The Metamorphosis Response

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Kafka Metamorphosis: Reading Question 1 When one thinks of solitude, many different definitions can be applied to a seemingly simple word. Solitude is the act or instance of being alone in a physical and/or mental sense. Some think that to have solitude is to be content with one’s life; they believe that solitude is necessary in order to feel good about oneself. Others think that having solitude is to have angst and to be melancholic. I personally side with the latter opinion that solitude brings about angst and sadness to a person. In The Metamorphosis, Kafka illustrates threefold how solitude brings angst and sadness to Gregor. Gregor is left alone by his family as they move on with their lives, his family takes all his worldly possessions from him without consideration to him, and they began to be troubled and averse to being alone in the same house with him. Even before Gregor woke up to find himself transformed into an unsightly creature, Gregor had experienced large doses of solitude in his life. Gregor had little to no friends, and his job consumed all of his focus. His family commented on this from time to time but did not try to do anything about Gregor’s circumstance. After the metamorphosis things took a turn for the worse for Gregor. His mother could not stand the sight of him, his sister still loved him but treated him differently, and their maid was so shaken up that she quit immediately. His family took less and less interest in him each day, so Gregor began to think, “In this overworked and overtired family, who had time to be concerned about Gregor beyond what was absolutely necessary?” (Kafka, 40). Gregor’s family had all decided to go out and pursue jobs to make up for the lost income that Gregor could no longer supply them with. And so Gregor was forced to deal with the fact that has family, in a way,

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