So I thought that Gregor was pretty chill about the fact he got turned into a bug. To be honest, I'd expect him to freak out considerably over something that affected him so much. But that's enough about that...I've already made a blog post on that subject.
So after that incident, I didn't think it would be possible for anybody to be anywhere near as chill, heaven forbid be even more chill, about something as supposedly important to their lives. And like most literary predictions I've made in the history of blogging, I was proven wrong.
When Gregor dies, saddened with the fact that his family now sees him as a burden and as a pain, and doesn't give him the love and acceptance he had been hoping for, his family doesn't seem to care, despite the fact that their son, or what was once their son depending on who's view you're looking at it from, has just died.
And not only do they not let Gregor's death affect their lives, they don't treat Gregor's corpse with the respect typically given to a dead human. Heck, his post-mortem treatment is worse than that given to household pets! He's literally pushed around with a broom before being disposed of, like you'd treat a pest or garbage, and nothing like how one's son should be treated.
I guess this shows the divide that's grown between Gregor and his family. From his pre-bug stage, where he provided entirely for his family and his family relied completely on him, his importance has shriveled away to nothing, possibly even a negative value since he's a pain, has to be taken care of, and could potentially scare away boarders. Gregor's family has gone from caring for him, as their source of money and resources rather than as a relative seemingly, to not caring about him at all, now that he can no longer provide for them, and actually has to be provided for without providing them any benefits. It came across to me that Gregor never had the healthiest relationship with his family, existing only for their dependence in their minds rather than as a family member, so while it doesn't surprise me that they gradually stop caring about Gregor as a human and as family all together, it still saddens me because of the fact that he is not only family, but has done so much for his family, appreciated or not, and is treated so poorly after his tragic transformation.
Gregor's death is the ultimate sadness in a novel that tells the end of Gregor's life, the saddest stage of an already sad life, but not only is his death sad in that his hopes and aspirations are not met, but in that his family sees and treats his death as inconsequential and unimportant, simply moving along in their lives as if nothing has happened.
You describe the overwhelming tone of sadness at the end of Gregor's story--it's hard to think of a more forlorn and lonely image than Gregor expiring silently in his room, alone, neglected, despised, and thinking with love of his family. And yet the tone of the novel is so bright at the end, as if the narrator too were relieved by Gregor's passing. There's this feeling of the windows being opened and fresh air being let in, and it's hard not to feel optimistic along with the family. It's terrible how Kafka compels us not to mourn but almost to celebrate Gregor's death--we don't get to hear the details of his "corpse's" disposal, either. Kafka leads us outside with the family, resolved to forget about such unpleasant details.
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