“The Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka shows the absurdist nature of the Samsa family through the themes of; isolation, money and, family. The main absurdity is that Gregor is a bug, and that he magically turns into a beetle overnight. The aforementioned themes are all based around this, and the way the family reacts and treats him is in result of him becoming a bug and being unable to be the provider of the house. The fact that he is unable to bring money into the house now, is why the family treats him poorly and lacks the normality of caring for Gregor. Gregor spends the remainder of his life locked away in his room, and shown no love from his family ever again. All of what the family does is absurd, and is considered unnatural as the roles
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The job that Gregor has is to pay off the debts to his boss that the family owes “once I’ve gotten the money together to pay of my parents’ debt to him -- that will probably take another five or six years -- I’m going to do it without fail. Then I am going to make the big break”(2). The family is making their son work to pay off their debts, and no other person works to help him. Usually the father or mother would partake in paying off their debts, not the children. As soon as Gregor is unavailable to work and make money, the family ignores him and treats him like he is nothing now that he can not do the things that his parents should be doing. Gregor tells us that there is some money for the family to use, but there isn’t enough. The parent’s are labeled as unable to work as “Now his father was still healthy, certainly, but he was an old man who had not worked for the past five years and who in any case could not be expected to undertake too much; during these five years, which were the first vacation of his hard-working life, he had gained a lot of weight, and as a result became fairly sluggish. And was his old mother supposed to go out and earn money, when she suffered from asthma, when a walk through the apartment was an ordeal for her”(17-18). The problems of the parents have been pushed
The job that Gregor has is to pay off the debts to his boss that the family owes “once I’ve gotten the money together to pay of my parents’ debt to him -- that will probably take another five or six years -- I’m going to do it without fail. Then I am going to make the big break”(2). The family is making their son work to pay off their debts, and no other person works to help him. Usually the father or mother would partake in paying off their debts, not the children. As soon as Gregor is unavailable to work and make money, the family ignores him and treats him like he is nothing now that he can not do the things that his parents should be doing. Gregor tells us that there is some money for the family to use, but there isn’t enough. The parent’s are labeled as unable to work as “Now his father was still healthy, certainly, but he was an old man who had not worked for the past five years and who in any case could not be expected to undertake too much; during these five years, which were the first vacation of his hard-working life, he had gained a lot of weight, and as a result became fairly sluggish. And was his old mother supposed to go out and earn money, when she suffered from asthma, when a walk through the apartment was an ordeal for her”(17-18). The problems of the parents have been pushed