In Which Mabel Does Xir First Assignment

 The Metamorphosis Assignment One:

In Part I, the manager says to Gregor’s family, “We businessmen – fortunately or unfortunately, whichever you prefer – very often simply have to overcome a slight indisposition for business reasons.”

 How might this manager’s attitude affect Gregor’s attitude towards himself and his work? Are there times in your own life when you might need to ignore personal discomforts? In your opinion, is this a “fortunate” attitude to have, or is it “unfortunate”?

That's the prompt to my first assignment for class, so here I go, since I have nothing better to do.

The manager is a total asshat, (as exemplified with his lack of care/decency to Gregor's sickness), and from what we can gather from the way he interacts with Gregor, it's not un-normal for him to treat Gregor this way. As such, he's begun to hate his job more and more, holding it in contempt since he isn't treated with decency (or as even a human being, hurr hurr, see what I did there?), and because of that, his own self worth diminishes. Like, big time. see, Gregor has no real care for himself. Everything he does and strives for is for his family and their well-being. In a way, he has begun to see himself as a mere machine that constantly works for the good of others rather than himself. Which is kinda sad.

But you know what, I can relate. A lot actually. *Painfully see's self in Gregor.* While it is unfortunate that one has to ignore their personal discomforts for whatever reason (or the Greater Good^TM), it's a necessary attitude. And because of that, I can heavily relate to it. Just like Gregor, I gave up a lot of shit as a kid because I knew that, in my family, we were broke. We were working poor. We still are working poor. And at a really young age, I never asked for a single thing as a kid. It actually frustrated my parents (my mom especially) that I never asked for anything, because they always thought "Goddammit, she* must want something?!" And I did, I just never asked for it. I would get really jealous over the kids who had cooler and nicer and newer things than me, but I never said shit because I knew we didn't have money for it. It's made me really awkward at receiving gifts from people. Especially my friends. I always get weirded out when they give me things. >.>

So yeah, in all honesty, while I do think it's unfortunate to have such an attitude, I do think it necessary. And that's all have to say about that.

*I used female pronouns because, obviously, at the time, my parents didn't know about my genderfluidity and my preference for gender-neutral pronouns.

In Which Mabel Begins to Read the Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

So I just read the first few pages of The Metamorphosis for English class two periods back (I would've posted this last period, but someone *coughCoopercough* didn't want to share his laptop), so I'm just gonna talk about my first impressions here.

Gregor Samsa, the main character, is pretty interesting insofar how he acts in other's considerations is a direct contradiction almost to his true nature and the way he perceives of the world. Like seriously, the guy hates his job with a passion, and would love nothing more to do than yell at his boss and tell him all the shit he's gone through, just to enjoy the expression on his face, yet he tries very hard to keep his job and stay in it out of familiar obligations and a sense of duty.

He comes off as a quiet soft-spoken person in his manner of speech, yet what he says, in it's content, is no where near the soft spoken attitude he gives off. In fact, he's surprisingly witty so far, and a bit strong in his speech, yet I can't quite get the image out of my head that he speaks in soft hushed tones. I'm really enjoying the clashing of this personalities, as if he's almost leading a double life without even knowing about it.

The writing's also in a way that is not overtly flowery to disinterest the reader, not simple enough that it's bland. I believe my favorite part so far is the fact that he just accepts that he's now turned into a large spider/insect thing and accepts it as something that just is. I'm definitely going to have fun reading this from now on.