Both Lonely and Alone

This past week in class we began reading The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. This story is about a man named Gregor who is used to his daily routine of getting up and going to work in order. He is essentially the family mule, as he works to pay off his parents' debts even though he hates his job. One day he wakes up and realizes he has transformed into a giant bug, but is more worried about little irrelevant details rather than the fact he has gone from a human being to an insect. "Once I've got the money to pay off my parents' debt to him--that should take another five or six years--I'll do it for sure. Then I'll make the big break. In any case, right now I have to get up. My train leaves at five o'clock" (Kafka, The Metamorphosis). Gregor never specifically complains about his duty he takes on of repaying his parents' debts because he is a selfless person. However, it doesn't affect him too much because he is a very lonely and alone person. "...hung the picture which he had cut out of an illustrated magazine a little while ago and set in a pretty gilt frame. It was a picture of a woman with a fur hat and a fur boa" (Kafka, The Metamorphosis). Here is yet another showing of Gregor's unmistakable loneliness; where normal people would have taken out the sample image in a frame and replaced it with a photograph of a loved one, Gregor kept the sample image of a woman in there. This means he feels disconnected from everybody, including his family even though he lives with them.

His metamorphosis into a bug did not seem to phase Gregor by the slightest bit. His main worries were how he was going to have to complete his tasks in a bodily form he could barely control. "'Why don't I keep sleeping for a while and forget all this foolishness'" (Kafka, The Metamorphosis). The entire first page of the story, Gregor realizes very clearly he has been transformed into a bug, but he does not have a panic attack or mental breakdown like you would think. Instead, he runs through his mind how exactly he is going to fulfill his duties and work for his family and job while in this state of being. "Gregor had no intention of opening the door, but congratulated himself on his precaution, acquired from traveling, of locking all doors during the night, even at home" (Kafka, The Metamorphosis). Literally speaking, Gregor is isolated from the world and his family in that he has a habit of locking the door. Metaphorically speaking, Gregor shuts out the world by doing so, creating this dull, robotic, lonely bubble he lives in.