do we see in The Metamorphosis that says anything about choice or freedom of an individualm, or lack thereof?
In the novella Metamorphosis,the ideals of the absurdity that Gregor turns into a bug was not a choice of him. He didn't wake up and go: "Gee I wish I could be a really big bug, just because I want to." It was a consequence given to him for an action that he did that Kafka does not explain upon. He doesn't have the choice to be a free individual, he had responsibility to provide for his family and for his job. The illogical idea that a man had suddenly turned into a bug in the night helps Kafka's novel be important because it shows how Gregor adapted to the new world that he is in. That was his choice, the one choice of himself that we see, he adapts instead of complaining about the unfortunate experience. Choice is also in his sister's decision to take care of him when she did not have to.
ReplyDelete-Kelsey Halfaker p.2
Another one of Kafka's themes in this novella is about the desire for freedom and escaping. He is trapped in his duties to his family and he could not move on with what he really wants for his life and for his future. Existentialism is evident in the story in which Gregor longs for freedom but could not find his need for it. In other words, he knows he wants to be free of all the stress in his job, but he does not know that he is actually in need for freedom from his family who has always been his obligation. Kafka exposes this need for existentialism because Gregor feels as if he cannot control his own destiny just as he could not control the metamorphosis that he just experienced. In addition, Gregor chose to make his family his biggest priority therefore choosing his destiny of forgetting personal goals and instead making a living to support his family.
ReplyDeleteI think it was the fact that Gregor worked so hard to support his family that turned him into a bug, nothing but some "worker bee." Gregor always took the early train to work, and according to the story, he has never called in sick, even if the work of a traveling salesman can expose him to different diseases. His choices to devote much of his life to his work has caused his metamorphosis. His alienation due to the lack of intimacy with his family then led to his alienation as an insect. When one looks at the other characters of the story, he or she would also note the transformation of the rest of the family. Since the family took on financial and other responsibilities when Gregor turned into a bug, they have grown more productive; all of them have jobs, and it is emphasized at the end of the story of how grown Grete has become.
ReplyDelete-Vernice Rodil
The Metamorphosis has some aspects of existentialism in that Gregor is essentially alone. He spends most of his time working as a traveling salesman with no one to accompany him. And when he isn’t working, he is locked up in his room, isolated from his family. Though he works for their benefit, he feels no real connection with them. After becoming a bug, Gregor becomes even more isolated. No one truly understands his situation, and everyone avoids him. In addition, he can’t communicate his feelings to his family; so his only option is to suffer his curse alone with no one to comfort him. Furthermore, Gregor’s situation fits with existentialism because he has to struggle in a world with absurdity. He has to make the best of the situation he finds himself in when he randomly wakes up one day as a vermin. His life changes suddenly and he must find a way to cope with his odd situation. On the other hand, Metamorphosis goes against existentialism because Gregor doesn’t have the choice to become a bug. Maybe he has worn himself out to the point that he is like an insect going through the motions of life, but he hasn’t chosen to turn himself into a bug. Instead, it seems to be the work of some supernatural force, which goes against the existentialist way of thinking.
ReplyDelete-Kristine Tolentino
I don't think The Metamorphosis is completely an existentialist novella, even though there are some aspects of existentialist thinking present. Existentialism believes that one controls their own destiny and ultimately decides their own fate. Gregor did not choose to become a bug and die a bug, nor did he choose to have a diminished relationship with his parents (that came about as a result of Gregor having to work to pay off his parents’ debt- a way of life no one would choose if the choice was entirely up to them). However, Gregor is for the most part alone, both as a traveling salesman and as a bug, so alienation is a major theme, which goes along with existentialism. Gregor doesn't feel a connection with his parents, following with an existentialist way of thinking; however, he does with his sister, Grete, not following an existentialist view point. He has a strong bond with Grete, and makes decisions that do have an interrelationship with her life (earning money to send her to the Conservatory)- which an existentialist does not place value on. Existentialism does account for the absurdity in Gregor's world, but I don't see that there is any nobility recognized by Gregor or his family in his struggling with the absurdity of becoming a bug.- Melissa Stencil Per. 2
ReplyDeleteIn the novella it shows a great deal of absurdity when Gregor all of a sudden turns into a bug without it being his choice and without explanation. Gregor also doesn't really have the ability to be a free individual because he's too busy worrying about providing for his family and job. Although, turning into a bug wasn't Gregor's choice, he did make a choice of not complaining or questioning his transformation. Another choice that his sister makes is taking care of him when she doesn't have to and his mom makes the choice of giving the effort to visit gregor in his room. Furthermore, Gregor makes a chose to support his family and make them his number one priority, instead of himself. Gregor wants freedom because he wants to have a future but he is stuck trying to support his family and pay off their debt. Existentialism is evident in the novel because the author shows how gregor struggles to take control of his own future, similar to how he is trying to control his transformation.
