Gregor hates his job as a traveling salesman. The work is hard; the traveling is hard; missing out on his family is hard. But he does the job to support his family. His father is retired. His mother is sickly. His sister is a talented violinist whom he hopes to send to university. Gregor is devoted to doing whatever it takes to support them, even though that means never taking a rest or having a day to himself.
One morning he wakes up to discover that his body has become that of an insect. He is a many legged thing with compound eyes, and no mouth. He's stuck on his back and can't even get up. But his main concern is that this will make him late for work! He may even have to take a day off. But he can't call in.
The Job
His condition is unforgivable. Despite his years of devotion to the service of the company his malady is untreatable. He looses his job within a day because he is unable to get out the door. He’s trapped in the room that he longed for during his travels. He is cursed, it seems, for longing for some rest. Now he has become the worst version of a man - one that can't work! He is a burden on his family - his worst nightmare.
Kafka begs the question here is sacrifice to a job you hate, a job that doesn’t care about you as a human being, even worth it? It’s a question I’ve asked myself. Even in these modern times. It’s easy to feel like a robot, like a cog in the wheel making some rich men richer while I can hardly afford the gas it takes to get to work. If you, dear gear in the machine, chip a tooth you should not expect to be fixed. You will be replaced with only the smallest amount of inconvenience.
Kafka worked a job he hated for fourteen years. He knew the anxiety of “the sick day”. Will I be replaced for inconveniencing the company? Will they realize that they don’t need me, never needed me? No matter how devoted a worker we are, you are replaceable. The machine does not return it’s loyalty. It doesn’t even send you a final pay check sometimes.
The Family
We endure this degradation to our self worth for our families. Kafka challenges the notion such sacrifice is necessary. Once Gregor was no longer able to support the family, the other members of his house learned to support themselves. When they didn’t need him anymore, no one bothered taking care of him. They were ashamed of poor Gregor and ignore him as a kindness.
With Gregor unable to work his parents finally see the usefulness in their daughter. She is attractive, young, and talented. She is in the spring of her fertility and can attract a husband. If she goes to university she might lore a new cog to replace the broken Gregor.
His family withdraws from the hideous insect that was once their son. They start to resent him. It turns out that he was holding them down with his poor income. They didn't like the apartment that he chosen for them; he was overshadowing his sister and micromanaging his parents. Without Gregor his father comes out of retirement and gets a better paying job. Even his mother moves around more freely.
Once it is established that they can do without him they beg Gregor to leave.
It's his sister, the only one to care for him even a little, who declares - after months of ignoring him - that if he really loved them then he’d go away and allow them to forget he ever existed.
This is how Gregor dies - of shame and loneliness. The family doesn’t even dispose of his body. They morn his loss by way of being relieved that he is gone. They move from the apartment. They dismiss anyone who saw him or knew of him before his change. They have learned to be more self-sufficient in his absence. Turns out that they didn't need him as much as he thought they did.
Is the love a man can expect from his family only measured in his usefulness to them? Is he just as replaceable a cog to his loved ones as he is to his job? This is an extreme example of how Kafka and I’m sure other men must feel. They are the bread winners, the warriors, the ones we expect to run out and shoulder the harshest elements of the world. We expect them to endure it, and we don’t think about if they enjoy it or not. It is their function. But when they get hurt, or sick and can no longer preform, do they become less in the eyes of society? To their family? Are they just as replaceable to their loved ones as they are to the workplace?
My Conclusion
The loss of a husband, or son is devastating to most families - even in these modern times when the wives and sisters can get paying jobs. Men are often still the important to their families even as women take turns being the heads of households.
However surrealism is rarely about reality. It’s emotion put to visual esthetic. Kafka does a masterful job of painting the emotion of uselessness. Of feeling like a husk, like a waist. Gregor’s worse fears are realized. Once he can no longer preform he is discarded, unloved by even his devoted sister. They don’t even bury him. His sister asking him to leave for the sake of love, knowing that he can’t even move, is what ultimately does him in. For the sake of love he fades away.
This is a powerful story from the perspective of hard working, self sacrificing men. The ones who are proud of how tired they are, and only complain about their pain in humor. Anyone who reads this should look to whatever hard working fella that they love and give him a big hug. Let him (or even her) know that they are irreplaceable.
Tell me about your hard working family in comments below! Do you agree with my analyis of the Kafka's Metamorphous? Suggest other titles that show the devotion of the hard working men in or lives!
