I like to describe this book with all my anonymous /lit/ brainiacts.
I love this board.
the book is okay, definitely not the best book I've ever read about a traveling salesman who transforms into a giant bug and gets apples chucked at him
Gregor was a dung beetle.
The cleaning lady called out for Gregor and called him a dung beetle. I'm thinking fermentation because the book was published in Germany translated to other languages.
>>7997621
By his own father.
The mother loves him by the sister doesn't althought she cleaned the room his was in for some time.
>>7997613
apples
>>7997623
The interesting part is that Kafka never described what he looked like as a beetle. One can thus interpret it as either he became a real bug or he just called himself one.
>>7997628
I think besides the psychological aspects of himself and his surroundings, is the change in the sisters attitudes one of the main plotlines. First love, then disgust and finally rejection. The end is also a clear indicator of that.Her transformation into a grown woman
>>7997748
>Her transformation into a grown woman
I haven't read the story in a while but this bit struck me as really weird. Why did Kafka emphasise Gregor's sister's change? Like how does it relate to the whole absurdist theme of the text?
>>7997748
He did describe him sometimes, though, for example when the narrator said Gregor was lying on his shell-like back.
>>7997910
I think >>7997748 meant Kafka was vague in his description. You're right, he did describe Gregor at times but he was never specific (especially to the point of naming a species of insect). In the intro, written by someone else (forget who), it was mentioned that Kafka specifically told at least one publisher NOT to put a picture of Gregor in bug form on the cover.
>>7997891
One possibility is (self-)debasement -
before the transformation, it is hinted that the family depended financially on the main character's work. Not only does he turn into a disgusting bug, his transformation also gives his family the chance to become independent and to grow up, he was holding everybody back.
>>7997947
Ahh yeah I see. I remember his Dad really picked himself up after Gregor's transformation. I have to read the story again soon, there's so much packed into such a short text.
Reading Kafka's stories and letters you really just wish you were there to give him a big hug and tell him everything was okay :(
>>7997947
Nah, they didn't need Gregor all along and were just using him to live a comfortable life. His sister was the only one that genuinely loved him and even she stopped caring when he started being useless. Kafka's work is just a brilliant passive-agressive fuck you to all of his family and friends.
One thing I didn't understand about this book:
Why didn't Gregor just write on the wall or the floor with his jaws that he can understand human language?
>>7998249
Fucking this. I was thinking the entire time "WRITING DESK! YOU CAN WRITE WITH YOUR JAWS!"
>>7997891
I thought the entire metamorphosis was less about Gregor and more about Grete's metamorphosis from a soft weak girl into a strong, full figured, confident woman.
>>7997628
No one loved him.
It was pity.
At the end everyone went to be happy because the burden of such abomination was finally gone.
Also, The Trial is way better
>>7998290
He had control over his jaw and used it to open the door. He is also described directly in the text as gaining almost complete control over his new body.
>>7997613
Terrible fucking cover.
The book is great, both hilarious and sad.
>>7998295
I thought the story described him as having trouble opening the door and having to move most (all?) of his body in order to complete the task?
Every NEET should read it
>>7997613
I just read it and I am struggling to understand what does the "moving out of apartment" part of ending does signify. Does it mean that, despite what was said before Gregor's death, his family had at least some sort of dignity for Gregor, since not only they have shed some tears in front of Gregor's corpse, but only after his death could allow themselves to move out of apartment that Gregor worked hard to buy, or did it mean that they were almost completely selfish and were delighted by Gregor's death?
The reason why I am confused is because earlier in the book, in second part, Gregor heard his family talking about how they wished to move out their apartment, but Gregor would not allow them to do so, to what Gregor thought that they did this not out of incapacity, but out of respect to the fact that this was an apartment that Gregor bought, since he could have easily been transported in some sort of a box or something. So. was Gregor delusional, or not? Did his family literally did not think that moving out of the flat was possible? I mean, throughout the book we see a lot of clear examples of how Gregor's perception of how he is seen by the family comes in contraction to how the family actually thinks about him - was it yet another example of that? Any thoughts?
>>7999518
The moving out of the apartment is the moving on part of that story.
Remember when the father said as why where writing the papers that "this should be let go" meaning we should move on the worst has happened an we survived. And that's when they noticed that the daughter has been independent and able to do what that stuff on her own. Her body " blossom " into a women's body and they should go seek out a " man for her" .
>>7998290
He was able to talk to the parents and the clerk keeper in the other room. He was able to climb walls with the sticky stuff under the balls of his feet.
>>7999946
I see.
>>7998249
Because he felt like a burden to the whole family and useless.
I also feel that he could have just left the family and live a new life. Why would you stay behind where all your family wants to forget that you excite.
I'd rum free with the other dung beetles in germany.
>>7998460
Yeah well he had a firm grip on it and he needed to use his entire body but twisting a door knob and holding a pen are two different things. Try opening a door knob with your mouth, then try holding a pen in your mouth. Two completely different actions. Even if the action of holding the pen and writing with it while in the mouth was difficult, he would only need to write a simple two letter or three letter word.
also, how big was he? At times he could 'rest on the picture frame' but also manage to open a door?
>>8000164
I thought he clung to the wall around the picture frame.
>>7997613
>book
>>7997613
The op post is cute. CUTE!!
