Theories on Conformity: Kafka

For my project of conformity, I will focus mainly on the familial pressures and other societal pressures that people face, especially during their youth. These types of pressures can range from standards of behavior to an individual's commitment or duty to his family, like aiding with chores or upholding the family reputation in a community. In Kafka's short story "The Metamorphosis", Gregor gets a job, though voluntarily, to support his family at the time when they faced financial problems. However, over the years of supporting his family, his mind becomes enveloped in the conformist notion of dedicated working, like a drone. Meanwhile, his family becomes habituated with depending solely on Gregor's income. For both Gregor and his family, the sense of habituation they experience is a type of conformity. As they become habituated with their lifestyles, they grasp on to their daily routines and, if the strongly hold on to this conformity, they fear changes to the routine. When Gregor discovers he has transformed into a bug, he refuses to confront and recognize the severity of his problem and instead focuses on his daily routines. In Gregor's society, the conformist notion of working controls Gregor.

The Metamorphosis: Blog 2

From the beginning of the short story, the narrator tells the audience that his family is very kind and considerate in taking care of him after his sudden, shocking transformation. Yet, towards the end, the narrator hints at the fact that Gregor attempts to rationalize his family's actions and emotions too often to his liking, rather than accepting the idea that his family fear him and cannot embrace the lifestyle they live to support Gregor. As he becomes more comfortable to his lifestyle as an insect, Gregor perceives his sister much more as a caretaker. Yet, in order to hold on to his human aspects, he frequently remembers his desires to send his sister to the conservatory and sees his relationship with his sister becoming stronger. Through his narration, he demonstrates a lot of love towards his young sister and implies she feels the same way for him. But, at the end of the short story, his sister loses hope in recovering her brother. While Gregor has become unconsciously accustomed to his life as an insect, his sister has become accustomed to the idea of supporting the life a giant insect rather than her brother's. Her hopelessness contrasts Gregor's optimism for a return to a regular lifestyle, at least with the entire family.

Interview Questions

Interview Questions
Focus on social values
Familial ValuesPersonal Values
Traditional Values Familial Pressure
1) What kind of values or behavior did your parents or siblings teach you to follow?
2) Do you believe some of these values helped shape you as a distinct individual in the world, or do you believe they portrayed you as another loyal family member?
(Comment on question: besides ethics? What am I asking in this question? Struggle between developing an individuality and conforming to familial values)
3) Which values do you think your family was most pressuring you to follow?
4)Do you have an experience where clearly acted against your family?
5) What were the consequences? Did you regret making that decision?
6) In what ways do you think (cultural)traditional values distinguished you as an individual and as a conformist?
7) Did you ever act against cultural values?

The Metamorphosis: Blog 1

In the first few pages of Kafka's novella, the narrator presents a simple, non-alarming tone that contradicts the severity of the protagonist's situation. Transformed into a giant insect, Gregor undermines his well being and falls back to his usual mindset on his routine lifestyle. Rather than acknowledge that his shocking transformation may alienate him from his family and acquaintances and fracture his life, he ignores it, or, at the most, views it as a minor setback to his daily schedule. Ironically, once the Director threatens to fire Gregor, Gregor becomes emotional and pleads to stay on the job, noting his commitment to his dull routine and drone-like work ethics as positive factors, rather than directing that emotion to when he realizes he has transformed into an insect. Through his simple thoughts on tasks and focus to returning to work, Gregor, too enveloped in conformity, shocks the audience with his disinterest in his being and self-interest.

Conformity Project: Blog 2

Another aspect I want to focus on for the conformity project is the familial pressure on the individual, like I mention in my previous blog, but with education and work involved. Although I do not know my grandmother very well, I understand that she raised my mother to be a very hard working, determined woman. Throughout their lives, both have worked as street vendors in Mexico, along with other family members. Though I have also been raised to work very hard in jobs, if I were to interview my grandmother for the project, I would compare the differences in the family pressure during her youth to the family pressure I currently face. Since I would also be possibly the first in my family to attend college, one difference I would highlight is that I experience much less pressure to work and more pressure to study. During my grandmother's youth, she probably worked for long hours every week in order to contribute to paying for living expenses. Though she has had brothers and sisters to help her, she experienced the family pressure to work for many years; if she refused to comply, the family could have shunned her and she risked having to financially destabilize the family. She could have also risked destroying relationships within the family. In this generation, since my direct family is much better off financially, I feel much less pressure to contribute to earning a living, though I am still expected to work. However, if I were to not comply, I would risk deteriorating my relationship with my mother,though not risk destabilizing the family financially.

Conformity Project: Blog 1

For the English Assignment Conformity, Then and Now, I want to focus on the the consequences that conformity to social and family values have on the individual, whether negative or positive, from two generations ago to the conformity the individual faces now. In observing the impact of conforming, the impact on the family and the individual's mind must be taken into account. Often, the impact on the family involves the stability of the family or possibly the family's reputation in a commmunity. In the novel Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth Bennnet risks losing a position in higher society for her and her family and strong financial security after refusing two marriage proposals from gentlemen, an opportunity that most families would teach their daughters not to turn down. In modern families, the children feel much less pressure to marry into wealth or families well connected in higher society. This familial pressure has shifted towards the children working hard to earn an education and a job in order to provide for the family directly.
In other words, one of the aspects of conformity I want to focus on is the shift of familial pressure to court and marry with the fact that the family would benefit financially to the modern-day familial pressure to earn a college education and a job with a high salary. Both aspects help the family economically, but the modern aspect has more control for the individual over his life: unlike in the 19th century, the individual can choose to marry with his interests in mind and earn an adequate living without a college education and without his family shunning him (though at extremes cases, they would).

Body Paragraph: Essay on Heart of Darkness

As Marlow travels deeper into the immoral, bestial realm of the African jungle, his admiration for the corrupted Kurtz and the manifestation of greed and immorality clash with Marlow's ethics. Despite the horrific lifestyle that Kurtz lives to satisfy his megalomaniac needs, Marlow, the only character who appears to have a sense of morality, praises him for his success and portrays him as Europe's pride. Hence, as Frederick Karl interprets, Marlow would wish to see a sense of morality manifest in Kurtz's last words,"Kurtz has reviewed his life with all its horror and in some dying part of him has repented; Marlow hears the words as a victory of moral sensibility over a life of brutality"(Psychoanalytic 130). Much more of a desire than an observation, Marlow's perspective reveal he strongly holds on to his ethics in the immorally corrupt, primal world of the African jungle and wishes to see those qualities in the man he admires. Yet, Marlow surprisingly ignores
(Personal transformation into...)

(second quote: Lie to K's Intended