Metamorphosis, Chapter Two

Key Points

• Gregor, before becoming a bug, was the sole breadwinner of his family. Neither of his parents nor his sister worked. He was proud of this even though he did not enjoy his job.


• Gregor’s entire family is repulsed by his presence. His sister is the only who takes care of him (feed him, clean his room), but she is as disgusted by him as her parents.


• Gregor’s mother and sister discuss the furniture in his room and whether or not to remove it. His mother thinks taking the furniture away would tell Gregor that they did not expect him to recover. His sister has the final word since she takes care of him and disagrees with their mother. When they remove the furniture, Gregor’s mother sees him again and faints.


• After his mother faints, Gregor’s father wants to know what happened. He believes that Gregor has hurt his mother some how and throws apples at Gregor attempting to kill his bug son. Gregor’s mother begs for her son’s life.

Quotes

• “‘What a quiet life the family has been leading,’ Gregor said to himself, and while he stared rigidly in front of him into the darkness, he felt very proud that he had been able to provide such a life and so nice an apartment for his parents and his sister. But what now if all the peace, the comfort, the contentment were to come to a horrible end.”


• “If Gregor had only been able to speak to his sister and thank her for everything she had to do for him, he could have accepted her services more easily; as it was, they caused him pain. Of course his sister tried to ease the embarrassment of the whole situation as much as possible, and as time went on, she naturally managed it better and better, but in time Gregor, too, saw things much more clearly.”


• “He realized from this that this sight of him was still repulsive to [his sister] and was bound to remain repulsive to her in the future, and that she probably had to overcome a lot of resistance not to run away at the sight of even a small part of his body jutted from under the couch.”


• “‘You, Gregor!’ cried his sister with raised fist and piercing eyes. These were the first words she had addressed directly to him since his metamorphosis.

Important Symbols (found in Glossary)

• Communication


• Mother/Sister


• Vagueness

thanks to source Ms. Vanderwall, Ms. Scherle, and Ms. Jose, U of E