Roles of Women in the Metamorp

             The Roles of Women in Paradise of the Blind and The Metamorphosis
             The roles of women in The Metamorphosis and Paradise of the Blind are both that of sacrifice for love and family as Kafka describes the women's roles as those of duty and responsibility in a time of need for family strength in The Metamorphosis, and similarly Huong represents women in a position to sacrifice their own needs or wants for the family.
             In The Metamorphosis, the two women represented in the story are Gregor's sister, Grete, and his mother. As Gregor is "transformed," the women are forced into new duties of care-giving and hard-working women. Grete especially realizes the need for someone to step in and be the primary care-taker of Gregor, considering his newfound inability. This is demonstrated on page 91 as it talks about Grete's reaction to coming into Gregor's room after trying to give him some food earlier which he seems to not have eaten. "But his sister at once noticed, with surprise, that the basin was still full, except for a little milk that had been spilt all around it, she lifted it immediately, not with her bare hands, true, but with a cloth and carried it away." The cloth is mentioned to give the reader a sense of disgust in Grete's chore. She clearly doesn't necessarily want to be in this position, yet she understands that as her brother, she must care for him. It seems as though the mother would possibly be the most important woman's role in the book, yet her attitude toward the situation seems to make her incapacitated to fulfill any such duties. Every member of Gregor's family had a negative, surprised reaction to his transformation, yet none seemed to be as distressed as that of Gregor's mother. An example of her sorrow and feelings of resentment can be found on page 86 as it says "Behind his father his mother had torn open a window, despite the cold weather, and was leaning far out of it wit...

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