Father Figure Relationship in Literature

In KafkaÆs story, the father and son trade places. In the beginning, the father exploits Gregor, allowing the entire family to live on the money Gregor earnsùof which he keeps very little for himself. In the meantime, the father hoards part of the money, hiding the fact from Gregor. As Gregor toils at a tedious job to pay off his fatherÆs debts, he counts down the years he will have to keep working until he will be free of the indebtedness. Meanwhile, his parents and sister are living a leisurely existence at homeùnone of them workingùand enjoying the services of a maid. However, after GregorÆs transformation into a cockroach, he is no longer able to work and becomes dependent on his father. In Franz KafkaÆs the Metamorphosis, the juxtaposition is pointedly described: ôBefore Gregor's metamorphosis, the father was the parasit

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egor seems to suffer from a lifelong sense of guilt based on his low self-esteem rather than on any verifiable evidence of wrongdoing. In the lowliness of his own mind, he is figuratively no better than vermin, a belief that materializes when he transforms into a cockroach. ôIn mythical symbolism children are represented by verminàKafka uses the symbol of the bug to represent the son according to these Freudian postulates.á The bugàaptly characterizes his sense of worthlessness before his fatherö (Nabokov). Goodman Brown has been inculcated with the Puritan belief in the inescapability of manÆs sinful nature and so has been essentially trained to believe that he can never overcome it. The Puritan catechism is a virtual self-condemnation to a life of sin and the ticket to a lifetime of unrelieved guilt: Q:áá Are you then born a Sinner? áA:áá I was conceived in sin, and born in iniquity. áQ:áá What is your Birth-sin? áA:áá Adams sin imputed to me, and a corrupt nature dwelling in me. áQ:áá What is your corrupt nature? áA:áá My corrupt nature is empty of Grace, bent unto sin, and onely [sic] unto sin, ááááááá and that continually (McCabe). It is the guilt that besets both protagonists that appears to be the root cause of
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1893
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)

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