Notes

insect semantic fields
- dehumanized
- normal, average but small and insignificant, existentially useless
- repulsive to others (gregors depression from his job metaphorically repels his family away from him)
- confined despite being a traveller, scurries mindlessly in room
- conditional, transactional love in a time of capitalism
- absurdity of life and expectations
- cant show that he understands and cares for his family no matter how hard he tries
- not given sympathy from boss/mom/dad, moreover his sister makes progressively weaker attempts to cater to his needs
- deciding to get rid of "it" (extermination of bugs), "we have to overcome slight disposition," when one is not commercially productive the servant tossing useless stuff into his room
- alienating; gregor is punished and isolated from society for no apparent reason.
- physical vs mental metamorphosis (structure = wakes up as a bug in exposition, rising action is opening his door, conflict is coming to terms with his bug life, falling action is the violin ceremony thing and the furniture mishaps, resolution of conflict is his death)
- baptism when he drinks the sweet milk and is repulsed by it (his head almost up to his eyes fully dunks in the bowl of milk, hmmm)
- gregor was inevitably gonna die because bugs die. plain and simple. they just live, repulse everyone, and serve no purpose. we attach significance to essentially bugs that mindlessly toil and that emotion was the only reason gregors family wasnt like "ya dead" and boom
- he goes everywhere while still being alone like a bug; even when he was a human he roamed like a bug

anacoluthon --> he found himself changed... into a monstrous vermin. hmmm? twists and turns, kafka!!!!! kafkaesque!

"While Gregor has escaped his room twice before, his third escape is the last straw for his family. They read his escape as his unwillingness to remain in his room, out of sight and out of mind. They believe he wants to take over the entire apartment and ruin their lives.

His behavior is seen as inconsiderate and decidedly inhuman—certain evidence that he is no longer Gregor, the loving human son who used to support them, but a disgusting bug through and through. Gregor, who happens to be lying in the middle of the floor as the family discussion swirls around him, silently agrees and lurches back into his room." --> his attempts to be human as a bug make him further dehumanized and criticized by his family as he's seen as selfish

are you even a human if all you do is roam and work and serve one purpose

"Mentioned right at the outset of the story, the picture of the woman in furs serves as a symbol of Gregor’s former humanity. Exactly why the picture, which shows a woman wearing a fur hat, a fur boa, and a thick fur muff that covers her arms, originally attracted Gregor is never made clear (though it could be that it embodied Gregor’s desires—the presumably attractive woman may be sexually alluring while the furs she wears could signal wealth to Gregor). But Gregor’s strong attachment to it does not derive from the content of the picture so much as from the fact that he put it on his wall when he was still human. He clings to it in panic when Grete and the mother are clearing out his room because, as he looks around the room in desperation, he sees it as one object from his former life that he can save. The content of the picture is irrelevant at that moment. It acts foremost as a reminder that a human lived there and chose that object to frame and display." --> woman covered is a symbol of wealth and also cherished and $3xu@11y appealing. extremely human.