Russell 5
Pamela Russell
Professor Renzo
ENGL 102
14 February 2018
The Disconnect Between Mind and Body.
The book The Metamorphosis was written by Franz Kafka in 1912. It tells a story of the misfortune of a salesman Gregor Samsa, who turned into an insect, but still possessed a human mind. Gregor’s metamorphosis alters his outward appearance, but leaves his mind unchanged, creating a lack of harmony between his mind and body. Gregor’s metamorphosis as a whole makes a case not just that the body and mind are linked, but also that the body is the more powerful of the two. Human reasoning is feeble and easily overcome by bodily realities. As he becomes accustomed to his new insect body his mind begins to change in accordance with his physical needs and desires.
At first, Gregor’s mind and body are on a completely different page after his transformation into an insect. After he physically turns into an insect he does not think that anything is wrong with him. He tries to get ready to go to work and thinks that he can in a few hours, showing his transformation affected only his physical appearance and left his mind unchanged. Later his family sees Gregor’s transformation and reacts in a viriaty of ways. Mr. Samsa is angry, Mrs. Samsa is upset, and Grete wants to help. He then realizes that they do not see him as the person he thinks he still is. As he becomes more accustomed to his new body, his mind starts to change, like what his favorite food is. Although his mind does change on some things, his mind and body never seem to come in harmony with each other and forever will be disconnected.
Feeling like you can’t deal with a situation, so it makes you feel disconnected. People talk about losing their minds, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that it’s so easy to lose your body. In the beginning Gregor Samsa woke up one morning and found himself changed inexplicably “into a monstrous vermin” (Kafka 1). Gregor still believes that he will continue working as a salesman in order to keep his family out of debt and fails to realize how his new physical transformation makes the task impossible. “He again told himself that it was impossible for him to stay in bed and that the most rational thing was to make any sacrifice for even the smallest hope of freeing himself from the bed. But at the same time, he did not forget to remind himself occasionally that thinking things over calmly-indeed, as calmly as possible – was much better than jumping to desperate decisions” (Kafka 7-8).
His family is discusted by his apperence. Family is a group of people that are related to each other by birth or marriage. When you are in a family you care, love, and support one another. The family’s reaction toward Gregor changes from before they discover his insect form to his death. Gregor's sister Grete is the first to help him, but after awhile she turned on him. Gregor finds “During ...