ReplyDelete-Brittany Moses
I think a way that the novella would reflect existentialism is in Samsa Gregor's absurd transformation into a bug. As Samsa struggles with his new-found bug legs and extensive flexible body when he wakes up the morning of his transformation, he later comes to the realization that he does eventually grow accustom and comfortable with his new body-- despite the nostalgia of being a human--- and in order to satisfy himself with his absurd new lifestyle, he must come to grips with the fact that he won't like the same food anymore, his family is disgusted by his sight, and that in order to help his family cope with his bizarre situation, he must cope with the situation himself. He realizes that he must adapt to his life instead of curse it. I suppose this reflects a sense of existentialism because Samsa could have faced his "fate" with a totally different attitude. Perhaps one of anger or of depression, but ultimately, Samsa feels that the best way to help his family cope with his situation is to be as cooperative and accepting with his fate as will be for the better.
ReplyDeleteGregor has been tied to the responsibility to provide for his family. He has been deprived of the choice to pursue his own passion rather he forcibly takes a profession as a travel salesman. Gregor deprived of any relationships outside his family has been denied of his ventilation to voice out his inner feelings one in which he can't openly confide to his family. Thereby, he resorts to alienation , keeping all his thoughts and emotions to himself.However it's quite ironic to think how fate and freedom has its conflicting note in the novella. Gregor has sacrificed himself for his family yet in return he morphs into a giant bug. His metamorphosis doesn't reflect his actions. It seemed like fate has punished Gregor but there's no rationality behind such punishment. But as everything happens for a reason, I think that Gregor's metamorphosis was a way for his family's dependence on Gregor to be taken away. After Gregor's metamorphosis, the financial source has been cut off, his own family has to stand in their own feet. It was Gregor's freedom that he chose to put his family as his utmost priority but inevitably fate wanted the Samsa's to be independent themselves. Gregor's death also gave him freedom, free from his all his obligations as a son and as a breadwinner.
ReplyDeleteExistentialists believe that man is alone in the game of life, and therefore man must forge its own destiny to move forward. How to move forward if you do not know how it all began? Gregor Samsa did not choose to become a vermin, an insect, nor did he wish for his family to practically disown him – if ever he did, Kafka sees no reason to tell us what it was. What I believe happened was that it was the parent’s past and wrongdoings that made Gregor turn into an insect. Seen from the existentialist point of view, what individuality was there of Gregor’s? How was it that he chose this moribund life for himself?
ReplyDeleteI do not believe there is a lack of individuality of Gregor – with the background information he gives us through the novel, Gregor made himself a strong, hard working man without anyone asking him to, he chose that for himself. The furniture, the view, the way he thinks and feels about others around him, and even how he feels about himself – there is an existentialist individual in him, but with the biggest conflict of them all, him turning into a bug, it throws out the focus of maybe him loosing all he once was, to something to no meaning at all.
Aurea Bolaños (p.1)
In “The Metamorphosis” Gregor Samsa’s transformation into a bug can be understood through the existentialist perspective. When Gregor woke up and was transformed into a vermin, he didn’t have the option of choosing to become one or not, this event just happened. Gregor could only control the present situation, how he will be able to deal with his transformation. This initial event counteracts the existentialist belief that individuals had to take responsibility for their own actions. However, existentialism can be seen in Gregor’s alienation. Working as a traveling salesman, Gregor spends most of the time in his job by himself, and when he becomes a bug, he spends most of the days locked in his room with the door closed. Furthermore, he is alienated from his parents, because he doesn’t feel a close connection with them. A factor that contributes to his alienation is that he is not able to communicate with his family, because when he tries to it leads him to many problems. Therefore, existentialism can be seen through the struggle that Gregor Samsa has to confront by himself, because in the end, like existentialists believe, he is the only one responsible for his destiny.
ReplyDelete-Dante Alvarado Leon
The only form of existentialism in Metamorphosis, I believe is through his alienation. Gregor Samsa constantly expresses his alienated feelings through his thoughts toward how his family deals with him. He feels alienated because no one can bear to be in the room with him for a length of time, without the window open and him being hidden and out of sight. He seems to complain a lot in this book and does not really understand his family's difficult position. This could categorize itself as existentialist because he is responsible for his feelings of alienation and therefor he is responsible for his fate. Had Gregor maybe been a little more sympathetic towards his family maybe things would have turned out a little differently. But then again, maybe not since he had no way of real communication with them.
