Why Gregor’s Family Sucks

    I honestly just need to rant about how much I despise Gregor’s entire family.  They are the most self-absorbed, thoughtless, and disgusting people.  I’m pretty sure I was more heartbroken about Gregor’s death than they were (because that was really sad!).  I probably hate the dad the most, despite what Nabokov thought about Grete. 

    What I wrote about in class today was that Gregor, ironically, seems to be more human than the rest of his poor excuse for a family.  Yeah, he’s a giant bug, but so what?  He’s the only one who actually cares about someone other than himself.  Even when he’s been turned into an INSECT, what he truly cares about is his family.  About this job that he loathes, but continues to keep because of his dad’s mistakes.  About sending Grete to music school, even though (judging by the reactions of the three tenants) she’s perhaps not the most musically talented person ever to live.  And what does his family care about?  Money.  That’s it.  Not Gregor, the one who has been supporting them for the past FIVE YEARS while they literally SIT AROUND and eat breakfast for an absurdly long period of time.  And yet Gregor loves them so much that he doesn’t even resent them.  Sure, he doesn’t like the job, but it doesn’t even occur to him that he could (if he chose) leave the family and strike out on his own.  He’d probably be a lot happier, but does he do that?  No.  He’s prepared to give away his life for these people who don’t even care about him.

    Now, the dad.  Man, I just hate that guy.  He is so selfish.  He wants to walk around and act like he’s so great when really all he’s great at is eating his breakfast that he probably didn’t even help prepare.  Oh, and plunging the family into a massive financial crisis—yeah, he’s apparently pretty good at that, too.  He just uses Gregor and doesn't even care!  What makes me so mad isn’t that they’ve asked Gregor to work this job that he hates, but they aren’t even grateful.  They aren’t even ashamed, which they should be, because the dad has been concealing the truth from Gregor about the money he’s saved up.  And what’s Gregor’s reaction to this betrayal?  Happiness and gratitude that his family has at least something to survive on.  So that’s why I hate the dad—he’s basically a giant, entitled brat, and I wish he was the one who had turned into an insect so I could step on him.

    Next up is the mom.  She…really just doesn’t care about Gregor.  “Oh, Gregor are you sick?  Well, you’ve missed your train!  Is some guy degradingly knocking on our door demanding where you are?  Better suck up to him instead of actually worrying about my son!  Have you turned into a giant bug?  That’s great, because now I don’t have to pretend to care about you anymore.”  She won’t even look at Gregor!  Okay, I understand it might be painful to have your son turned into a bug, but did she ever consider Gregor’s feelings?  No, of course not.  Furthermore, she just goes along with the dad’s plans to use his children, and even wife, for his own profit.  Gregor has to work.  Grete has to get married.  Mrs. Samsa has to serve food to some random bearded guys.  All while the dad dozes off in the armchair.  Even when she begs her husband not to kill Gregor, that’s not really for Gregor’s sake; it’s for hers.

    And finally, Grete.  Oh, Grete.  I really liked you in the beginning, but it turns out that you’re almost as bad as your parents.  I think Grete really does care for Gregor in some ways, but ultimately she just doesn’t care enough.  I mean, she does serve him food; but then she stops caring that he’s starving.  And she obviously notices, because she points out (at the end) that he has barely touched his food for months.  She hardly looks at Gregor.  She does clean his room, but (as we said in class), that’s more for her benefit than his—so she can feel like she has some element of control.  And she doesn’t even cry in the end when Gregor dies!  Even though she helped bring about his demise!

    It just makes me so sad that even at the end, Gregor dies for his family, despite their gross maltreatment of him.  Now I can add Gregor to the long list of book (/short story) characters who deserved better.