Wednesday, January 25, 2012
St. Gregor
When I was reading Metamorphosis over the weekend, I found the part where Gregor wanted to send his sister to the music conservatory to be especially touching. I actually thought I might tear up for a second. I agree with everything that we said in class about Gregor being such martyr. I believe that Gregor has saint-like qualities. He is in no way selfish as a bug, and does not appear to have been selfish as a human either. His mother even said he worked tirelessly and never went out in the nighttime. It is ironic that he was the one to be turned into a roach when the rest of his family is more spineless and despicable than he. They only seem to care about money for themselves, but Gregor cares about money because he wants to support the family that he so loves.
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6 comments:
After watching the video in class today, I would like to add that I can grasp the similarities between Christ and Gregor. Also, I want to point out that I think that perhaps turning Gregor into an insect was a way of punishing the family rather than Gregor. Whereas Gregor seemed to look on the bright side of things, the family, who had been mooching off of him, had to shape up and get jobs after his transformation. Just a thought.
I definitly agree that Gregor has saint-like qualities. I think that the throwing of the apples is similiar to when people threw stones at Jesus. I think it makes sense that Gregor was the one turned into a bug because this forced the family to get out of their laziness and actually have to work like regular people.
I also found that Gregor was very Christ-like and displayed many qualities of a saint.
However, I googled Nabokov's lecture and he says, Before starting to talk of "The Metamorphosis,"I want to dismiss completely Max Brod's opinion that the category of sainthood, not that of literature, is the only one that can be applied to the understanding of Kafka's writings. Kafka was first of all an artist, and although it may be maintained that every artist is a manner of saint (I feel that very clearly myself), I do not think that any religious implications can be read into Kafka's genius."
I think that Gregor was definitely working for the best interest of his family. But just because it's literature doesn't mean everything relates back to Jesus. In fact, Kafka was Jewish and there are many more Jewish connections than Christian ones. Google says that in many of Kafka's other works there are almost direct references to Jewish mysticism and the Torah. We too often think any martyr-like person is automatically a reference to Jesus.
I agree, this story is kind of depressing. it seems nihilist to me because his life becomes pointless. and the fact that it's do exaggerated makes me think that even more. luckily this is not a true story
I agree with Meredith, I almost tested up in that part. Gregor is so sweet and such a martyr that he is willing to give up his life for his sister and families well being
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