The gender roles are further reversed as Straus observed that the more Gregor deteriorated, the more Grete bloomed. Straus identifies this point as where gender roles start to blur, as Gregor (the metaphorical representation of man) finds the shame in being completely taken care of by the woman, Grete. However, these duties are taken a step further because the woman is no longer just cleaning the house, but tending to what used to be the man of the household. Although largely abandoned in his time of need, Grete, Gregor’s sister, attempts to make Gregor’s situation more comfortable, succumbing to the traditional gender roles of women by giving him food and cleaning his room. However, these titles disappear along with Gregor’s metamorphosis. He goes to work and comes home each day like clockwork, until one day he finds himself transformed into a grotesque insect, which, according to Straus, represents “the burdens of patriarchal obligations.” This alludes to the traditional gender roles for men: the one that financially takes care of his family and the head of the household. According to Straus, Gregor is the metaphorical representation of any working man stuck in a bureaucracy. In her critical essay “Transforming Franz Kafka’s ‘Metamorphosis’”, Nina Pelikan Straus criticizes Kafka’s ambiguity and brings forth what she believes to be the true takeaway of “The Metamorphosis”: life combated with the rearrangement of gender roles.
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