ReplyDeleteEva Zaremba
As seen from the lens of existentialism, there is a theme of alienation implied in the novella, “The Metamorphosis.” Specifically, before Gregor’s transformation, he chose to alleviate his family’s financial struggles resulting from his father’s business disaster by working hard as a traveling salesman and by being inclined to pay off his parents’ debt. Due to his job, Gregor is seen as a source of income to his family and less of a supportive son, which alienates him from his family. Gregor became further alienated from his family after he morphed into a bug; this “lack of communion with others” led him to his decision of adjusting in his new self. Therefore, this theme of alienation that Gregor experiences is common in existentialist literature.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, an existentialist would believe that after Gregor chose to expose himself to his mother and to the three roomers, his decision would “have no cosmic interrelationship” with the decisions of others. However, after Gregor does expose himself to his mother, his relationship with his family deteriorates since he is now seen as a threat and his family ultimately resolves to see Gregor as a creature that has to leave; and after Gregor reveals himself to the three roomers, the roomers decide to leave without paying for their stay. Thus these decisions made by his family and the three roomers as a result of Gregor’s choice of exposing himself contradict an existentialist’s belief that there is no pattern in the universe.
In addition, Gregor did not choose to become a bug, which also contradicts an existentialist’s belief that a person’s “choices are his own to make;” however, the absurdity of Gregor’s metamorphosis plays a role in existentialism. An existentialist realizes that Gregor’s absurd transformation into a bug should not discourage him from living his life at home with his family. This point of view is supported in the novella since Gregor does not let his new insect-like body prevent him from giving up on life and instead grows accustom to his transformation at home.
Through The Metamorphosis, the existentialist perspective can be brought about in that Gregor Samsa holds no freedom to determine his own fate, an aspect that existentialism stresses. He is brought down by his responsibility to support his financially weak family, forced to endure the burden of a strenuous job. He isn't able to enjoy free will or independence or make his own choices because on his shoulders lies the weight of his family's well-being, which ultimately weighs him down.
ReplyDeleteExistentialism not only concerns the freedom of the individual, but also alienation and the idea of everyone being "fundamentally alone", which is prominent in this novella. Gregor's transformation into a bug creates a distance or disconnection from his family. He is separated from them simply in that he is unable to get out of his room and also in the larger sense where him now being a bug separates him from the human race.
In this novella, there is a lack of choice of freedom. Gregor is chosen as the main provider for the family as he is the most healthy and capable of taking on such a responsibility. His father is retired, mother cares for the house, and his sister is only 17. Gregor must therefore work enough to pay off his parents' debt before thinking about his own future plans. He decides to tell them his plans (ex: once I've gotten the money together to pay off my parents' debt to him-that will probably take another five or six years-I'm going to do it without fail. Then I'm going to make the big break.") but, this transformation impedes his plans. "The Metamorphosis" shows how somehow something delays one's choice of their own future, in this case, his transformation into a bug. Additionally, this novella shows more of a lack of choice of freedom seeing as the story starts off with every member of his family worried about why Gregor has not left for work in time in the morning. This shows they must depend upon him heavily financially and that a day without work must mean something is seriously wrong with Gregor.
ReplyDelete-Tyara Vazquez
In the novella Metamorphosis, Gregor has the responsibility of taking care of his family. Nobody else is capable of doing so, therefore his freedom is restrained. His choices depend on what the family needs and wants, thus he doesn't have the liberty to create his own being. Him transforming into a cockroach takes the family's dependency on him for their own financial stability away, and places the burden on them. The idea of existentialism is to make choices for yourself and that everyone is essentially alone. Gregor's transformation exemplified that his freedom and ability to become an individual was promptly taken away by his obligation to his own family.
ReplyDelete-Alex Quenga
In the novella Metamorphosis , Gregor does not have an option on to living his own life as an individual due to the fact that he is the man of the house having to provide for his family and having the responsibility of paying off his family's debt. The idea of Existentialism does not play a major part in this novella because Gregor does not do as he wishes it seems as if his duties that he is acquainted with every day are a burden because it is not his responsibility to carry on with such activities. On the other hand existentialism does relate to alienation which Gregor is familiar with and is surrounded with but does not illustrate him as a whole. There is a lack of Existentialism throughout the novella because Gregor does not have control over his actions or future.
ReplyDeleteGregor is a person who is hardworking, selfless, and caring. He has sacrificed his relationships outside of his family to become a travel salesman. He was the only person in in his family to be employed and to contribute help for the family debt. Once his transformation into a bug took place he became alienated from the people who he had been supporting, his family. It’s funny how things can change in the blink of an eye, one day he is the breadwinner of his family and the next day he is the hideous creature who has no good intentions in him. The apparent theme of existentialism is fate versus free will and in the case of Gregor Samsa I believe it was fate who caused him to transform into something less appealing when he has been the one providing for his family. In a way his metamorphosis has caused his family to become less dependent and more self-sufficient. Once he died he became free of the many obligations his family had set for him, in addition his family learned a valuable lesson on being able to take care and provide for themselves.
