Partner Blog Post #32 Noah Gambee and Michael Harris

Ch. 1  "...but what was the value in knowing all these things without knowing the One, the Only thing, that which was important above all else, that was, indeed, the sole matter of importance?" (Hesse 6).

Ch. 2 "He waited with new thirst like a hunter at a chasm where the life cycle ends...where painless eternity begins," (Hesse 15).

Ch. 3 "With a secret smile, not unlike that of a healthy child he walked along, peacefully, quietly," (Hesse 27 ).

Ch. 4 "He looked around as if seeing the world for the first time. How beautiful it was, how colorful, how strange and mysterious!" (Hesse 35).

Gross BP #30 - 4/21/14

Gross

    The best way to learn a lesson is to experience it. If a small child touches a hot stove in neglect of 

his mother's warning, he will quickly learn never to do it again. Sometimes it takes more than a verbal warning to make something stick in a human's brain. In Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis, Gregor Samsa never quite understands this. The Metamorphosis is a story of a traveling salesman who awakes one morning to find that he has transformed into a bug-like creature. Samsa is immediately outcast and mistreated in wake of his condition and must deal with constant tormenting and oppression until his inevitable yet anti-climatic death. Although Gregor Samsa never learns his, many lessons are exemplified in Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis. 

    

     One tool that Kafka uses to teach a lesson is modernism. Kafka uses Samsa's story to bring the alienation and oppression that became a large part of the modernist society to light. "But how can it be Gregor? If it were Gregor he would have long ago realized that a communal life among human beings is not possible with such a creature..." (Kafka 24). This quote from Gregor's sister Grete shows just how his family is viewing him. They see Samsa as something not worthy to live among them in society, so they oppress him. Kafka uses this theme to prove the people of the real modernist society that the alienation they show is a real problem. In David Foster Wallace's Laughing with Kafka he describes how Kafka's humor is very hard to explain yet incredibly impactful."...consider what is really being expressed when we refer to someone as 'creepy' or 'gross'..." (Wallace 2). Gregor Samsa is relentlessly described or called these things in The Metamorphosis without any remorse. Oppression does not have to be the driving out of a person or peoples, it can be as simple as verbally abusing someone because we think they are "gross." Only once does Kafka seem to prelude to Samsa's coming segregation. "The dreary weather—the rain drops were falling audibly down on the metal window ledge— made him quite melancholy." (Kafka 2). The rain fall and cloudy skies makes his visibility very limited. The overcast skies and heavy rain symbolize the "overcasting" treatment he is soon to receive. Kafka recognized in the early 1920's that society was not moving in a direction of peace and tranquiltiy but rather a movement towards alienation and oppression. He uses Gregor Samsa and The Metamorphosis to explain this modernist concept and warn the people of the era.

    Existentialism is another common theme in The Metamorphosis that Kafka uses to provide lessons of morals and ethics. Although existentialism has no common definition, it is usually agreed that it has to do with the primal human instinct of searching for meaning. Even from the beginning of the story, Samsa never seems to understand his real meaning and doesn't mention anything that he truly enjoys. “What a demanding job I’ve chosen! Day in, day out, on the road. The stresses of selling are much greater than the actual work going on at head office... To hell with it all!” (Kafka 1). Even after all of this complaining, Samsa never questions his choices; he simply describes why they are so poor. Most people would try and find meaning to all this nonsense, yet Gregor simply moves on. Samsa's motives for working are revealed later, however they are far from selfish and will never help him figure out his own life. Rather than searching for the meaning or goal of his life, Gregor focuses only on helping others. In many ways, this is a better way to search for life's meaning than by doing selfish deeds. intensely. "I am really so indebted to Mr. Chief—you know that perfectly well. On the other hand, I am concerned about my parents and my sister," (Kafka 7). Kafka uses this idea to explain the idea that helping others and being selfless is the best way to find yourself. Finding oneself can also be done ignorantly or with menace. "You can ask them to imagine his art as a kind of door, that we approach and pound on this door, seeking admission desperate to enter, we pound and pound…finally, the door opens...and it opens outward: we've been inside what we wanted all along." (Wallace 3). Unfortunately, people like Samsa's father do pound on the door to Gregor's heart, however not to get inside and heal it. Mr. Samsa tries to find his own meaning by stripping away Gregor's. A theme commonly known as vampirism. 

