In this post, I wanted to explore how far bug metaphors could get me in terms of meaningful interpretation of The Metamorphosis. I'm beginning to think that the answer to this question is 'not very far', or, at least, 'nowhere particularly coherent'. But, I'll give it a shot.
We've been over Gregor's pre-transformation bugginess in class; how Gregor works constantly and has a completely selfless relationship with his family like a worker ant or bee. So, here, I'd like to explore the implications of his metamorphosis and subsequent life as bug-like processes.
The word "metamorphosis", in the insect world, is used to refer to a transformation from a larval form to an adult form. (I tend to think 'butterflies'.)This would sort of seem to suggest that Gregor's human life was his juvenile stage and that his bug-self was his mature form. I think this sounds kind of strange, because Gregor's transformation seems to be a step backwards, whereas for humans, adulthood is the longest and most productive stage of life. We grow and progress into our adult forms; they're the goal that childhood tries to achieve. However, adulthood is different for most bugs, so the comparison works a little more from an insect's perspective. Insects often live for much longer in their larval stages than they do as adults. Cicadas live for more than ten years underground before emerging to live for a single summer as reproductively mature creatures. Adult mayflies last even less long: on the order of 24 hours. They don't even have working mouthparts (which seems to be somewhat the case for Gregor as well). For many insects, living for one's self is done before the metamorphosis, and adulthood is all about the next generation; about reproduction; about he welfare of the family.
Viewed this way, I think the comparison actually makes some sense. Post-transformation, Gregor does seem to be indirectly fostering some development in his family members. After being forced to work, his father and sister get stronger (his mother often deviates from the patterns they follow; not quite sure what to make of her), and though the brunt of Gregor's work is done, his genes persist and develop, just like those of a bug that has successfully reproduced. I would say that the strongest analogy to an insect-like fatherhood lies in Gregor's relationship to his sister, who really matures and becomes ready to leave Gregor, particularly by the very end. In a very insectoid manner, Gregor dies when his sister has grown independent and he has been evolutionarily obviated. (Humans don't die immediately after their offspring become independent, but insects typically do).
This affords a slightly more positive outlook on Gregor's situation (maybe sorta?). From a bug's perspective, even though Gregor's family has driven him to a miserable life and shameful death, he succeeds in their persistence. And, it seems to me, that usually (maybe due to its association with the butterfly's transformation from a squishy green food-bag into something visually pleasing), the word "metamorphosis" has somewhat positive connotations. So that sorta fits in with my dubious little theory of subtle positivism.
In all honesty, I doubt that I should be crediting Kafka with this much entomological knowledge or this sort of careful analysis of insectly terms. He did, after all, suggest that cockroaches have nostrils. Which they don't. They breath through their sides. So, Gregor's death should have been described more like, "Then without willing it, his head sank all
the way down, and from his abdominal and thorasic spiracles, flowed weakly
out his last breath."
Haha Kafka should have written Gregor's death that way! It is really interesting how the biological aspect of parent/offspring roles is so similar to the deterioration/blossoming role Gregor and his sister play. When Gregor is dying and thinks in love and tenderness for his family, who essentially just killed him, I cannot help but to think of a female black widow spider eating her husband after they reproduce and what his thoughts would be as he is consumed!
ReplyDeleteVery funny blog post!! You made some interesting points, too. An interesting comparison one could make between bug biology and The Metamorphosis is the relationship between Gregor and Grete, as you talked about in this post. With Gregor's death, Kafka uses the terms 'blossoming' to describe Grete's health and reproductive abilities, as if they are a direct correlation with Gregor's death. Kafka also puts heavy emphasis on Grete now being of marrying age, and her parents are looking into her finding a husband and subsequently producing offspring, almost as if trying to signify to us that there is something 'buggy' in the nature of Gregor and Grete's relationship, as if Gregor's death somehow caused Grete to mature into adulthood.
ReplyDeleteYeah, the mention of Gregor's "nostrils" always seemed wrong somehow. It maybe is the one example of a kind of anthropomorphizing of insect-Gregor--not a hat or a bowtie, but nostrils to give him the faint appearance of humanity. (Also, makes for a neater death image than air escaping from his sides, however entymologically apt that would be.)
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