The Samsa Stamp of Approval

                Throughout The Metamorphosis we have come to know Gregor pretty well. I thought that it wasn’t really that hard to figure him out in comparison to someone like Jake from The Sun Also Rises. As the book opens, you immediately get the sense that Gregor is a skittish little being that thrives on approval from others and appeasing people.

He doesn’t want people to think of him as some big letdown; which is probably why he was so insistent on going to work in the first chapter of the book. Despite how much he detested his job, he was still paranoid about the results his tardiness would bring. Now, Gregor, this dude was completely committed to this horrible job. And you’d think that waking up in a bug body would give him an incentive to stay home but it doesn’t. He doesn’t even think about how others in his work place may react to his new appearance. But rather, he frets over the fact that his boss will be angry and that it will put a damper on his father’s four course breakfast meals.

        Gregor’s need for approval can also be observed in the next scene where he opens the door and his family sees what he has become. In the moments before this happens, the chief clerk is scolding him through the door for being late to work. Now, how angry must your boss be to go all the way to your house just to yell at you? Upon opening the door, Gregor thinks that although the chief clerk if furious with him, he’ll take pity once he see the situation that he is in. And he imagines that his family will be sympathetic and try to help him. Boy oh boy, poor Gregor was wrong. His new form caused his chief clerk, a large burly man, to flee in terror and his father to push him back with a newspaper. One of my favorite lines from the scene is Gregor’s mother’s reaction to this spectacle, which is:

“His mother was not far away in front of him and seemed, at first, quite engrossed in herself, but then she suddenly jumped up with her arms outstretched and her fingers spread shouting: "Help, for pity's sake, Help!" The way she held her head suggested she wanted to see Gregor better, but the unthinking way she was hurrying backwards showed that she did not.”

        The last sentence of the quote emphasizes how Gregor desperately needed someone to sympathize and help him with something he didn’t even understand. By using the word “unthinkable”, Kaftka accentuates that Gregor didn’t think he’d have these negative reactions from his family. In this moment, the entire household just viewed him as a giant bug a nothing more. I felt this scene to be especially important because the Samsa’s family initial reaction influences the way that Gregor goes about doing things further into the book.  

        After the overwhelming response of disgust from his family, Gregor doesn’t want to cause them anymore trouble. His father was furious with the fact that he just had to turn into a giant bug and would no longer be able to work. Gregor’s job, which allowed him to pay off his father’s debt, gained him a certain approval from his father. He was fervently working so that dear old dad, didn’t have to. Making all the family money so that dad could have his kingly breakfasts.  Gregor felt like he was doing something correctly with the job, that its results were important to the family. Therefore, he was important to the family. But he lost that. And now, the only way he could somewhat gain their approval and appease his family was by staying out of their way. The Samsas didn’t need a constant remind of what dreadful thing he had become, so he hid.

        Gregor’s method kind of worked, at least for a while. He was considerate of where and when he hid so that he didn’t make them feel any discomfort. But in part two, Gregor rushes to stand atop the picture of the woman in the fur as his sister and mother attempt rid his room of furniture. The sudden visual of Gregor gave his mother a fright, and caused her to faint. And the situation worsens when his father comes home from work only to throw apples into his back. But whoa! Father Samsa is working now, who would have thought? The one thing Gregor felt he was good (having a job and providing for his family) had been filled by his father. The one thing that guaranteed the family’s appreciation towards Gregor had been stripped from him as a result of his metamorphosis. Gregor still feels the need to feel please his family because that’s just who he is. But what’s a bug to do?