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The Metamorphosis

Straus comments that he is the victim because now he depends completely on other people. Even though the family have to tolerate having a giant insect in their house, they benefit before and after this happened. Gregor was their "slave". He had to work in a job he did not like because he was the only source of income in his family. So, even when they suffer a little when he transforms into a vermin, his family seemed to have a happy life after Gregor dies. Gregor also victimizes himself when he stops caring about everything and just lets the days go by without doing anything about his situation. He stops caring about his family and his life and succumbs himself in an abyss of carelessness and suffering. .
             The other author that discusses the issue of victimization in Kafka's Metamorphosis is Walter H. Sokel. He also believes that Gregor Samsa is considered the victim in the story. The term he uses to describe Gregor as a victim is "self-alienation". Sokel suggests that Gregor is victim of alienation because he can no longer possess his own independence to do what he wants. Instead, just like Straus stated, he is imposed a job that he does not like in order to pay a family debt. But, since Gregor's transformation "the family's proletarization reaches its nadir" (Sokel p.112) because Gregor can no longer work and they still have a debt to pay. That is why they have to rent a room of their house and Grete and her mother have to go to work. Sokel uses this explanation to assert that even though Gregor family's guilt of letting Gregor die, they enjoy it in the long run because good things came with his death. Therefore, "the scapegoat who embodies their conscience makes them free of it" (Sokel p.116). Sokel wants to say that the families" own guilt makes them free of guiltiness because of Gregor's death. This means that their guilt fades away with Gregor's death; they forget about it.
             Eric Santner also discusses the issue of Gregor being a victim in his analysis on The Metamorphosis.


Essays Related to The Metamorphosis

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2. Metamorphosis

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4. Metamorphosis

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6. Gregor in The Metamorphosis

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