Siddhartha Final Essay

Natalie Witherell

P-1 Adv. World & Comp.

Siddhartha Final

The book Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse has a very close relation to Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey. Siddhartha goes through a life long journey that starts in his youth and ends when he dies. In Hero’s Journey, the hero’s cycle begins with the ordinary world and ends with the return. In Siddhartha’s case, he starts his ordinary world is his youth and his return is his death. “There is no validity except the one contained within us. Thats why so many people live an unreal life. They take images outside them for reality and never allow the world within them to assert itself.” (Hermann Hesse). Siddhartha started his life by taking control over what he wanted. It worked for a few years, then society got to his head until he left it all behind. He ended his life being what he wanted to be and the wisest he could be. Everything Siddhartha does is related to the heroic journey cycle. From his beginning to his end.

According to Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, Siddhartha is taken on an elaborate adventure that lasts his whole life. It starts off when he was in his Youth. Siddhartha lived in his ‘Ordinary World’ at the place where his father resided. “In the shade of the house, in the sunlight of the riverbank where the boats were moored, in the shade of the sal wood and the shade of the fig tree, Siddhartha grew up, with Brahmin’s handsome son, the young falcon, together with his friend Govinda, the son of a Brahmin.” (Hesse, 3). Siddhartha had spent his whole life here and now, in his early twenties, he wished to flee from the nest. Siddhartha was an attractive young man who grew up besides his companion Govinda, the two boys had grown up learning the ways of the Brahmin. Siddartha brought everyone in his village joy, but he felt little joy himself. Siddhartha started to get troubled by restless dreams and began to wonder if he had all there is to learn from his father and teachers. “He had begun to suspect that his venerable father and his other teachers, all wise Brahmins, had already given him the richest and best part of their wisdom, had already poured their plenty into his waiting vessel, yet the vessel was not full: His mind was not content, his soul not at peace, his heart restless.” (Hesse, 5). Siddhartha was dissatisfied with the Brahmans despite their knowledge, the Brahmins are seekers still, performing the same exercises again and again in order to reach their goal‹ of Nirvana. It is Siddhartha's search for this new path that leads him to the Samanas. A Samana is one who lives a life of piety and self-denial, free of possessions and desires. Siddhartha's search for a new path is his Call to Adventure. “...Now it is beginning, now Siddhartha is on his way, now his destiny is beginning to bud and, along with mine as well. And he turned as pale as a dried-out banana peel.” (Hesse, 8). Siddhartha told Govinda about his plan first, which made Govinda think about what he was going to do with his life. When Siddhartha announced his intention to his father to join the Samanas, he became very upset and forbad Siddhartha's wishes to join the Samanas. In respectful defiance, Siddhartha did not move. His frustrated father left the room, and hours at a time, he glanced out his window to find Siddhartha still standing motionless. “ He looked through the small window of the room and saw Siddhartha standing there, his arms crossed unmoving. The light cloth of his tunic was shimmering pale. His heart full of disquiet, the father went back to bed.” (Hesse, 9). When the night finally passed, Siddhartha’s father returned to his son. He realized that Siddhartha’s body remained present, but his mind had already departed. Siddhartha’s father let him leave and became a Samana and if he should ever leave the Samanas, he wass welcome back too. On Siddharth’s way out of the city, Govinda stood waiting for him. When Siddhartha was a Samana, he had learned the art of patience, waiting, and listening. Three years after joining the Samanas, Siddhartha and Govinda heard intriguing rumors of a great man, Gautama, the Buddha, who, had attained enlightenment, taught others the way to peace. Siddhartha and Govinda travel to Savathi, where they discovered the Buddha was staying in Jetavana, in the garden of Anathapindika. Arriving in Jetavana, Siddhartha recognized the Buddha immediately despite his nondescript dress. “Siddhartha recognized him at once, as if a god had pointed him out: a simple man in a yellow cowl, walking quietly, alms bowl in his hand.” (Hesse, 25). Siddhartha is not terribly interested in what the Buddha had to say, he was completely taken with the Buddha's demeanor. After the two men hear the Buddha’s sermon, Govina decided to join him and become a monk. Siddhartha gave him his consent but did not wish to join him. When Siddhartha was leaving the city, he ran into the Buddha. He refused his call and disagreed with the Buddha on his doctrine. Siddhartha, afraid that he had offended the Buddha, repeated his confidence in the Buddha's holiness. Siddhartha expressed his doubt that any teaching can ever provide the learner with the experience of Nirvana. And while Gotama's path may be appropriate for some, Siddhartha said that he must take his own path. The Buddha admonished Siddhartha to beware his own cleverness then wished him well on his path.

