Metamorphosis 3

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insects have almost no control over their own destiny because they are small, unintelligent creatures that can be squashed between a human’s thumb and forefinger or destroyed under the sole of a stepping shoe.
The first instance of lack of control over his life he encounters deals with the exploitation of his labor. Samsa appears to be a very young man who has been thrown into the role of the breadwinner for the family since his father’s business defaulted. He has been working in order to support his family and the lifestyle they have come to embrace. The family lives in an apartment that is more than they need; one that has a concierge and servants to clean and cook. This fact would not seem strange unless you remember that a young man, who seems too young for the responsibility, is the lone source of income for the family. He has been working for years to repay the debt that has been borrowed from his boss. In addition to all that, he finds that his ...

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longer and forgetting all this nonsense.” The apparent delusion turns out to be a terrifying reality. The insect represents all the dimensions of Gregor’s existence in his mind, but were not apparent in his everyday physical life.
The most obvious dimension of the insect’s representation is that of loneliness and isolation. While his family and everyone around him were shaped in the form of human beings, Gregor, alone, is an insect. Not only is Gregor’s appearance unusual, so is his speech, or more correctly, his eventual lack of speech. Nina Straus points out in her criticism that Kafka includes Gregor’s loss of oral communication abilities in order to ...

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