Term Paper on "Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis"

Term Paper 4 pages (1663 words) Sources: 1+

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Kafka's Metamorphosis

The Significance of Food in Kafka's "Metamorphosis"

Over the course of Franz Kafka's short story "The Metamorphosis" the central protagonist Gregor Samsa slowly gives up all of the characteristics that the reader might consider human, like his job, his ability to move on two feet, and also his customary appetite for his favorite foods, after he suddenly finds himself transformed into a gigantic cockroach. The story begins with the famous line: "One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that in bed he had been changed into a monstrous verminous bug." One of the most symbolically important aspects of this sudden abnegation of all human characteristics is found in Gregor's changed relationship with food. Food provides a metaphor for Gregor's relationship with his body, his environment, and most importantly of all, his emotional and social relationship with his family.

At first, after his transformation, when Gregor is attempting to hold onto some sense of normalcy and trying to get ready for work, he feels hungry in a way that seems normal, even healthy. "Gregor in fact felt quite well and even had a really strong appetite...he wanted to stand up quietly and undisturbed, get dressed, above all have breakfast." This strength of appetite, Kafka ominously implies, might actually be an unaccustomed animal-like hunger. Then, Gregor forgets his strong sense of hunger for some time. He is worried that his supervisor at work will fire him if he cannot arrive at his job with his customary punctuality. He is concerned he will not be able to support his family because cannot arise from his bed. His father, the reader learns later in the story, has grown fat with Gregor's labor, as Gregor alone is engaging in paid labor.

The daily rituals and rhythms of Gregor's life, pleasant and unpleasant, are taken away from him because of his physical transformation. Even his dearest family members cannot interpret his words. His movements are inhibited because of his transformation. He is reduced to scuttling around his room. His ability to survive in a basic, physical way is limited, including his ability to find food. Only his sister, who feeds him, is able to understand him on some level, when he accepts and rejects what she provides for him. "But he never could have guessed what his sister out of the goodness of her heart in fact did. She brought him, to test his taste, an entire selection, all spread out on an old newspaper. There were old half-rotten vegetables, bones from the evening meal, covered with a white sauce which had almost solidified, some raisins and almonds, cheese which Gregor had declared inedible two days earlier, a slice of dry bread, and a slice of salted bread smeared with butter. In addition to all this, she put down a bowl -- probably designated once and for all as Gregor's -- into which she had poured some water. And out of her delicacy of feeling, since she knew that Gregor would not eat in front of her, she went away very quickly and even turned the key in the lock, so that Gregor would now observe that he could make himself as comfortable as he wished. Gregor's small limbs buzzed now that the time for eating had come." Gregor's sister's generosity is shown by her willingness to his fear of frightening her by the way he eats, as well as her attempt to see what are his new, favorite foods -- this form of communication is the only communication Gregor can enjoy.

Of course, it could be argued that Gregor's transformation into an insect is merely a metaphor what has been happening to Gregor over a long period of time in the context of his family. Did anyone ever really listen to Gregor, or try to emotionally connect with him, other than his sister? Gregor's manager is cruelly indifferent to his new condition. If Gregor does not come in on time, the manager does not care about Gregor's health. He is only concerned about Gregor's value to the office. Gregor's parents only care that their son is at work on time, because no one else besides Gregor (and the servants, physical laborers themselves) does paid work in the Samsa home. Gregor has been treated like a beast of burden by his loved ones fro a long period of time.

But at least, before, Gregor, when he was physically human was able to take some delight in the domestic routines surrounding food and mealtimes. However, now this is taken away from him. One of the first signs of this is how the Samsa breakfast has been upset. Regarding his mother, upon first sight of her transformed son: "When she reached the table, she sat down heavily on it, as if absent-mindedly, and did not appear to notice at all that next to her coffee was pouring out onto the carpet in a full stream from the large overturned container." This carelessness shows the woman's shock, but it also symbolizes how little concern she has shown for her son, whose work, after all, has made the existence of food on the table possible.

Even though he can no longer sit at a table, of course, poor Gregor the cockroach still needs to eat. Only Gregor's sister shows concern about her 'new' brother's need to eat: "By the door he first noticed what had really lured him there: it was the smell of something to eat. A bowl stood there, filled with sweetened milk, in which swam tiny pieces of white bread. He almost laughed with joy, for he now had a much greater hunger than in the morning, and he immediately dipped his head almost up to and over his eyes down into the milk. But he soon drew it back again in disappointment, not just because it was difficult for him to eat on account of his delicate left side -- he could eat only if his entire panting body worked in a coordinated way -- but also because the milk, which otherwise was his favorite drink and which his sister had certainly placed there for that reason, did not appeal to him at all. He turned away from the bowl almost with aversion and crept back into the middle of the room."

This passage is important in several regards. First of all, Gregor sustains his first (of many) injuries to his insect body in a way that harms his ability to eat, the most basic of all human functions. Also, his transformation means that he has altered, as well as the fact that other people's attitudes towards him have altered. His sister is afraid of him, although she tries to provide him with his old, favorite meal. And now his body rejects such favorite foods, because of his transformation. Food and normalcy, or even the comforting appearance of normalcy that existed in the Samsa home, is taken away from Gregor. Food was evidently one of the few, true human connections Gregor had with his family, as his sister tries to feeding her brother during this time of need. But he cannot even participate in the usual familial ritual, of consuming food.

The sister does understand her brother in ways others cannot. "Would she really notice that he had left the milk standing, not indeed from any lack of hunger, and would she bring in something else to eat more suitable for him?" Even though his body has changed, Gregor's old deference to his family's sensibilities remains: "He would sooner starve to death than call her attention to the fact," that he was hungry. Gregor has always loved his sister, as is evidenced by his support of her musical career, and he marvels at her generosity as she does… READ MORE

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