Humanity! and Rants on Why the Samsa Family Sucks

*Apologies in advance for the randomness and length of this post, as well as the incorrect translation of the book I read and used in my quotations*
       We've established in class that the title The Metamorphosis applies to both Gregor's transformation into an insect, and his family's transformation from lazy, unproductive losers, to strong, self-sufficient people. We've also established that the family has no way of knowing Gregor is still Gregor or has any capacity to understand their speech or communicate with them at all. All that said, I really hate the Samsa family.
       At the beginning of the book, I was sympathetic towards the family because it would really suck if your son/brother was suddenly a giant cockroach. Feelings of horror and disgust are totally expected and reasonable in such a situation. Yet the family does assume the bug is Gregor, and originally Grete even attempts to still think of him as her brother. Upon one of her first times seeing Gregor "she became so frightened that she lost control of herself and slammed the door shut again. But, as if she felt sorry for her behavior, she immediately opened the door again and came in on tiptoe, as if she were visiting someone seriously ill or perhaps even a stranger" (17). It's interesting here that she originally felt sorry for her reaction towards him, because it means she understands he's her brother, who she seemed to have a pretty good relationship with, and is ashamed that she's scared of him. But this soon fades, and what annoys me is that no one is exactly sad that Gregor is now a bug. There's a little bit of crying and consoling later on, but it's mostly right to figuring out financial dilemmas. They only mourn the loss of his financial support and the fact that his presence makes their family look really sketchy.
       At least Mrs. Samsa seems to show some emotion when she protects Gregor from being killed by his own father, but I still don't like her. And I mostly try to pretend Mr. Samsa doesn't exist because he literally does everything wrong and it's possibly partly his fault that Gregor was such an insect-like worker even before his metamorphosis. The family has acknowledged the bug is Gregor and yet Mr. Samsa still pelts him with apple cores even when he's clearly retreating back into his room. And I hate Grete. At the beginning of the book she seemed like such a promising character because Gregor said such nice things about how observant she was and understanding of him, and they had this connection. Grete knew something was wrong right away, and she brings him food out of "the goodness of her heart," as Gregor believes (17). And yet Grete completely turns on him. She takes charge of his life, moves furniture out of his room against his will, doesn't make any attempt to communicate with him--which is surprising since they seemed to have such a connection before and now she understands nothing of him--and eventually advocates for his removal: "You just have to get rid of the idea that it's Gregor. Believing it for so long, that is our real misfortune. ...This animal persecutes us, drives the roomers away, obviously wants to occupy the whole apartment and for us to sleep in the gutter" (38). This is clearly an exaggeration and her statement feels disingenuous and a little selfish. At the same time it does make sense for her to be fed up with the conditions they are living in. But I still dislike her.
       What's saddest to me is just how disillusioned Gregor was about his family's feelings towards him. Reading parts of the beginning now, it's clear how some of the things he described are just horribly misinterpreted. "If only his sister had been there! She was perceptive; she had already begun to cry when Gregor was still lying calmly on his back. And certainly the manager, this ladies' man, would have listened to her; she would have shut the front door and in the foyer talked him out of his scare" (13). Sure Grete is perceptive, but she's also a normal human being who doesn't like the sight of a giant cockroach, and she isn't going to be able to calmly sort things out with the manager. When she feeds him, Grete bolts out of the room and locks the door because Gregor is a disgusting giant bug, but Gregor interprets it differently: "out of a sense of delicacy, since she knew that Gregor would not eat in front of her, she left hurriedly and even turned the key, just so that Gregor should know that he might make himself as comfortable as he wanted" (18). No, Gregor, no. Gregor just doesn't get that his family will never come to terms with his problem. When he dies, they have a quick family crying session, and then pack up and move out, ready to start a good life without him.
       A lot of the family's reactions make sense in a way, but I hate them so much because as a reader we are exposed to Gregor's humanity and it is troubling to me to see that be thrown away, and that celebrated as positive for the family. I had a thought about this and it made me kind of upset: What if Gregor hadn't been turned into an animal at all, but suffered some debilitating injury instead, that rendered him useless for a job, or unable to communicate? The Samsa family would still have to take care of him and would still be forced to take up economic responsibility which would have the same "positive" effects we see in the book. If the story plays out in a similar fashion, then it becomes really uncomfortable to think about because it would mean ignoring the humanity of a person just because they're supposedly "limiting" your success. Without them you would have a more independent lifestyle, but it would also be horrible because they are still human and have an emotional connection and relationship with you and so much more value beyond financial productivity. I think this is why I find it sad for the Samsa family to move on happily with their lives, because even though Gregor is a bug, we know he still has a human mind, and ignoring the potential of human minds is not something that is acceptable (even though they don't know he has a human mind, I know, I know). Anyway, this book was an interesting and enlightening read, and I hope the Samsa family has a horrible life without Gregor. But then again, what could they have done really? Ugh, there are never any answers.

