Gregor's Selflessness in The Metamorphosis Essay Example

“If you work without love, you are working like a slave.”-Rajneesh. In the novella, The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, Gregor’s entire adult life has been dedicated to his selfless work for his family. He is the sole provider for them and is responsible for paying their massive debt caused by his father, a burden that has completely taken over his life. By the time the book begins Gregor is completely trapped in his work life, with no escape or ways out. We see Gregor Samsa as a selfless man devoted to work, which shows a prominent loss of spiritual nourishment. Kafka is commenting on the social notion that if we are stuck in a job that doesn’t provide us with fulfillment, we experience a loss of identity

Gregor’s responsibility to provide for his family has led him to become stuck thinking about work without thinking about himself. With Gregor’s job as a traveling salesman, he was constantly on the road for hours at a time, with limited time for having fun or enjoying himself. Because of Gregor’s role as the sole provider for the family, he could not take any risks in taking a day off or coming late. While Gregor is trapped in his transformed state, he is late to work due to his inability to get out of bed. This inability causes Gregor to turn to desperation for, “He could not possibly remain lying here” and, “the most sensible thing would be to sacrifice anything and everything as long as there remained even the slightest hope of liberating himself from the bed”(29). This shows Gregor’s extreme selflessness through the willingness to risk everything just for the tiniest bit of hope of getting out of bed. This extreme mindset proves that he only cares for work, not his health and prosperity. Gregor’s attitude is the cause of the large amount of stress and limitation that has been put on him because of work. Later on, we see Gregor going even further while he was opening his door by “paying no heed to the fact that he was no doubt injuring himself in the process”(32).  Gregor is badly injuring himself just to get out of bed in the morning. He pays no attention to his painful injuries and pushes through the pain to open the door. Gregor would not accept the fact that he couldn’t go to work, because it would have potentially put his job in danger, so he decided that his work was more important than his well-being, showing how he is willing to always put his family before himself. When Gregor’s manager knows that Gregor is late to work,  he comes to see if everything is alright. While they are waiting for Gregor to get out of his bed and come to work his mother advocates for him by telling the manager “The office is the only thing that boy ever thinks of. It really bothers me that he never goes out in the evening”(34). Here we see Gregor’s true dedication to his work and his family. Usually, mothers want their child to be hardworking and focused on providing, but the extremity in his case has caused his mother to want him to be less hard working. His responsibility of working for his family has been so engraved into him that he has not gone and stopped to think about his desires. This shows how work has taken over his life, and because of this he doesn’t know what else to do, showing his loss of identity. Gregor doesn’t have any outlets or sources of pleasure to go to, causing him to become deprived of the pleasure that is necessary for him to stay true to himself. 

While in his transformed state, Gregor is stuck worrying about his family instead of himself who is in desperate need of attention and care. Because of the Samsas’ fear of Gregor, he is stuck in his room with minimal care provided. Even though most would be outraged by the fact that their family is horrified by them, Gregor still worries for his family’s sake instead of his, despite his critical injuries and malnourishment. During Gregor’s entrapment, his sister is given the task of taking care of Gregor, but she is not doing enough to keep him well, so Gregor believes, “by employing patience and the utmost consideration, assist his family in enduring the inconveniences his current state inevitably forced him to impose on them.”(56). Gregor decides that he is going to put himself to the side, and become patient and considerate because he believes that his family deserves the care, not himself. The notion that the providers of the family have the obligation to work a job they don’t enjoy, causes them to never think about themselves. Gregor only desires for his family to prosper, which we can clearly see in this instance. Later on, Gregor’s mother and sister decide that it would be best if they got rid of all of the unnecessary furniture and decorations in Gregor’s room. This is problematic, however, because Gregor feels as if these objects are the only things holding onto his humanity. Gregor decides that he wants these things to stay in his room, as he does not want to fully become a bug. When Gregor is planning how to do this, he says he needs to, “cautiously and as considerately as possible, intervene.”(76). Cautiously and considerately suggests that Gregor wants to make everything as easy as possible for his family, even though he is the one in a dire situation. He does not want to scare them or harm them at all, but he wants them to realize that he has an opinion too, which had been overshadowed during his time in his transformed state. Gregor is not like most others, the majority of people would react out of pure instinct trying to stop their humanity from being pulled away, but Gregor does it in a manner that puts his family first. This shows how much the sacrifices he made because of work had affected him. Gregor's hard work resulted in his selfless manner, believing that it is his obligation to do everything to support them. His work has turned him into a slave with no hope for escape or alternate path, his life has been completely devoted to working for the betterment of his family. 

Gregor’s fondness for Grete’s music during the lodger's stay is a representation of his spiritual malnourishment, seeing it as that the only thing in life he had was work. When the Lodgers are staying in the Samsas’ home in order to provide another source of cash flow, they hear Grete playing violin in her room and invite her to come out and play for them. As Gregor is listening to Grete play her violin, he slowly gets closer and closer to the living room. Even though, “Unlike Gregor, [Grete] dearly loved music”(63), Gregor was still in awe of his sister, going as far to say that, “his sister’s playing was so lovely”(101). This shows that Gregor had never really had a certain enjoyment for music whatsoever, but when he was trapped in his room with nothing to do with his life, he began to fall in love with her playing. This shows that Gregor is in desperate need of some sort of spiritual nourishment since he had been so deprived of it for a long time. This instant was the final culmination of all the years of no enjoyment in his life, work that had truly deprived him of his sense of self. We can see this moment pushing even further, as when Gregor is encapsulated in his sister’s playing, he imagines a scenario where “He would not allow her to leave his room ever again, at least as long as he was alive”(101). Gregor wanting his sister to stay with him for the rest of his life is an extremely strong way of showing his feelings towards his sister. Finally, we see an instance of Gregor thinking about himself but in a sociopathic manner. This is the exact opposite of how he had been for years for, “earlier on his considerateness had been a source of pride”(99). This outburst of feeling and desire to put himself before all his family members show how truly oppressed he had been for all those years working as a traveling salesman. This proves that if society sticks us with a job that we either don’t enjoy or don’t do for our benefit, we lose ourselves. 

Kafka's profound use of selflessness and lack of desire for enjoyment in Gregor’s character demonstrates a prime example of a workaholic. Kafka wants everyone to realize the true disparity of being in this position. When work becomes so important that one starts to sacrifice their mental health and well-being for it, the transformation of becoming a slave to society occurs. This is the transformation that Gregor goes through, as the bug is a physical representation of it. Kafka wants the reader to stray away from this transformation, through his grotesque and horrifying description of it. The solution to this transformation is to find purpose in work, to work a job that brings enjoyment and satisfaction to the employee. If there is no purpose in one's work, they are vulnerable to the transformation that encapsulates one into a life of work.