ReplyDelete-Corchelle Worsham
In the novel, Gregor says something about the glory of being the breadwinner in his family fading away. From this, one may assume that this job of his, a traveling salesman, may be the basis of his existensialism; if he were Sisyphus, his job would be his boulder. His job is lackluster, he hates it, but it gives him purpose. He sees the nobility in it by providing for his family. But in one fell swoop, his sense of purpose is taken away through his transformation into a bug. His "existence" is now gone, there really isn't any purpose in a giant bug, and therefore he has no purpose in life. In this novel "The Metamorphosis" we get to see the nature of something that has no life, that serves no purpose, that doesn't exist. Gregor lives day by day doing nothing really, except terrify and worry his own family. His family, naive to his true nature, attempt to take care of him, but over time he becomes a burden to them, eating away at their hospitality and mental health. Eventually the Samsa's catch on, realizing that they very much do not need Gregor anymore, he is useless and non existent from their practical lives, and terrifyingly enough, Gregor realizes this too. In the end, Grgor dies, alone in his room. From this, the reader can gather that the sense of importance and purpose in life drives a person. Gregor lived to support his family, and when he lost that purpose, he found that he could not go on living as a handicap to his family.
ReplyDeleteAs mentioned in the beginning of the novel, Gregor is a salesman and works to support his family. However, due to the amount of debt the family carried and soon his metamorphosis, Gregor and his family are soon restrained, unable to do what they want to. Though Gregor's interests are not mentioned in the story, we assume that he is unable to do what he pleases, because of the duty of providing for the family. The family is also restrained from living as they did before Gregor's transformation, as seen as living with the roomers and his sister unable to attend the Conservatory and having to help cook, clean, and care for Gregor.
ReplyDeleteMetamorphosis clearly shows the lack of individual choice which people may experience; Gregor's situations as both a human and a bug exemplify this. For example, while Gregor is still human, he really doesn't have much of a choice in what he does for a living. Although he hates his job, he must find some work so that he can support his family. While he is still an individual, he cannot truly make choices while thinking only of himself. Because he has to support his family, he really doesn't have any option except to find work quickly no matter what it is. This idea is promoted with Gregor's transformation into a bug. While he is a good person who works for his family and appears to be selfless, he metamorphoses into a hideous insect for no apparent reason. This represents the fact that no matter what choices you make in life, there will alway be unexpected events that will throw your plans in disarray. The Metamorphosis makes clear that as much as we may like to believe that our fates are decided by out choices, there are things which leave us with only one real option as well as those which detonate all of our options.
ReplyDeleteIn the novella it shows both choice and the lack of choice. The example of lack of choice would be when he actually turns in the bug. He didn't ask to be turned into one, it just happened. After that it was all his decisions, well mostly. An example of Gregor having a choice would be when he starves himself for the sake of his family. He believes himself to be a burden because his family clearly states that they think he is too. He chooses to starve so his family can focus on other issues like making enough money to stay in the house and other things like that. However, Gregor can't choose to work even though he wants to. He is unable to work due to his changing, and thus not being able to provide anything to the family.
ReplyDelete-Melanie Hermosura
In The Metamorphosis, the readers can clearly pick up on the lack of freedom and choices. Gregor did not choose to turn into a bug, it just happened. And the fact that he could no longer support his family because of his transformation brings out the alienation. They reject him and feel as if he has no purpose in their lives anymore. At first, he was less of his own person, he did everything for his family and had no time or energy for himself, he was the breadwinner of the family. However, after, he became more of an individual, without the weight of his family upon his shoulders, due to his metamorphosis.
ReplyDeleteI would disagree that the novella has an existentialism theme. one of the reasons is that Gregor cannot contain his own fate and all the events that occurred to him seem to be supernatural and out of control. secondly Gregor does not show any appreciation to either existentialism beliefs or religious, seems he is more neutral. he also has a strong connection with some of his family members and with the world around him although ti can be argue that his traveling prevents him from creating strong relationships.
ReplyDeleteGregor had a choice of his own fate when it came to how he wanted to live his life and he chose to take care of his family and be alienated from the world. Gregor loved his family and taking care of them was important to him. But he did not have a choice to turn into a bug that was out of his control. That's when his family though didn't want him around anymore and he then started to become kind of dependent of others because he couldn't do much.
ReplyDelete-Lauren Masi