Along on his journey, Siddhartha came to a river. He asked the poor ferryman to ferry him across the river. Little did he know that this man was his mentor in  the years to come. Half way across the river, Siddhartha told the man that he had no money or any collateral to give the man in exchange for the trip across the river. “‘This too I have learned from the river: Everything comes back again! You too, Samana, will come back again. And now farewell! May your friendship be my wages. May you remember me when you are sacrificing to the gods.’”(Hesse, 44). Siddhartha departed the man thinking only of his kindness and wisdom. Siddhartha had kept what the man had told him in his thoughts when he came to his next step, crossing the threshold. Siddhartha came across a beautiful garden next to a city. Within the garden was a beautiful woman sitting upon a sedan chair whose name was Kamala. “....learned that this was the grove of Kamala, the famous courtesan, and learned that in addition to the grove she owned a house in town.”(Hesse, 47). Siddhartha had befriended the barber’s assistant and he had his beard and long hair removed showing the world his youthful face. The next day, Siddhartha had one of Kamala’s servants send her a message that a young Brahmin was waiting to speak with her. The servant took Siddhartha to Kamala and she instantly notices him. “‘But did you not have a beard yesterday, and long hair, and dust in your hair?’” (Hesse, 47). Siddhartha was giving up his hair to impress her, he was giving up his past with the Samanas. Kamala told Siddhartha that they could never be anything until he had money and expensive clothing. Siddhartha went to the Kamaswami who instantly made Siddhartha a merchant when he found out that he could read. While being a merchant, Siddhartha had his hand full of tests, allies, and enemies. “Never did Siddhartha have a willing ear for Kamaswami’s worries, and Kamaswami’s worries were many.” (Hesse, 60). Siddhartha used his acts of waiting, being patient and listening to help him throughout his merchant duties. Although Siddhartha is successful as a merchant, he shows little enthusiasm for business or anything else except for being with Kamala. This lack of enthusiasm stems from a realization Siddhartha has about his relations with other people. He possesses a distance from his emotions and behaviors that ordinary people do not have. This distance indicates that his Self is not really participating in his daily activities. The only aspect of his life in which he felt truly involved was Kamala, who he admitted knew him better than anyone ever had.

The more time Siddhartha spent in the town, the more distracted he became from his quest. Siddhartha Approached his downfall. He had fallen to the sins of the city life and had forgotten all that he learned from the Samanas. Siddhartha started to feel empty and Kamala could see it. “ Siddhartha had spent the night in his home with dancing girls and wine, had made a show of superiority before others of his standing, though he was no longer superior…” (Hesse, 69). Siddhartha went to bed drunk and close to tears. He spent nights at a time doing this, unhappy of what he had become. “Siddhartha realized that the game was over; he could no longer play it.” (Hesse, 71). Siddhartha left the town and told no one, not even the pregnant Kamala, of his future destination. Siddhartha walked into the forest that was near the city, knowing he could never return, and continued to walked until he reached a river. Siddhartha came along a palm tree, Siddhartha wrapped his arms around the tree and started to climb. He wanted to leap from the tree and let the water take him away. “This was the Great purging he had longed for: death, the smashing of the form he so despised!” (Hesse, 74). Siddhartha longed for his life to be over! He longed to be in the Abyss he felt in his heart. Siddhartha sunk to the bottom of the tree trunk, and said a word he had not spoken for many years, Om. The moment the sound of the Om hit his ears, his spirit awoke and recognized the foolishness in his actions. Siddhartha, deeply shaken, laid his head his head upon the roots of the tree and fell asleep. When he awoke, he was rewarded with the sight of an old friend. Govinda laid across from Siddhartha, sleeping. “‘You were asleep,’ Govinda replied. ‘It is not good to sleep in such places where there are often snakes and the creatures of the forest have their paths.” (Hesse, 77). Siddhartha was excited to finally see his friend, when it was time for Govinda to leave, Siddhartha said, “Farewell, Govinda.” Govinda stopped in his tracks and turned around asking how this stranger knew his name. Govinda learned that this strange man in expensive clothing was his long lost friend, Siddhartha. Govinda left to catch up with the monk, and Siddhartha’s spirit was wide awake. “...the greedy Siddartha, could die. He had died, and a new Siddhartha had awoken from sleep.” (Hesse, 83). Govinda reminded him how to love, now he was happy and free like a child, and had a great capacity to love. He was now ready to complete his life's journey.

