After reading the first chapter of the story I was kind of skeptical. It is highly unlikely that anyone would wake up one morning, find they had changed into a bug, and have almost no reaction. Gregor's biggest worry that morning was that he would be late for work. I don't think a manager would personally come to your house if you were an hour late for work. It is also odd that he is still living at home and supporting the whole family by himself.
One word that seemed to resonate to me was "torture." From the very beginning, Gregor woke up changed from a human into a bug. It took him a long time just to try to get out of bed. He was like a baby who has to learn how to do everything from the start. Gregor had to learn how to walk and talk again. Even though he could understand himself when he talked, his family was unable to understand him. Being unable to communicate with others would seem like torture to me. Also, Gregor exerts a tremendous amount of effort in trying to turn the key with his mouth to open the door, and then his father wrestles him right back into the room. This again would seem like torture to me.
I think even "highly unlikely" is a bit of an understatement, Kevin! Part of the one's engagement with this bizarre story has to be suspension of disbelief, surrender to the void of weirdness. A question we can ask ourselves: is Kafka being weird for weird's sake, or is there a bigger point he's trying to make.
ReplyDeleteNice choice with torture as a word with resonance within the story. Much of Kafka's work contains depictions of physical discomfort or psychological intimidation. Maybe we can chalk it up to Kafka's "tortured" existence, but it does seem to be a big theme in his work.
Nice choice with torture as a word with resonance within the story. A lot of Kafka's work have depiction of physical discomfort or psychological intimidation. Maybe we can chalk it up to Kafka's "tortured" exisistence, but it seems to be a big theme in his work.
I liked the word you chose Kevin. My word was 'strange' hahahaha yeah pretty lame I know. But I do agree with how Gregor seemed to be tortured from the beginning. He was the sole provider for his entire family and he did it all on his own. He sacrificed himself (not really by choice) to help his family and they gave him no thanks or respect. His family was lazy and their excuse was of how tramatized they were by the father's business going under. That would be absolute torture to me!! Being the only one in my family that is relied on for everything? PSH Dumb. Turning into a beetle was also torturous! Holy cow! The way he was described from the beginning of his drastic change was that he was in pain. What the heck?! Poor guy! Nobody wanted to help him, feed him, talk to him, or anything; he was tortured. Even at the end, how horrible is that that his family wanted him dead. Haha Lazy Jerks. You're a good word picker Kevin. Great blog! See ya!
ReplyDeleteYeahhhh, if I woke up as a bug, my first thoughts would definitely not be about work! I would be freaking out!!!! The whole beginning of the book is one reason why I don't really like it, Gregor's reactions just aren't realistic.
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