Be Happy, Live for Yourself!!!!!!

As said in class, Franz Kafka wrote this novel to portray the literal meaning of a metamorphosis. Rather than just using a metaphor to represent the insignificance of a bug's life, Kafka turned Gregor into an actual bug. Any person can judge another's life and conclude that he or she is living a meaningless life. But, the art of this novel gives the reader a perspective into the life of a bug and rather than just telling us what to think or what to feel, we, the reader, get to make our conclusions about Gregor and the life he is living. The purpose of this novel is not apparent at first, but I have come to get the understanding Kafka is making an example of what he has observed in his lifetime and what we should do to make our lives better.

Gregor is a man who works as a traveling salesman whose only job is to do his job no matter the circumstances. You would think with the as much commitment as Gregor put forth, he would get treated better than he did. One of the men from his company came to check on Gregor and find out his reason for not coming to work. It felt like the man came to catch Gregor and treated him as a culprit and not as a valued employee. Because Gregor is just another number in the company, his insignificance is exposed. Gregor's job may be Kafka's way of criticizing his society by pointing out the amount of importance which is set on a job and what many people get in return. Living life is sometimes not very apparent in everyone's life, which should be in order to be sane and not to become as insignificant as a bug, and in this case, Gregor.

Gregor's relationship with his family is not very good, according to our judgment. His only purpose is to provide the money for his family to continue living. Even after he dies and his family moves on, it seems as though they are happier. Gregor never really stood up for himself. He let himself become the person who everyone controls. When Gregor was turned into a bug, he became totally useless. Everyone had to do everything for him. The tides were turned and he was the one who needed help, yet his family feared him and in the end, did not help him out. For more than five years Gregor helped his family in any way possible despite his hopes and dreams, he had to work. I feel as though he did have dreams, and he is trying to live them through his sister, the violinist. Gregor tries and tries to be happy, but his insignificance as a bug continues to his death. Gregor lived a life that was not very pleasing to him, and would in no way possible be pleasing to me.

The Metamorphosis on the surface a very strange story, but when we dig a little deeper we can see Kafka’s art of portraying his life observations and showing us what we can do to not become a man like Gregor. We need to make our life more than just a job. We need to live and live for ourselves, rather than always trying to please everyone else.

(565)

Life of Expectation

Ivan Ilyich made a good living in being a judge. He was well known for doing his job by the book, and doing his job very well. The separation of his professional and personal life was completely of no influence to one another. Ivan’s personal life, which is predominately his relationship with his wife Praskoyva, begins to become his nightmare. His life with his wife is not based on love; we all know what marriage without love transpires to, just as in The Pride and the Prejudice and Love in the Time of Cholera, many days of hate and anger. Prior to Ivan’s move to Petersburg it seemed as though Ivan was making all the right decisions, but they were not his decisions, really.

At an early age Ivan began his journey in law. From that point forward he looked up to his idols and other men in power for his doings and what he believes is correct. When he first became someone of importance, he made decisions that seemed immoral and just wrong, but as he looked to his idols and saw that they were doing the same, he grew to live with those decisions. Because he was capable of not showing his emotions in his professional life, he was good at his job. Everything in his professional career were based primarily on what others thought of him and not based on his own thought and mind. I believe you, Mr. Coon, nailed it on the head when he was just doing what is expected of him, just as we, your students, are expected to go to school, take AP’s and finally go to college. Ivan Ilyich did what was expected, not what he believed. Ivan’s motives are what people think of him, and what other people expect him to do.

Ivan’s Personal life was also based only on what other people believed he should do. He married Praskoyva because his friends and other people said they look good together, and he had a job that made the marriage of them seem to be the next chapter in his life. He was not in love with her, although she loved him, he still married her. As we see in the later part of his life we see the misery he is in. He does not want to be with her anymore. Even though he lives out his life with her, he never does confront his feelings. Maybe because he likes his simple life, he wanted to keep it simple to make it seem as though his life was the picture perfect thing he thought of. A wife, job, kids, and the house he thinks are what he imagined he would like to live to be considered successful. His life was once again based on his expected outcome to be.

Ivan Ilyich did not live a life of his own. He was trapped with a disease, not the one that killed him, but the one that stayed with up until his deathbed. His disease consisted of a life of expectation and not a life of his own. Finally at the end of his life, he realized what his life was made of. The sadness of I feel for someone who has spent their entire life trying to please everyone, but never really living. (555)