Siddhartha did not return to the city, he followed the river until he came across the ferryman’s dock. He asked the ferryman to take him across the river, almost like a Road Back to when he stayed there the first time over twenty years ago. Half way across the river, Siddhartha offers up his clothing for payment for the ferry across the river. The Ferryman, thinking this is strange, asked is Siddhartha wanted to continue without any clothes. “... what I would like Best would be not to continue at all. What I would like best, ferryman, is if you were to give me an old loincloth to wear and keep me on as your assistant, or rather your apprentice, for I would first have to learn how to handle the boat.’” (Hesse, 87). The Ferryman searched Siddhartha’s face, he recognized who he was, but not his name, only that he had come across the river over twenty years ago and was a Samana. Siddhartha introduced himself and he was welcomed by the Ferryman, Vasudeva. Twelve years passed and one day the two ferrymen heard that the Buddha is dying. Kamala, on hearing the news as well, travels with her son to be near Gautama as he passed into eternity. As she sat down to rest in the forest, she was bitten by a snake. She cried for help, and the nearby Vasuveda comes to her aid. The old ferryman took her back to his hut where Siddhartha immediately recognized her. “Then he saw Kamala, whom he recognized at once, though she lay unconscious in the arms of the  ferryman, and now he knew it was his own son whose face has so stuck him, and his heart stirred in his breast.” (Hesse, 94). The dying Kamala introduced Siddhartha to his son. Siddhartha recognized that he had finally found the peace he sought for so long, and Kamala died.  Vasuveda and Siddhartha make her funeral pyre where Vasudeva's wife pyre was, as the young boy sleeps. After Kamala’s death, Siddhartha kept his son with him by the river. The boy, though, refused to accept Siddhartha as his father and consequently did nothing he is told. Many months passed, but the boy remains intransigent. Vasuveda advised Siddhartha to let the boy leave and rejoin the life of which his mother's death deprived him. Siddhartha agreed in theory, but he could not let his son go. He loved the boy as he had loved no other and wanted to save him the misery of his own follies in the town. Siddhartha began to feel that this experience with his son had awakened new emotions in him. Eventually, the boy ran away and Siddhartha became very distraught. Vasuveda told Siddhartha to let him go, but Siddhartha followed him. Upon reaching the town, Siddhartha recalled his own experience there and admit to himself what he known all along, that he cannot stop the boy from living his own life. Siddhartha felt a great sorrow at this loss, and a wound opened wide. The happiness he had known as a Ferryman had left him. He sat down and waited for his suffering to cease, murmuring "Om" to himself to counteract the pain. Vasuveda arrived and led the despondent Siddhartha back to the river. The pain of losing his son is long-lasting for Siddhartha. It enabled him, to identify with ordinary people more than ever before. “ How simple his thoughts had now become, how lacking in understanding. That’s how greatly he had come to resemble the child people.” (Hesse, 108). Though his sorrow allowed Siddhartha to begin to understand what wisdom really was, the thought of his son has not yet left him. One day his pain became too much and Siddhartha set off in a desperate search of his son, but stopped as he heard the river laughing at him. He looked into the river, saw his own father whom he had left, and turned back. Siddhartha Returned to his hut, he told Vasuveda all of what had happened, but as he does, Siddhartha noticed a remarkable change in the old man. Vasuveda led Siddhartha back to the river, and implored him to listen deeply. At first Siddhartha heard only the voices of sorrow, but these voices were soon joined by voices of joy, and at last all the voices were subsumed under the great sound of "Om." Realizing the unity of these voices, Siddhartha's pain faded away, and his wound healed. “His smile gleamed as he regarded his friend, and now Siddhartha’s face too gleamed brightly with this same smile.” (Hesse, 114). He has at last found salvation, his Resurrection. Vasuveda recognized his friend's achievement, he departed into the woods to die, thereby joining the unity he had helped Siddhartha find at last. Years passed after Vasudeva’s death and news gets around about a wise ferryman. Still restless and unsatisfied after all his years of searching, Govinda goes to speak to the Ferryman reputed to be a sage. The Ferryman, Siddhartha, recognizes Govinda immediately, though Govinda does not recognize him. Govinda tells Siddhartha about his inability to find what he has so long sought. Siddhartha tells Govinda that he does not find because he pays too much attention to the search. When Siddhartha finally addressed Govinda by name, Govinda recognized him, and happy to have reunited after so long. Govinda spent the night at Siddhartha's hut. The next day Govinda asked Siddhartha to explain the doctrines by which he lived by. “One can pass on knowledge but not wisdom.” (Hesse, 119). To Siddhartha, words never express the entire truth of anything. The reason for this is that time is not real. Ultimately, expressing love and admiration toward all things is the most important thing in the world. Govinda was confused by most of what Siddhartha said, but he felt certain that his old friend is a holy man. Preparing to leave, Govinda asked Siddhartha for something to help him along his path. Siddhartha told Govinda to kiss his forehead. Doing so caused Govinda to see a continuous stream of different faces in place of Siddhartha's. Siddhartha’s motionless face was in return with the elixir. Siddhartha reached Enlightenment and left Govinda with the knowledge in his heart.

