Gregors Obsession with Money Exposed in Franz Kafkas...

Gregors Obsession with Money Exposed in Franz Kafkas Metamorphosis In his story The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka gives us the story of Gregor Samsa, a young man who wakes up one morning to find himself transformed into an insect-like creature. Gregor, however, remains strangely indifferent to his plight, in a manner that seems inhuman to most readers. This is not due to a lack of omniscience on the narrators part that causes the indifference to go unmentioned, and neither is it due to inobservance on the part of Gregor to the point of not noticing that he has been changed into an insect. Rather, Gregor does not pay much attention to his new form as an insect because his life as a human lacked many ordinary human characteristics. In†¦show more content†¦Perhaps it is no shock to him. From what we see, Gregor clearly perceives money as the root of all happiness; this explains his dedication to his job. As he looks back on his past life as a human, his one source of pride appears to be that he is the sole breadwinner for his family: ...he felt very proud that he had been able to provide such a life in so nice an apartment for his parents and his sister. But what now if all the peace, the comfort, the contentment were to come to a horrible end? (22). He does not seem to have had close emotional relationships with members of his family; the only emotional ties we see are with his sister, and these are largely possessive - for example, Gregors secret plan to send her to the Conservatory (27). Insects spend most of their time procuring food; Gregor, in human form, devoted his life to earning money, the human equivalent of food. Gregor also lacks emotional experiences even in insect form. We see this as he begins to tell his manager that he will be going to work: Well, said Gregor - and he was thoroughly aware of being the only one who had kept calm - Ill get dressed right away, pack up my samples, and go (15). Being the only one who knows of the full extent of his plight - the others, at this point, still believe that he is merely ill and fatigued - he should, logically, be the least calm of all the characters. The only plausible explanation for this is that he lacks human