     Eating is a part of life often overlooked and taken for granted. The acts of eating things and eating together are described in Thomas C. Foster's How to Read Literature Like a Professor - Nice to Eat With You: Acts of Communion and Nice to Eat You: Acts of Vampires. Vampires are famous for physically sucking the life out of victims; but what about every day vampires? Gregor Samsa's father was just that; a (sort of) everyday vampire. "But it's (vampirism) also about things other than literal vampires: selfishness, exploitation, a refusal to respect the autonomy of other people, just for starters," (Foster 7 or 16). Mr. Samsa is the personification of all of these traits. He forces Gregor to stay away from the family and publicly embarrasses him. Through the process of all this, Mr. Samsa seems to grow stronger. "But now he (Mr. Samsa) was standing up really straight," (Kafka 17). Samsa's father grew stronger from Gregor's weakness. The more he tormented his son, the stronger and more confident he became. Kafka understood that vampirism does not only exist in fiction but stands out in everyday life; as well as to be aware or perhaps beware of it. The act of communion also is very apparent in The Metamorphosis. Communion is not only the religious act, but can also be when people gather to eat and what that symbolizes. Samsa's death not only came from the apple lodged in his back but also starvation of some form. After Gregor's transformation, he was no longer able to eat with the family. This separation from the major form of gathering in human life could have only made Gregor weaker. "He does this for a very simple, very profound reason; we need to be part of that communion," (Foster 4 or 16). Foster describes communion as something we need. Usually when people describe necessity, eating with other people is not a common choice. Kafka uses Samsa's absence and breakdown from this imperative part of human culture to explain the lesson of communion and its significance in life.

    In conclusion, Franz Kafka uses The Metamorphosis to give lessons of life and death, communion and vampirisim, and the meanings of our perceivable lives. The world today is swamped with lessons that are shoved down the throats of the youth; Kafka makes it easier to decipher these empty opinions and choose the ones that will really make a difference. Unfortunately, Gregor Samsa was unable to learn the lessons necessary to avoid the outcome he faced after being transformed into an insect. He was the victim of vampires and was pushed out of communion. Just as the small child who burned his hand won't touch the hot stove again, readers of Kafka's works will have a much better chance of mental stability and happiness than those who ignore Kafka's lessons. Lessons, however, that could just as easily be interpreted as warnings.

    

   

     

      

 

 

Waiter, My Food is Cold BP 4-14-14

      Thomas C. Foster's writings on eating are incredibly thought-provoking. Although essays on eating do not seem very intellectual, they are much deeper than it may sound. The first part of the writing, Nice to Eat With You: Acts of Communion, explains how humans have used meals and communal food gatherings to a very high level of importance for thousands of years. One thing that came to my mind when reading this was the idea that relationships are the things most commonly discussed and/or changed during these meals. Meals with people who all have good relationships with each other tend to be much more fun and at ease, (think of lunch with your friends at school). While meals within groups of weak relationships are much more "cold," and often seem more formal, (family meals while members of the family may be in an argument). "If a well-run meal or snack portends for good things and community and understanding, then the failed meal stands as a bad sign," (Foster 3). Similar to this, think about how a poor meal at a restaurant instantly can turn the happiest person into an angry monster. Another very applicable example of Foster's ideas is during times of death and grief. "So we notice... that in fact we share something. The thing we share is our death," (Foster 4). Why do funerals always have so much food? Perhaps because people need food to help communicate with each other and cope with the devastation that all are feeling. Everyone dies, and everyone eats. These two certainties of life make the connections around them very strong. That is why communion through good is so apparent in times of grief as well as happiness.
    The other part of Foster's work is called Nice to Eat You: Acts of Vampires. This section describes the mystical creatures of vampires as well as their traits that consume many people in the real world. In Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis, Gregor Samsa's life is constantly sucked away by his abusive fathers words and actions. However, Gregor holds strong and does not succumb to his father and never once acts out against his loved ones. "Meanwhile, his victims become like him and begin to seek out their own victims," (Foster 6). Gregor's will-power is quite remarkable based on how much his father truly took out of him. I do not believe that Gregor was simply to far gone to change to vampirsim himself, but rather his good heart helped his brain stay out of trouble. A great example of vampirism in today's world is the media. "Using other people to get what we want," (Foster 8). Media these days can be incredibly degrading and untrue, only to gain popularity and in the long run, money. Money is the modern day vampires blood. The vampires will do anything, illegal or unethical, just to make more cash. This constant cycle of lying and consuming gluttonously can only break down a person's soul. In conclusion, Communion and Vampirism are two forms of eating that can have effects on all aspects of life and relationships.

