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.