Robert Cohn's Role in The Sun Also Rises

      The Sun Also Rises has ended and I'm still confused about Cohn's role in this story. Jake clearly hates him, as do all of the other characters, but the reason for this hatred isn't as obvious to me as it used to be. Cohn is obnoxious, that's for sure. He's overly chivalrous, especially in defending Brett's honor: "'I didn't ask you to insult her.' ...He stood up from the table his face white, and stood there white and angry behind the little plates of hors d'oeuvres" (p47). He comes off as arrogant to the others, and he doesn't have the best grip on his emotions, as seen when he beats up Romero after discovering him with Brett. He's a little too self-assured and not a particularly interesting guy. That being said, I don't think Cohn deserved all the verbal abuse, from Jake and Mike in particular. They aren't so subtle in letting him know they don't want him around, which must be kind of hard to hear considering Cohn's idea of his relationship with Jake: "You're really about the best friend I have, Jake" (47).
       Over the course of the book I found myself starting to feel bad for Cohn because of all the insults he gets from people, and the fact that his emotional response to Brett dumping him isn't that outlandish to me. While obviously the outsider to Jake's friend group, I don't actually think he's that strange, he's maybe easier to relate to than the others. He's kind of the only sane one in this weird group of people. He isn't constantly wasted, he is understandably a little grossed out by the violence of the bullfights, and he actually wants real friendships and romantic relationships with people. Is it so crazy for Cohn to expect Brett to acknowledge him after they lived together and publicly had a romantic relationship? It's not like Brett ended it, she just expects all her lovers to understand she doesn't actually love them, whereas Cohn "can't believe it didn't mean anything"(185). The scene where Cohn is in his room crying may be a little pathetic, but I feel like Cohn's emotions are pretty much justified, even if his actions in punching Jake and Mike aren't. "Cohn was crying. There he was, face down on the bed, crying" (197). I personally wasn't super into the rest of the characters drowning their sorrows in alcohol and pretending their ironic humor made up for their lack of purpose, so Cohn actually having a humane reaction to his circumstances was almost a relief. I still don't like Cohn, but it's hard for me to agree with Jake about Cohn when Cohn's reactions are almost reasonable. The uncomfortable ethnic prejudices coming from Jake and Mike that seem to intensify over the course of the novel also make it difficult for me to go along with their hatred of him.
      I think there are some similarities between Jake and Cohn too. They both fall for Brett, obviously, but they also don't seem to enjoy drinking and partying as much as the others do, and both do have emotional breakdowns at some point (Jake in his bed in Paris, thinking about Brett), granted Jake is considerably better at hiding his emotions than Cohn. Jake is also not nearly as cruel towards Cohn as Mike is, which I think is significant, Mike comparing Cohn to a steer in the bullfighting ring: "'Tell me, Robert. Why do you follow Brett around like a poor bloody steer? Don't you know you're not wanted?'" I think Cohn's inclusion in the story is maybe a bit of a critique of this society that doesn't really seem to care about anything. Or maybe it's just to show us something about Jake's character: that even though he plays this cool and collected guy who has accepted his circumstances and independence, he'd be "as big an ass as Cohn" if he really did have a chance with Brett (185). Maybe Cohn is there to show us what would have happened between Jake and Brett, while keeping the dignity of our protagonist relatively in tact.