Siddhartha’s life played out like an open book. It started with his ordinary world, then took its twists and turns until it came to his he return. When the hero’s reach their return, they are awaiting their next call. In Siddhartha’s case, his next call is awaiting Nirvana. “There is no thing that could be Nirvana; there is only the word Nirvana.” (Hesse, 122). Siddhartha has reached enlightenment when he died, and Govinda saw this in the way Siddhartha’s motionless face was left smiling. Govinda left Siddhartha with more knowledge and wisdom he ever expected to grasp. He too, was on his way to reach peace and enlightenment. “You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet, still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no chance, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.” (Hermann Hesse). In the end, though, we should follow Siddhartha's example in determining how much significance to give to the Indian religion/philosophy in Siddhartha: let each come to his or her own conclusion.

The Bridge by Octavio Paz

The Bridge

Between now and now,

between I am and you are,

the word bridge.

Entering it

you enter yourself:

the world connects

and loses like a ring.

From one bank to another,

there is always

a body stretched:

a rainbow.

I’ll sleep beneath its arches.

-Octavio Paz

From Old to Old

    In the beginning of Siddhartha, by Herman Hesse, Siddhartha leaves his house to become a Samana. While beginning a Samana, he learned to wait, listen, and to be patient. Once he left the Samanas and met Kamala, he kept his talents and was patient while being a merchant. Slowly, he forgot how to do each of these tasks. Once he grew to his mid forties, he became aware of what he had forgotten and left to commit suicide. When he left, he also left Kamala pregnant. When he failed to commit suicide, he feel to the bottom of the tree and slept. This is where he meets Govinda, his friend from his childhood again. When Govinda reconizes Siddhartha, he is shocked on who he has become and does not think very highly of him anymore. Once Govinda leaves to join the other monks again, Siddhartha goes acroos the river and joins the Ferryman and lives with him. Around 12 years pass when the news of the Buddha dying brings numerous monks across the river. Kamala is one of the people who come to cross the river with her son, Siddhartha. Kamala gets bitten by a snake and dies at Siddhartha's hut leaving her son in his hands. Siidhartha Jr. constantly tests his father will and becomes this obnoxious child. Eventually, he runs away. Siddartha Senior runs after him and reaches the edge of the town where he had once lived, where Kamala had once lived. He did not enter but sat outside the city for numerous hours wait. It is here that he has Master the art of Patient and waiting. Earlier in the story when he begin to live the ferryman, he mastered the art of Listening. Another 10 or 20 years pass and Govinda hers the stories of a very wise ferryman. When he goes, he soon learns that is is Siddhartha. He is shocked that he ever doubted the smarts of Siddhartha. After their conversation over wisdom, Siddhartha reaches Enlightenment. Siddhartha dies in Govindas arms.

