To Feel Like a Member of a Family

667 Words3 Pages
Through this literary review, we will identify and analyze three key characters, two who accept through unconditional love and one who does not. Our analysis will show that those characters, who accept with unconditional love, create and enhance the family bond and the characters who don’t allow the family to be dissolved by events and die. Our analysis will reveal that to feel like a member of the family, an individual must receive unconditional love. Gregor Samsa, a traveling salesman, wakes up in his bed to find himself transformed into a large insect. He reflects on how dreary life as a traveling salesman is and how he would quit if his parents and sister did not depend so much on his income. Despite his complete physical transformation, Gregor changes very little as a character over the course of The Metamorphosis. Most notably, both as a man and as an insect Gregor patiently accepts the hardships he faces without complaint. When his father’s business failed, he readily accepted his new role as the money-earner in the family without question, even though it meant taking a job he disliked as a traveling salesman. Similarly, when he first realizes he has transformed into an insect, he does not complain about his condition, wonder about its cause, or attempt to rectify it in any way. Instead, he quickly accepts that he has become a bug and tries to go about his life as best he can in his new condition. Gregor made each member in his family, feel like a family by accepting their faults through unconditional love. Apart from Gregor, Grete is the only other character addressed by name in the story. This is important because it reflects her relative importance to the story and the author. Grete is also the only character to show pity for Gregor throughout the novel and consequently, she becomes Gregor’s primary caretaker. She brings him food, cleans his room,

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