In today’s capitalist world, we focus a lot of our attention on money, which makes our economic status something often used as a marker of importance that changes the way others view people.
Wealth and emotions get mixed together making poor wealth often equate to poor relationships, whether it be romantic, family or friendships. The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka shows us this grave importance of money as well as a family struggle that sprouts from a seemingly awful tragedy that ends rather happily. In fact, the whole novella is not so much a story of a man turned into a bug but is rather a metaphor for the importance of economic value in the modern capitalist society. In capitalism, it is well known that there is a large division between …show more content…
Gregor had all the feelings a working class worker would have and yet the morning he woke up, he was not surprised, scared or happy he wouldn’t have to work, since working was necessary for him. When Gregor first woke up, seeing that he had turned into an insect, he thought to himself “what if I went on sleeping for a while and forgot all these idiocies” (Kafka, 29). The reason he was not alarmed or frightened is because nothing was actually out of the ordinary, this is passage is showing him waking up with an ailment that would deem him unable to work. It represents the moment of denial people experience when they get the first symptoms of sickness: ‘no, no, I’ll be fine’. Gregor spends some time complaining to himself about the conditions of his work: “I’m burdened with misery of travelling; there’s the worry about train connections, the poor, irregular meals” (Kafka, 29) and he even says he would “have given in [his] notice long ago” (Kafka, 30) but he continues to work there for his family, for the money that will support them, “no two ways about it” (Kafka, 30). Gregor is so motivated to work that when the chief clerk shows up at his door, he does not do what he has wanted to do for years (quit), he instead tries to convince the clerk that he is in fact a good worker and the firm should look over this small mishap. What pushes him to do this is yet again the importance of money and is something that anyone that wants to keep their job would do. Gregor however, could no longer do his job, which is why he seemed to be transformed into this tiny, useless, even putrid bug. The alienation that went along with seemingly becoming an insect goes to show the huge difference between someone who is employed versus someone who is unemployed in our capitalist
Wealth and emotions get mixed together making poor wealth often equate to poor relationships, whether it be romantic, family or friendships. The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka shows us this grave importance of money as well as a family struggle that sprouts from a seemingly awful tragedy that ends rather happily. In fact, the whole novella is not so much a story of a man turned into a bug but is rather a metaphor for the importance of economic value in the modern capitalist society. In capitalism, it is well known that there is a large division between …show more content…
Gregor had all the feelings a working class worker would have and yet the morning he woke up, he was not surprised, scared or happy he wouldn’t have to work, since working was necessary for him. When Gregor first woke up, seeing that he had turned into an insect, he thought to himself “what if I went on sleeping for a while and forgot all these idiocies” (Kafka, 29). The reason he was not alarmed or frightened is because nothing was actually out of the ordinary, this is passage is showing him waking up with an ailment that would deem him unable to work. It represents the moment of denial people experience when they get the first symptoms of sickness: ‘no, no, I’ll be fine’. Gregor spends some time complaining to himself about the conditions of his work: “I’m burdened with misery of travelling; there’s the worry about train connections, the poor, irregular meals” (Kafka, 29) and he even says he would “have given in [his] notice long ago” (Kafka, 30) but he continues to work there for his family, for the money that will support them, “no two ways about it” (Kafka, 30). Gregor is so motivated to work that when the chief clerk shows up at his door, he does not do what he has wanted to do for years (quit), he instead tries to convince the clerk that he is in fact a good worker and the firm should look over this small mishap. What pushes him to do this is yet again the importance of money and is something that anyone that wants to keep their job would do. Gregor however, could no longer do his job, which is why he seemed to be transformed into this tiny, useless, even putrid bug. The alienation that went along with seemingly becoming an insect goes to show the huge difference between someone who is employed versus someone who is unemployed in our capitalist