 

Siddhartha Reflection #1

       In the book Siddhartha by Herman Hesse, Siddhartha's life is closely resembled to Gregor's life and Joseph Campbel's A Hero's Journey. In the beginning, it starts off as an Ordinary World with Siddhartha living his normal life. The Call to Adventure is when Siddhartha asks his father if he could go and join the Samanas. When his father finally said yes, he left to create a new life. After a few months of living wiotht eh Samanas, his friend Govinda hears about a Buddha and wishes to go and hear his teachings. Siddhartha is reluctant at first but eventually gives in and goes with Govinda. Once Siddhartha and Govinda go to the town where the Buddha resided, Govinda goes to become one of the Buddha's monks. Siddhartha gets angry at this, which is his Refusal to the Call, and goes to confront the Buddha. The Buddha teaches Siddhartha more than he thought he would. Siddhartha went originally to be angry with the Buddha, but the Buddha kept an open mind and calmed down Siddhartha. As well as this being his Refusal to the Call, this is also Siddhartha's Meeting the Mentor stage. Buddha gave Siddhartha more advice that anyone else could have. Once their talk is finished and the Buddha has walked away, is when Siddhartha realizes that he has Crossed the Threshold and decides to become his own teacher.

Partner Analysis

Natalie Witherell & Will Bangs

"Tomorrow, Govinda, I shall take leave of you." (Hesse, 28).


"We are not walking in a circle, we are ascending; the circle is a spiral, and we have already climbed many of the steps." (Hesse, 16)



"Now it is the beginning, now Siddhartha is on his way, now his destiny is beginning to bud and, along with it, mine as well." (Hesse, 8)


"...and found the gaze of the Buddha so full of kindness and peace, the youth plucked up the courage to ask the Vernerable One's leave to address him." (Hesse, 28).


Will did not read the chapter so I did this blog post.

