I Would Be a Bit Shocked to Wake up and be a Bug

Gregor’s nonchalance towards him being an insect shows a lot about the character. In the first part of The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka’s use of indirect characterization is abundant and useful to understanding the protagonist. “What about sleeping a little longer and forgetting all this nonsense…” (54). If I woke up as a bug I would either be nonplused to the extent where I wouldn’t move for days or I would go crazy and end up destroying my house through my antics. I wouldn’t be okay to have a bit longer of a nap. I would be disgusted with myself. How can you not be shocked to wake up as a bug!? It would be crazy. I don’t think I would like it very much either. Anyway, Gregor does not have his priorities right but it is not like he is some lazy guy. Rather, we see what is really on his mind a few pages later. When the chief clerk comes in to see why Gregor has not come into work, he tries to placate him and mentally thinks that he will be able to make the 8 o’clock train to work. Why!! No one in their right mind would be thinking about going to a job as mundane as Gregor’s when they are in the body of an insect. “Gregor realized that the chief clerk must on no account be allowed to go away in this [negative] frame of mind in his position… Gregor had this foresight. The chief clerk must be detained, soothed, persuaded, and finally won over…” (68). Wow. Gregor is more intent on trying to get the chief clerk to like him than he is about getting better. He never even takes into account that he is ill and that he could go to the hospital right across his house to receive some sort of treatment. The thing that makes me feel even worse for Gregor is that the job he has is pretty much BS. He has to work at this company because his parents are indebted to the boss. Maybe if he was some artist introspecting and doing something he loved him wanting to work would have reason, but no. He works at a mundane job which he really has no liking for in order to help his under appreciative parents. In the devastating state the Gregor is in, the fact that he does not take a minute of the day to think “oh no poor me, my life sucks” is unacceptable. I’m not advocating for people to complain but someone in that situation deserves some self pity and it disturbs me that he cannot feel that. He does not live for himself and therefore cannot emotionally connect to himself. “The boy thinks nothing but his work… He just sits there quietly at the table reading a newspaper or looking through railroad timetables. The only amusement he gets is working with his jigsaw…” (60). Gregor has no freedom. Kafka’s indirect characterization of the protagonist shows his disgusting selflessness and his disregard for himself. Through portraying the metamorphosis with such indifference, the author shows how the main concern is Gregor’s life is not him. This is the nightmare of any existentialist. The movement advocates living for oneself and doing things because one feels that that is the right thing to do. Gregor will never experience that and it sucks. Rather, his own problems lie very low on the list of his priorities.