And I thought Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels was a wildly over exaggerated way of highlighting and pin-pointing certain characteristics of what we call ‘human nature’ and civilization as a whole….But to use a dung beetle as a personification of the many different forms of degradation experienced by Gregor is magnificently brilliant. Kafka’s illustrious illustration of Gregor as the sole bread winner of the family after his father’s business went belly-up is shown rather vividly as it states, “They had simply grown accustomed to this, both the family and Gregor; they accepted the money gratefully…” (Kafka 2013). A great deal of dependence and co-dependence is depicted here as well as the wrong reasons for the promotional stature of Gregor’s occupational aspects. Yes, I would have to expound on the fact that Gregor seems to have been a very smart and hard working young man to have achieved so much so rapidly; his overnight like promotion from clerk to traveling salesman showed his diligence at work and the conscientiousness of supporting his family. Though Gregor’s earnings was all but given to the family’s cause the ripple effect of this and the stress that he was experiencing from living on the road as a traveling salesman had taken its toll on his physical and mental health. This adverse reaction is seen in Gregor’s expression:
“Oh, God,” he thought, “what a strenuous profession I’ve picked! Day in, day out on the road. It’s a lot more stressful than the work in the home office, and along with everything else I also have to put up with these agonies of traveling—worrying about making trains, having bad, irregular meals, meeting new people all the time, but never forming any lasting friendships that mellow into anything intimate. To hell with it all!” (Kafka 2000).
Gregor has had enough of swallowing the human bile of his job and probably just a little overwhelmed with his life and of the added pressures of his financial gratuities to his family obligations. Tired of rolling others dung.
No comments:
Post a Comment