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Maria Villela.

ENGL 115.

Approaches to University Writing.

Professor Beadle.

Project Text Essay.

Nov 2, 2021.

Freedom, a Sentence or Liberation?

Freedom, we have fought for it since ancient ages. We have seen the life of many people

sacrificed to accomplish this common need. Today we have created free nations where man and

woman are equally free ,free to express themself, free to speak, free to pursue their happiness,

but we have a growth in a society where everything is on edge, where we act in a productive

way, and where we meticulously plan every little thing we do. We spend so much time and

energy planning everything that ends up being trapped in this circle that we forget that we have

liberty and not only responsibilities. We don't like to get out of our routines since we fear the

consequences. For example the loss of a job, getting behind on an assignment or economic

consequences. That we decide to burn deep down our desires. Freedom and liberty to do what we

please is so desirable, but this desire can be so strong that it can cause us trouble, especially if we

let our desire and instinct take control over us to obtain it. When we don't do what we are

supposed to and let our true selves out, we tend to hate and abolish this part of us since it brings

us trouble and makes things more difficult. Monsters, we always fear them or hate them, because

they are unknown, they bring trouble and don't act as our social standards of a productive person

we exterminate them. A clear example of it is the book The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka,

where he tells the story of Gregor Samsa, who despite being surrounded by people, is completely
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alone. He has no friends, no relationships, no good co-workers and mostly no freedom. The life

of the protagonist is shaped around his working, without worrying about himself, but about

others; based on pleasing others ignoring his own wishes, he has no social life and no

relationships. One day Gregor wakes up transformed into a bug/insect. Gregor’s transformation

in The Metamorphosis can be seen as a way to get his freedom from his responsibilities as the

pillar and financial support for his family and the responsibility to keep a job he despises. This

gives Gregor the freedom he was desiring too much,but this freedom becomes undesirable for

him as the time went since it brings more stress and the selfishness of his family.

In the book The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka presents the pressure and responsibilities of

the protagonist and how his metamorphosis provided his freedom by taking away the pressure of

being a financial support to his family and keeping a horrible job. Gregor Samsa is a responsible

and hard-working person who, in all his years working, never allows himself to miss a day of

work. He is the pillar of his family, he takes care of all their needs and is in charge of paying his

family's huge debt. Gregor has a lot on his back; he suffered tremendously,he is incapable of

looking for himself just to be “respected” and "loved" by his family, but his metamorphosis

leads to the loss of his job and becoming unable to support his family financially which results in

them being selfish and disrespectful to Gregor by giving him a cold shoulder. The following

quote helps us understand that Gregor is tired of this lifestyle that he has and that he is unhappy

with the way things are: "I have got the torture of traveling, worrying about changing trains,

eating miserable food at all hours, constantly seeing new faces, no relationships that last or get

intimate. To the devil with it all!" (Kafka 4). Gregor’s thought makes evident that he feels

trapped into this horrible job he had and that he desperately desires to quit. We can appreciate it

when he thought "If I didn't hold back for my parent's sake, I would have quit long ago, I would
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have marched up to my boss and spoken my pieces from the bottom of my heart"(Kafka 4).

This helps us understand that Gregor’s transformation helped him to be free from that job that

oppressed him and he was obligated to maintain for the good and selfishness of his parents that

counted onGregor’s financial support. After his metamorphosis Gregor was unable to attend to

the horrible job he despised or even leave his house ,which led to him being unable to support his

family financially. This took a lot of weight off Gregor's back, but it created stress by his

family’s indifference and distinctness.

Gregor was an economic pillar of his family to pay their debt, he was loved and respected

by them, but the moment he was not useful or needed they disrespect him and treat them

indifferent, distant and turn their back to him after his metamorphosis. Nevertheless, the moment

the transformation occurred, the feeling of frustration started to emerge in him. Gregorio feels

that he has become a burden on his parents and his sister when financial difficulties appear.He is

declined, first by his father and, later, by his mother and sister. It was in the phrase "I knew it...I

keep telling you, but you women don't listen"(Kafka 35), from the father after he thought Gregor

had hurt his mother. This quote states that Mr.Samsa had already said that Gregor was dangerous.

Another example that shows how his family was becoming indifferent with him after his

metamorphosis is when "His father gives him a hard shove ....the door was slammed shut with

the cane" and "the door only opens when was time to eat"(Kafka 9, 24), this phrase lets us know

that his family turns their backs on Gregor after he becomes a monster and they only open his

bedroom door to feed him and nothing more. Not to visit him or check if he was fine.Gregor’s

metamorphosis gives him his desirable freedom, but later it becomes undesirable as stress starts

to be present and the selfishness of his family as well as their indifference towards the

protagonist.
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Even though Gregor obtained and enjoyed the freedom he desired, this feeling didn't last.

