87
edits
The Metamorphosis: Difference between revisions
→Major Themes
(→Father) |
|||
| Line 22: | Line 22: | ||
After the metamorphosis, however, it is his distinct features that alienate him. One example of the alienation is that his family locks him in his bedroom. Gregory is not allowed to be a part of the family. Gregory then has to make the adjustment from being a man in the working world and traveling everyday, to being a prisoner in his own bedroom (Hughes). Another way that Gregory's family alienates him is that when they talk about him, they openly talk about his features in front of him because they think that he cannot understand what they are saying. "If he understood what we said...we might be able to come to an arrangement with him. But as things are..." (1995). They refer to Gregory as "it" rather than by his name. "It has to go...it's the only way, father. You must just try to get out of the habit of thinking that it's Gregory" (1995). In this way, the reader finds out that the family has stopped acknowledging Gregory as their son. The family also treats Gregory like an animal by the way that they feed him. Gregory's sister would bring in scraps from the table that the family wouldn't eat to feed him. "She brought him a whole selection of things, all laid out on an old newspaper, to see what he liked. There were some old half rotten vegetables; the bones from supper, covered with congealed white sauce; some raisins and almonds; a piece of cheese...two days old; a slice of dry bread..." (1978). The family treated him like an animal, rather than their son who got sick and needed his family to look after him. | After the metamorphosis, however, it is his distinct features that alienate him. One example of the alienation is that his family locks him in his bedroom. Gregory is not allowed to be a part of the family. Gregory then has to make the adjustment from being a man in the working world and traveling everyday, to being a prisoner in his own bedroom (Hughes). Another way that Gregory's family alienates him is that when they talk about him, they openly talk about his features in front of him because they think that he cannot understand what they are saying. "If he understood what we said...we might be able to come to an arrangement with him. But as things are..." (1995). They refer to Gregory as "it" rather than by his name. "It has to go...it's the only way, father. You must just try to get out of the habit of thinking that it's Gregory" (1995). In this way, the reader finds out that the family has stopped acknowledging Gregory as their son. The family also treats Gregory like an animal by the way that they feed him. Gregory's sister would bring in scraps from the table that the family wouldn't eat to feed him. "She brought him a whole selection of things, all laid out on an old newspaper, to see what he liked. There were some old half rotten vegetables; the bones from supper, covered with congealed white sauce; some raisins and almonds; a piece of cheese...two days old; a slice of dry bread..." (1978). The family treated him like an animal, rather than their son who got sick and needed his family to look after him. | ||
===Guilt=== | |||
The theme of guilt is relevent to the story because it is a very powerful emotion. Gregory feels that it is his fault that he can't go out and work because of what has happened to him. Even though the metamorphosis wasn't his fault, he still blams himself (Altshuler). Gregory also feels guilty because his family can't move on, literally and mentally. The thing that kept his family from moving on was "their feeling of utter dispair and the idea that they had been struck by a misfortune exceeding anything ever experienced within their entire circle of friends and relations" (1989). Gregory blams himself for this because if this tragedy hadn't happened, his family wouldn't feel the need that they had to move. Gregory also has a guilty feeling because he wants to see his mother, but he knows that he cannot because her reaction to seeing him would not be a good one. When Meg and her mother were moving furniture out of Gregory's room, the mother saw him on the wall. Her reaction was "in a shrill, strident voice, 'Oh God, oh God!' and with arms outstretched as if giving up altogether fell back on the couch and lay still" (1985). Gregory knew that his mother would not take well to seeing him like that, but he stayed on the wall just the same, to protect a painting. | |||
===Novella=== | ===Novella=== | ||