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Kafka was a man consumed by death, consumed by the fact that he might eventually die. One man who was greatly affected by his father's negligence of him, and a social deviance about him which held him back from interaction. Such a man was so afraid about what society thought of his writing, that he never widely published his works, and even asked a friend to burn all manuscripts. Not only was Kafka Jewish, he resented this fact.
Once Kafka even stated that "Sometimes I'd like to stuff all Jews (myself included) into a drawer of a laundry basket-then open it to see if they " ve suffocated. " As anyone can see, Kafka was enormously enticed by death, and the fact that he greatly disliked his own cultural status, and even his family. Through most of his works he greatly illustrated his infatuation with death. In the Metamorphosis he showed how a man could die emotionally. In a Hunger Artist he shows how a man can just not have a reason to live and disguise it through starvation. Finally in the Penal Colony he shows how death can be such a masterpiece and how a man can be driven crazy by the fact that he cant prevent death that he actually draws himself to suicide. Even though, this man was one accompanied by great wisdom, which was shown in the writing of Metamorphosis Distant from the poor, meager and mostly un-vivacious reality of life and it's hardships stands one man, Gregor, a provider of financial resources for his family.
Such a young man is making his way in society and the world in general. Through Gregor's successes, and his almost workaholic attitude, he has suffered into prospering. Prosperity is an awkward word, for it is one which not only describes a persons wealth, though also his downfalls. The great undoing of prosperity shows itself in Gregor, as he becomes a monster. Gregor is seen as the epitome of sociable, a "traveling salesman." However, Gregor is one who is "meeting new people all the time, but never forming any lasting friendships that mellow into anything intimate" (118). Through being a traveling salesman, Gregor must be friendly, though his forward happiness seems only a ploy to keep up his gut wrenching work.
Gregor's is only in this business because of a family debt to his boss. He seems trapped in life and is unable to make a "clean break from it" (119). Gregor seems isolated as though only a moneymaker, unable to really live his life in freedom. As Gregor's Metamorphosis begins, it does so "in midi res." The transformation of Gregor's body into a "monstrous vermin" (pg. 117) is a ploy by Kafka to show that Gregor's body has been transformed; yet his mind had not changed at all. Still, Gregor was addicted to his work and proudly stated that "I'll be dressed in a minute, pack up my samples and catch my train" (134). Instead of first thinking of himself, Gregor automatically thinks of his job and how, "I have to take care of my parents and sister" (134).
Gregor is unaware that the family and office manager are unable to understand his speech. They stated "Did you understand a single word of that" (130), in order to show the reader that the speech of Gregor had changed, and therefore him as a whole has supposedly changed. "The father drove Gregor forward with a great uproar" (139), and eventually "closed the door with his cane" (139). Gregor had become the man of his household, though then is treated horribly just because he has changed. Such change may be a ploy to suggest that the physical matters much more than the mental in the eyes of this society. In great change always comes unexpected reactions, though this was absurd to Gregor. His family had now begun to treat him like an animal, just for one difference.
While Gregor is "bleeding heavily" (139), the family "In the course of the very first day, father laid out their overall financial circumstances and prospects to both the mother and the sister" (148). The family prospers during Gregor's forced employment and then nearly perishes after Gregor's Metamorphosis. Instead of worrying about Gregor's physical status, they talk of financial status after their money machine has broken down. In a deathly state, Gregor was still willing to work in order to allow his family to love him once more. Isolation had made him not worried of being a proletariat, though instead worried about his family (even if they didn't act as such).
Through such an ordeal that Gregor and his family had gone through, he was never well appreciated. "It was not the families consideration for him which held them back", rather, maybe "the main obstacle to the families relocation was their utter despair and their sense of being struck by a misfortune like no one else among their friends and relatives (168). Gregor's family had not felt thrown aback and mournful by his Metamorphosis, yet that could never live as they used to, as rich and unemployed. In a strike to defend herself, even the beloved sister of Gregor, Grete has become enraged at her brother (if that is what he has become). "Human Beings can't possibly live with such an animal" (180). All have denounced Gregor as an animal, and yet not apart of the family, apart of an isolated animal kingdom. Verily, even Karl Marx once wrote, "In small numbers, an animal so defenseless as evolving man might struggle along even in conditions of isolation. " In this one sentence, the entire plot of the Metamorphosis is revealed, of how man is truly an animal who not only struggles, though eventually dies in isolation. The isolation solely did not kill Gregor, yet the results of isolation, and that disassociation from any family or love is what eventually kills Gregor.
Gregor's death symbolizes a death of his freedom's, and therefore all peoples' freedom's. This death comes from an immediate change, although how may one live without changing for better or worse. A 'hunger artist' explains the decline of interest in the art of fasting. In the old days people would enthusiastically observe the artist as he fasted, some of them watching carefully for surreptitious snacking. In those times 40 days was the limit of fasting; on the 40 th day, the artist's cage was decked in flowers as he emerged to the ministrations of doctors and the crowd's applause. But the public now has lost interest.
The artist left his impresario and hired himself out to a circus where his cage is placed near the cages of animals. He dreads the onslaught of customers, some of who stop and watch him, but others rush right past him to see the animals. At the end, the overseer finds the hunger artist among the straw when he enters the cage. Just before he dies, the artist admits that there was no honor in his fasting; he just never found the food that he liked. Had he found it, he would have stopped fasting.
He dies and is replaced by a panther. This man never had honor in his fasting yet he had a death wish. By saying that he had no love for food he was saying he had no love for life. He no longer cared what the people thought he no longer cared if he lived or died. By saying that he starved himself because he never found any food that he actually liked he was saying the reason he starved himself was because he never found any aspect of life that he liked. If he had found this maybe in love or if people had shown any sort of human compassion for him then he might have chosen the path of life rather then the path of death.
An explorer visits the penal colony, where an officer demonstrates to him the Harrow, an instrument used to inflict capital punishment. The Harrow is an extraordinarily elegant instrument: the condemned man lies facedown on a Bed, while a complex system of needles inscribes the commandment he has broken on his back. The needles pierce deeper and deeper until the prisoner dies. In the process of dying, however, the condemned man finally understands the nature of justice and his punishment.
His face is transfigured, a sight edifying to all those who watch. The officer begins to demonstrate the Harrow on a prisoner condemned to die because he was sleeping on duty. The machine was conceived and developed by the former Commandant. It soon becomes clear that the explorer does not approve of the death-machine and that he feels morally bound to express this disapproval to the new Commandant, who is already known to have serious questions about using the Harrow as a method of punishment. Suddenly, the officer removes the condemned man from the Bed and takes his place.
Before doing so, he adjusts the machine to inscribe "BE JUST. " The Harrow begins its grisly work on the officer's back, but malfunctions and goes to pieces -- but not before the self-condemned officer has died. A man so consumed with death illustrates it either directly or indirectly in all of his works. Whether it is the death of the mind or the death of a spirit it always eventually becomes the death of a man. Kafka never enjoyed his works and often attempted to destroy all copies. He may have chosen these measures because he was blind to his obsession with death that he did not realize it until he saw it in his works or maybe because he just did not like his works. He is considered a genius not only for his infatuation with death which is illustrated in his work but also for his ability to understand human nature and the thoughts of people.
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Research essay sample on Traveling Salesman Hunger Artist