During his transformation, Gregor was suffering psychological disorders that restricted him from

enjoying his freedom and affecting him physically. Making this freedom undesirable as time

passes.The articles "The World of Gregor Samsa: A Daseinsanalytic Interpretation of Kafka’s

The Metamorphosis" and "Metamorphosis: Defending the Human" are both medical articles that

present a psychological perspective of elements that are present in the life of the protagonist

Gregor Samsa. For example, they identify mental disorders by studying the interaction of

conscious and unconscious elements in his conscience by repressed fears and conflicts that

Gregor went through when acquiring his desirable freedom during his transformation. Even

though he was now free from responsibilities, he was unable to enjoy it since the feeling of guilt

of being a bother consumed him along with the indifference and distance of his family.

Physically he was unable to move, as the quote says "Corresponding to his feeling of

defenselessness in the situation he is in, and the deficiency in his human futural projection” as

well as “Gregor finds himself as a physically weak creature with a heavy and inflexible body and

small powerless legs that make him unable to move easily"(Boroumand 79 ). These quotes let us

understand the way Gregor’s disorders affect him in his new body. He is unable to move, this can

be for the emotions he feels of being useless for his family;reflected on his methamorphisisas as

defenselessnes. Gregor's transformation leads him to think of himself as a discussion and horror,

as well as his family; we can deduct it from the phrase "In defending the ill person's humanity,

caregivers must resist acting upon their own feelings of horror or disgust and help others to resist

acting on such feelings too"(Rowe), this was a way in which the protagonist suffer mentally by

affecting his self image of himself. This was a consequence and a price to pay for his limited

freedom that made it undesirable, but at the same time this tough and difficult facet made Gregor
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want even more peace. His metamorphosis makes Gregor ultimately freedom more wanted and

desirable for him at the end of the book.

However some people often think that Gregor’s transformation in The Metamorphosis

cannot be seen as a way to get the freedom he was desiring too much, because it was temporary.

As mentioned in the article “Fear of the Monster Is Really a Kind of Desire”by Cohen, Jeffrey

where he describes the monster as providing “a temporary egress from constraint” and “No

matter how unsetting the description of the giant is,no matter how many...nights he devor,King

Arture will ultimately destroy jim” This helps us understand that as every monster we have heard

they all have an end.This can be a reference that Gregor's freedom will soon end. Many think

that because he was a bug and was unable to communicate or move he did not have freedom and

was undesirable since at the end Gregor died, but at the end Gregor did get the freedom he

desired. He stopped working in that horrible work that oppresses and tortures him as well as not

having on his back the weight of being the support of his family any longer. This was ultimately

shown during his time as an insect and at the end of the book when the protagonist died happily

and in peace; he achieved the freedom he desired so much and that is desirable for him.

The sum of everything that has been stated before Gregor’s transformation in The

Metamorphosis lets us understand that Gregor’s transformation can be seen as a way to gain

freedom from his responsibilities as the pillar and financial support for his family by not being

able to work in the job he detests. Gregor obtains the freedom he desires at such a high cost, that

as the story goes it becomes undesirable for him for bringing more stress and the indifference,

selfishness and distance from his family. This transformation brings a lot of stress and

physiological disorder along with the guilt he feels making his liberty seem as a sentence by

being incapable of moving freely. This brings Gregor loneliness and mistreatment from his close
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ones. This transformation changes his life upside down, neither for good nor bad. Being in

Gregor's position of not having a life outside of work, to only live looking at the responsibilities

and working with no rest, seems horrible. I wonder what would I do if I were in his shoes, would

you like to be transformed into a bug to experience freedom? Are you prepared to pay for

paradise?
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Works Cited

Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis Bantam Books1915. Assessed 1 November. 2021.

Cohen, Jeffrey Jerome. “Fear of the Monster Is Really a Kind of Desire.”

.https://canvas.csun.edu/courses/99127/files/14144669?module_item_id=3896262

Boroumand Jazi, Khashayar ."The World of Gregor Samsa: A Daseinsanalytic Interpretation of

Kafka’s The Metamorphosis." EBSCOhost, 1 March. 2020,

https://web-s-ebscohost-com.libproxy.csun.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=0&sid=6

00687f4-8e0c-42ab-970d-d876e1176887%40redis

Rowe, Michael. “Metamorphosis : Defending the Human.” Project MUSE,

https://muse-jhu-edu.libproxy.csun.edu/search?action=browse&limit=publisher_id:1.

Assessed 20 October. 2021.