This is probably totally inaccurate and basically wild speculation but some of our recent discussions caused me to recall some of the readings we did of Marx in philosophy last year. Marx predicted generational conflicts due to constantly changing technology, and that these technological changes would cause what it means to be human to be very different for each generation. While some of us would disagree and would like to hold human nature to be some higher unchanging thing that is not incrementally changed by technology it is hard to deny that we do not function very differently from our previous generations. We function so differently that to them we might be seen as totally alien.
The way this relates to the Metamorphosis is in the way that Gregor becomes happy and gains pleasure the less like a human he behaves. He is becoming something entirely different and unrecognizable to the people around him, to the point that they no longer even view him as human. It is possible that just like Marx predicts what it means to be human in the modern working environment has changed Gregor so that the family, and I think Kafka himself, find him repugnant and do not recognize this new type of human. The more Gregor tries to define himself by his old humanity and cling to his previous self identity the more pain he causes himself. But when he embraces his new nature he enjoys some of the new activities he is able to do. He has simply become something totally different from what it has previously meant to be human and should embrace his new existence.
This doesn't hold up throughout the entire novel, as his parent and sibling do not experience similar transformations once they begin working. And I think certainly Kafka was unhappy with the existence of the modern worker and did not want to portray it as something that was only unworthy because modern workers kept expecting to be a definition of human that didn't make sense in the modern world. That said to some extent I think Marx's ideas about how the nature of humanity changes with it's environment are represented here in the way the modern working environment transforms Gregor.
2 comments:
The father and sister *do* "transform" after entering the workforce, but maybe not (yet) in such a clearly "alienated" direction as Gregor. The father seems to double in size, for example, and in general the family is no longer so willing to "take Gregor's crap" (which isn't quite fair, but that's how they view it). But the ambiguity surrounding the father persists--in his uniform, he's both authoritative *and* pathetic and servile (he's a *messenger*; his uniform is dirty and rumpled; he insists on wearing it around the house).
Post rush!
I feel like Gregor's joy when he acts less human works pretty well as an "id over ego leads to fulfillment and freedom from repression" type of thing.
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