Kafka in the Modern Era

      Throughout life, we are constantly trying to get the acceptance from someone we know won't get it from. Acceptance is the action or process of being received as adequate or suitable, typically to be admitted into a group. Franz Kafka's life was constantly a game of trying to win his fathers acceptance. Kafka was an educated, German-speaking Czech Jew, it's not hard to see echoes of Enlightenment philosophy in his works. Kafka puts a twist on the whole ethical tradition by making the subject of ethical debate in The Metamorphosis, a bug. And not just any bug, a vermin, a pest. Gregor isn't a cute little ladybug or even a motherly spider named Charlotte, but the kind of disgusting bug that makes your skin crawl and stinks when you squish it. In Kafka's father's eyes, Franz was a failure. Although Gregor was ugly on the outside, on the inside he was pure. Everyone else saw him as a vermin. They only saw what he had unwillingly transformed into. In the beginning of The Metamorphosis, when Gregor's body is turned, his parents haven't seen him and want him to come outside his room and to meet with them. In Kafka's real life, this is just before he became an other. His parents still love him, yet they are distant. Even before and in the beginning of his writing career, his sister was always there. But when he becomes a writer he knows that she would end up siding with her father because of acceptance and the fear of being rejected. When Gregor first doesn't open the door, his sister, Grete, begins to cry. "Why did his sister not go to the others? She had probably just got up out of bed now and had not even started to get dressed yet. Then why was she crying? Because he was not getting up and letting the manager in, because he was in danger of losing his position, and because then his boss would badger his parents once again with the old demands?" ( Kafka, 4). In the end of the story, Grete is on her father's side of things and is working because Gregor can't. In this passage, She is crying because she is fearful of what is to come, that Gregor will get hired and she might have to work to support the family. So out of love and selfishness, she takes care of Gregor, thinking that if he gets better, he can work and she won't have to.
       When Gregor was working, slowly, the life was being sucked from him. He worked so much so that his parents did not have to want for a thing. Little did they know, the parents were using vampirism In Gregor's work. They loved their son but they let him work so much that he got worn out and more tired each passing day. So that one day he wakes up late, his parents are worried but in a rush to get him out of the house and off working. They were excited from the delicious blood they can suck from him today, making him weaker by the second. Throughout the times when Grete brings Gregor food, each time she brings in and leaves quickly so she doesn't have to see his face. "To test his taste, she brought him an entire selection, all spread out on an old newspaper. There were old half-rotten vegetables, bones from the evening meal, covered with a white sauce which had almost solidified, some raisins and almonds, cheese which Gregor had declared inedible two days earlier, a slice of dry bread, a slice with butter, and a slice of salted bread smeared with butter." (Kafka, 10). Gregor's communion is now with himself. When people eat together is a bond of friendship and excepting each other.  "...breaking bread together is a sign of sharing and peace, since if your're breaking bread you're not breaking heads." (Foster, 8). Grete and the rest of Gregor's family did not want to eat with him. He had no friends and no one who wanted to love him. "I'm with you, I like you, we form a community together." (Foster 8). Gregor' family did no want anything to do with such a pest, so they left him to eat by himself, a lonely communion.
        The Metamorphosis, is comical. Gregor takes it with a sense of irony, pretending that noting is wrong. He’s well aware of how people perceive him. But the funny thing is, aside from how he scares everyone, it is that he’s more troubled by how his transformation has thoroughly screwed up his routing than by the transformation itself. He spends almost the entire first chapter trying to figure out how to get out of bed, while constantly worrying about train schedules and how his tardiness might affect his job. And when he does get out of bed and opens his bedroom door, the results are comic genius. While his boss and his parents are on the verge of panic, Gregor just wants to go to work, and even gives a little speech on how he feels, stating that he’s perfectly fine, though he might have a tiny cold. Then, Gregor reminds his boss to report on his employee’s condition truthfully.
        In the original piece, Kafka writes the word vermin in German as Ungeziefer, which means and unclean animal not suited for sacrifice. In the second picture below, is showing the relationship between Kafka and Gregor. Although Gregor is the bug, Kafka is the writer. The illustrator of the cover, was very deep with how the image was going to turn out. Every cover of every book has a meaning that relates to the book. This cover shows the book, and explains the author. Kafka felt like a Ungeziefer in his father's eyes. And in Mr. Samsa's eyes, Gregor was a bug, but for a different reason. Because of Kafka's unwillingness to become a accountant, Kafka was dead to his father. In the first image, is a picture passed off Kafka's life. Kafka was a child with no fatherly figure. His father was always gone, off at work and his mother was distance too. In The Metamorphosis, his parents were close to Gregor before the transformation, almost like that's how Kafka wished his parents were.
     Gregor and Kafka were very much alike. It started off as opposites, Gregor having a loving father and Kafka not. But, then as the story of The Metamorphosis progresses, things begin to even out and their stories become one. When Gregor's father sees Gregor as the bug, he no longer cares for him. Just as Kafka's father sees Kafka after he told his father he did not want to be a business man, but a writer. Once Gregor dies, his father seems to feel at peace. Kafka felt as though he was dead in his father's eyes and thought that he would feel peace is Gregor was dead, and not alive. 