Recognition 4-3-14

    In Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis, Gregor Samsa, a traveling salesman, wakes one day to find that he is know a giant insect. Gregor's normal pace of life is extremely stressful and fast-paced that this sudden new part of his life does not shock him like one would expect. Instead, he is more worried about the effects that his new body may have on his job and therefore his family. "Why don't I keep sleeping for a little while longer and forget all this foolishness," (Kafka 1). Samsa's main priority is always the people he cares for. He works an extremely stressful job only to pay off debt that his parents have obtained. This idea of Samsa's selflessness comes up more than once throughout the story. Another example of it is when he is trying to get out of bed in order to calm down his now worrying mother and angry boss. "His greatest reservation was a worry about the loud noise which the fall must create..." (Kafka 3). The fall out of bed in his new body could cause Samsa great pain, yet he simply does not want to startle or awake any of his loved ones below. Even though his selflessness seems well given and authentic, it is very possible that it stemmed from some form of fear. This fear that may have caused Samsa's "fake" servants heart was most likely spurred from the harsh personality's of the fathers of both Samsa and Kafka. "His father clenched his fist with a hostile expression, as if he wished to push Gregor back into his room..." (Kafka 6). This line comes directly after Samsa steps out of his room for the first time. Instead of fainting from pure shock his mother, Samsa's father seems disappointed. We know that Kafka did not have a strong relationship with his very outspoken father and he translated this into The Metamorphosis. I think that it is very logical that Gregor Samsa's overwhelming selflessness is almost used as a self-defense mechanism to avoid the chaos and stress that his father often brings; a event that Kafka himself may have experienced first hand.

         Not only did the father play a very significant role in the life of Gregor Samsa, but Samsa's sister, Grete, also had a large impact on his new bug life. At first, Grete appeared to be extremely helpful and kind to Samsa, yet her transformation was soon to come. "For surely no one except Grete would ever trust themselves to enter a room in which Gregor ruled the empty walls all by himself," (Kafka 15). Samsa was very close to his sister and this relationship transferred over post-transformation. Grete would often come in and take care of him, yet she soon began to see it as a duty and less of a service. Her transformation from a helpful girl to an independent adult was also very noticeable at the end of the story after Samsa's death. "...they thought that the time was now at hand to seek out a good honest man for her," (Kafka 27). This line shows not only how much Grete had changed but how Mr. Samsa is so able to move on from the murder of his son to begin thinking about his daughters future in a much different way then appropriate for this time of what should have been grief. The mother however, remains very constant in her approach to Samsa's new look. Her first look at him was a shock, and she fainted often in the story, but she never stopped loving him or trying to protect him. This is evident when Mr. Samsa begins to attack him with fruit. "him—but at this moment Gregor’s powers of sight gave way—as her hands reached around his father’s neck, and she begged him to spare Gregor’s life," (Kafka 18). The sister and father both changed dramatically, but Samsa's mother never once questioned her love for him. In conclusion, Gregor Samsa's constant selflessness (spurred by fear or not), was never once rewarded and was only recognized by the one person who never changed the way she looked at her only son.