What is the relationship between Gregor & his family? What clues in the story suggest that his relationship with his family, particularly his father, is unsatisfactory?
It’s sort of a weird relationship with Gregor and his family. He gets treated almost badly at home by his parents but is the only one making any money for the family. Gregor probably has the best relationship with his sister. His father lost all of the family money, or so he said, when the family business burned down and afterwards he never really tried to get back on his feet but rather just let Gregor take care of the daily expenses. This leads to Gregor becoming understandably bitter towards his father. After his transformation, Gregor’s sister is really the only one who tries to take care of him. She brings him food and reports his condition back to his parents. Gregor’s dad instantly assumes that he is now bad and does not want anything to do with him anymore. He does not even try to communicate with him and does not even want to see him. This is a pretty easy showing of how Gregor and his fathers relationship is not good.
Discuss the central events in each of the three sections of The Metamorphosis. In what ways do these events suggest that the weakening of Gregor results in the strengthening of the family as a whole?
After, Gregor turned into a cockroach and wasn’t able to bring in monetary means, his family started to realize that they were not incapable of doing tasks on their own. The family starting bringing in some money after the dad got a job at the bank, the mom started cooking again and the daughter helped out around the house. At nights, the family was more appreciative of things after working all day so they had meals together and even let Gregor watch and listen in to the family dinners. However, there’s incident. where Gregor comes out of his room and scares his mom and his dad becomes livid and throws and apple at him injuring him to the point where he cannot walk. Gregor starts to become a distant appearance as he is left in his room. This is where you see the rest of the family come together but Gregor is left out.
How effective do you find Akhmatova’s Requiem as a political protest? Requiem was not published until well after the purges were over and Stalin was dead; is it, then, totally lacking in influence?
Her poems that voiced political protests may have not had much impact during the era of Stalin, but they do have quite a voice in today’s world. The poems talk to us about all of the hardships of war and the depressing times of living under a tyranny. They show that the people should not put up with that. I think that the poems should have been published while Stalin was still in power but I think the words still have meaning today.
How should we interpret the famous command at the end of Archaic Torso of Apollo?
I think we should interpret the famous command at the end of Archaic Torso of Apollo as life is however we view it. By that I mean if we choose to have a bad attitude things will seem bad however a good attitude about things will help out any situation and make it seem better.
I think that the story of Gregor and his family shows exactly why I have such horrible faith in human kind some days. Gregor “bent over backwards” as my mom would say for his family and still his sister was the only one that showed gratitude. His father would not visit him, even after Gregor stepped up to become the man of the house. But then goes even further, granted Gregor’s transformed state, to throw an apple to hurt him to the point he could not walk.
And of course, I have to comment on the poems because it reflects a time in history that is very near to me and has always intrigued me. I think that if we learned history, it won’t repeat itself. Through these poems we can learn why this time was so hard for people and why we should avoid anything like this again. Like you said, the poems may not have been upheld so high then, for whatever reason but now that there is not so many memoirs, poetry or first accounts of that time, we no longer take them for granted.
I completely agree that Akhmatova’s work has relevance in today’s world. They depict the atrocities endured in war and give us a glimpse of the pain. I also enjoy your interpretation of Apollos quote.