Unsettling Dreams an Analysis of the Metamorphosis free essay sample

An Analysis of The Metamorphosis Through his essay â€Å"Competing Theories of Identity in The Metamorphosis†, Kevin W. Sweeny explores three different concepts of identity that are brought to light in Franz Kafka’s novella The Metamorphosis. While our social role and conscious mind help establish our character, ultimately our material body determines how we identify, to ourselves and the general public. Through The Metamorphosis, Kafka explores how losing control of the body can conflict the mind, and decimate social status, as well as alter the very essence of one’s identity. When he awakes one morning to find his human body replaced with that of a bug in Kafka’s novella The Metamorphosis, Gregor Samsa does not immediately realize the drastic repercussions of this event; that with the loss of his human body comes the loss of his identity. No longer is he Gregor, but instead is a â€Å"monstrous vermin† (1). He has become unable to control his physical being and thus his actions, which are fundamental aspects of personal characterization. Gregor’s body begins to control all aspects of his life. It literally denies him the ability to speak, his voice intruded by an â€Å"insistent distressed chirping† (5). It is this loss of communication that stems Gregors detachment from humanity. He is incapable of voicing his thoughts and opinions, which is the very foundation of human interaction When Gregor first tries to respond to his mothers calls, his voice is badly garbled, broken up with chirps; when he attempts to defend himself against the Office Manager’s accusations with a long, pleading speech, the Manager’s only response is to claim Gregor’s voice as that â€Å"of an animal (10). From this moment on, Gregor refrains from any attempt at speech. This absence of communication emphasizes the conflict between his conscious and the physical being it now inhabits; that of a bug. Also emphasizing this mind-body disconnect is Kafka’s focus on â€Å"[Gregor’s] little legs†, a phrase sometimes accompanied by modifiers such as â€Å"numerous† (6) and â€Å"struggling† (6). Starkly contrasting the bipedalism of the more evolutionarily evolved human being, this emphasis on Gregor’s â€Å"many legs [being] pitifully thin† (16) further strips him of his human identity. Accompanied by the fact that Gregor is the only non-human character in the novella, this portrays him as an isolated creature, inferring he is an inferior being. The transformation of Gregor’s biological identity impacts not only him, but his family as well. For Gregor, it means almost complete isolation. After awakening that morning, he never again leaves the apartment, instead spending most of his time â€Å"[lying] in the darkest corner of his room† (34). His exile makes him an outcast not only socially, but with his family as well. In describing the family apartment, Kafka’s repetition of the competing terms â€Å"living room† versus â€Å"his room† emphasize Gregor’s alienation from the rest of his family. While words such as â€Å"immaculate† (35) attribute a clean, almost holy reverence to the living room, â€Å"all the [useless] things migrate into Gregor’s room† (33). This implies that Gregor himself is also useless, as it is his room that stores all the family’s â€Å"dirty junk† (33). Before his transformation, Gregor was the sole provider for his family. His father was feeble and ailing, whiles his mother and sister simply enjoyed the benefits of being taken care of. Yet with Gregor’s metamorphosis the family dynamic is altered into one of the more traditional sense, with his father assuming the authoritative, patriarchal role as head of the household. It is the contrast between these dynamics and Gregor’s role in them that invokes the analysis of Gregor’s true self. Through the novella, Gregor struggles with the separation of mind from body. His body repeatedly rejects what his mind wants, as demonstrated when his sister left Gregor a bowl of fresh milk with little pieces of bread floating in it. He discovers that he â€Å"[doesn’t] like the milk at all, although if used to be his favorite drink† (16), and that he now has a taste for half-rotten vegetables and expired cheese. These food choices are also used to further emphasize the loss of Gregor’s human identity, as no average person would voluntarily choose rotten over fresh food. It also allows insight into how he will soon be viewed by his family. A peer or superior would never be offered anything less than the most fresh, nourishing food available; days-old and rotting food is typically only given to those seen as inferior. He also finds great comfort underneath the couch in his room, even though he cannot fit entirely beneath it. This suggests the very stereotypical desire of a bug to be in a confined, dark space; a characteristic that is more often associated with a phobia than a desire among the human population. Gregor also uses a bed sheet to reveal and conceal himself. It is something that â€Å"fell off by itself† (6) with ease in the beginning of the story to reveal his bug body. And it is the same sheet e uses to cover himself for his sister’s sake later on, when he realizes that the sight of him is â€Å"still repulsive to her and was bound to remain repulsive to her in the future† (22). This evokes the question of whether the sheet fell away in the beginning to reveal Gregor’s true self, or if it is his true self that he is trying to retain by keeping himself covered by it in the presence of his sister. The true self, that of the physical body possessed, is ultimat ely what decides how one is identified, both by themselves, as well as by society. Kafka uses Gregor’s bug body to address this theory. Ultimately it is our physical being that dictated our actions and how we are perceived. It is Gregor’s physical being that controls what he eats, his mobility, his sleep, and ultimately, it is his body that controls when he dies. Works Cited Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis: Translation, Backgrounds and Contexts, Criticism. Ed. Stanley Corngold. Trans. Stanley Corngold. Norton Critical Edition ed. New York: W. W. Norton, 1996. Print. Sweeney, Kevin W. â€Å"Competing Theories of Identity in The Metamorphosis. † The Metamorphosis. By Franz Kafka. Ed. Stanley Corngold. New York: Norton, 1996.