Metamorphosis Reflection

I   The novel written by Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis, was basically written off his life. It shows the difficulties of living in a modern society and the struggle for acceptance of others when in a time of need. In this novel Kafka directly reflects upon many of the negative aspects of his personal life, both mentally and physically.  In the beginning, Gregor is transformed into a bug. I feel as though Kafka wrote this story to express that he felt as a bug in his fathers eyes. The relationship between Gregor and his father, I feel is similar to the relationship between Franz and his father Herman. "His numerous legs, pitifully thin in comparison to the rest of his circumference, flickered helplessly before his eyes." (Kafka, 1). During this movement of his legs, he is feeling help less and excluded. In Kafka's life, his parents were often distant and he only had his siblings. Before Gregor was a bug, they cared for him. Before Franz chose his writing oath, his parents were there somewhat, but still cared for him. After his decision, the tension relationship between him and his father grew. From the moment we meet Gregor Samsa’s father we are shown how short tempered he is. "The father relentlessly pushed his way forward, hissing like a wild man." (Kafka, 8). His father was very short tempered to see Gregor's new "transform" when Gregor first exited his room in his new state as a bug. Gregor’s father chased after him with a cane and newspaper making a hissing noise that annoyed Gregor. Just this passage here shows how alike Mr. Samsa and Herman Kafka are. Kafka was subjected to abuse and constant yelling from his father because he was a failure in his eyes. "Perhaps his father noticed his good intentions, for he did not disrupt Gregor in this motion, but with the tip of the cane from a distance he even directed Gregor’s rotating movement now and then. If only his father had not hissed so unbearably!" (Kafka, 8). Gregor hoped that his father saw his good intentions in letting himself be shown. I feel as though Franz became a writer in hoping that after his father saw what kind of author he was, he would see Franz's good intentions and support him. He may have went along with his father's intions of Franz's job if he hadn't been so abrupt and demanding of it. When Samsa sees what has happened to Gregor he is immediately outraged, either out of confusion or disappointment towards his son.

II   Kafka’s father viewed Franz as a failure and disapproved of his writing because he wanted Franz to become a business man like him. When Franz Kafka was a boy his father abused him. Whenever Franz Kafka disagreed with his father or told his father that he wanted to be a writer, not a shop owner, his father got very upset. In the book, Mr. Samsa displayed a violent temper from the very first encounter with the transformed Gregor. When he chased Gregor back to his room, he kicked him in the back as he reached the door. Another event in which Gregor encountered violence from his father was when Mr. Samsa threw an apple at him and it lodged in his back. "However, another thrown immediately after that one drove into Gregor’s back really hard. Gregor wanted to drag himself off, as if he could make the unexpected and incredible pain go away if he changed his position. But he felt as if he was nailed in place and lay stretched out completely confused in all his senses." (Kafka, 8). From this point on, the physical and mental condition of Gregor steadily decreased. The apple began to rot away and he felt weaker and he experienced more of the pain than usual. Gregor even lost his appetite, and ate nothing. The feelings of seclusion and not being wanted entered Gregor’s thoughts. He could tell that his sister did not care as much as she did when he first became a bug. These feelings could have been the same feelings of seclusion that Kafka felt in his own life after abuse from his father.

III   In The Metamorphosis there are many signs of slow deterioration for Gregor. He slowly starts to lose his eye sight when he notices that he can no longer see across the road to the hospital. " For, in fact, from day to day he perceived things with less and less clarity, even those only a short distance away. The hospital across the street, the all-too-frequent sight of which he had previously cursed, was not visible at all anymore..." (Kafka, 13). He has many injuries, some of which he cannot explain, like the pain in his side when he first woke up. He had an apple lodged in his back, by his father, which was left to rot. He was cut by a piece off glass from a shattering glass bottle, and was bleeding. And then when he tried to get into his room and got stuck in the door. All of these descriptions are painful, and the whole basis of the novel revolves around a human being who is dyeing a slow, painful death.Franz Kafka died on June 3, 1924 from tuberculosis of the larynx. The Metamorphosis could be one of Kafka’s imaginations of his own death that is carefully disguised and elaborated through literature. After awhile, Gregor's father refused Grete, his sister, go in Gregors room to clean it. "A huge bony cleaning woman with white hair flying all over her head came in the morning and evening to do the heaviest work. The mother took care of everything else, in addition to her considerable sewing work." (Kafka, 19). Because of their little amount of income, they let go of the servant girl and hired a cleaning woman who only cleaned Gregor's room. Almost as they were sending someone else to go and take care of their mess. "He was filled with sheer anger over the wretched care he was getting, even though he could not imagine anything which he might have an appetite for." (Kafka, 22). After all the things he has done for the family and the ways to keep it afloat, they treat him horribly. "  "'Well,' said Mr. Samsa, 'now we can give thanks to God.' He crossed himself, and the three women followed his example." (Kafka, 25). When Gregor eventually dies, his family is grateful. They did not want to have to take care of the menace he had become in their eyes. The way they act to his death, his almost like they did not know who he was and they did not care.