Family plays an important role in the life of the individual. Those within the family usually hold the most influence over the individual, and they instill set morals, values, beliefs in the children. Not only does the family affect the individual, but the absence of family members also alters how the individual grows and develops through childhood and into adulthood as well. The key factors within a family dynamic allow a better understanding of why a character within a story chose to partake in the actions that they do. Philip Roth shows the unbalanced family dynamic of young Ozzie Freedman in his short story “Conversion of the Jews,” and James Joyce depicts a young woman who struggles with choosing her lover over her family in his story “Eveline” found in Dubliners. Franz Kafka explores Gregor Samsa's unconventional family in his short story "The Metamorphosis." Each character within the three stories experiences a lack of normalcy within their family dynamics that influence their actions, behaviors, decisions, throughout the course of their lives, and they are influenced by family members that are still involved in their lives additionally.
Philip Roth’s character Ozzie Freedman experiences an absence in his family structure that ultimately leads to his rash behavior at the end of the story. Ozzie does not have a paternal figure in his household. While Ozzie watched his mother light candles, he observed, “even when his father was alive Ozzie remembered that her eyes had gotten glassy, so it didn’t have anything to do with his dying” (Roth 143). The death of his father is only briefly mentioned during that moment in the story. As alluded to in the Bible, the father is set to be the head of the household. The father is the one who is supposed to instill the word and value of the faith into his children. The Bible states, “Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4). Because Ozzie and his family are Jewish, the same ideal should be evaluated within the Torah. It states, “therefore impress these My words upon your very heart: bind them as a sign on your hand and let them serve as a symbol on your forehead, and teach them to your children” (Deuteronomy 11:18-19). It is the father’s responsibility to teach his son their religion, and that is the foundation Ozzie is missing. It does not specify when Ozzie lost his father, but his father is absent during a crucial developmental part of Ozzie’s life. Ozzie is preparing for his Bar Mitzvah. In doing so, he attends Hebrew school with Rabbi Binder. He has many questions about his faith, God, and Jesus that he poses to the Rabbi, but the Rabbi dismisses all of his questions as ridiculous. Ozzie's father may have been able to provide better answers that allowed Ozzie to understand his religion further.
Though Ozzie does not have a paternal figure in his household, Ozzie does have a paternal model in his story that leads him to his actions and behavior at the end. As previously stated, Ozzie repeatedly questions Rabbi Binder on certain aspects of their religion. He asks whether it is plausible that an all-mighty God can procreate without intercourse, and he asks how the Jews are the chosen ones when the Declaration of Independence deems all men as equal. Ozzie asks these questions as a young child who is genuinely curious about the workings of his faith. He wants to believe in something he thoroughly understands rather than something that does not seem to make sense. However, Rabbi Binder sees Ozzie as a troublesome boy whose facetious questions are posed to agitate him. While explaining Rabbi Binder’s reaction to one of his inquiries, Ozzie explains, “finally he starts screaming that I was deliberately simple-minded and a wise guy, and my mother had to come, and this was the last time. And that I’d never get bar-mitzvahed if he could help it” (Roth 142). Instead of taking a moment to give Ozzie an honest answer, he retaliates. He considers Ozzie to be disruptive and even threatens to withhold Ozzie from having a Bar Mitzvah. Rabbi Binder is taking on the role of the father in Ozzie’s life since Ozzie’s father is absent. As the Rabbi, he is supposed to instill the values of their religion in Ozzie. Rabbi Binder is not teaching Ozzie in this instance, but instead, he is repressing Ozzie’s desire to learn and comprehend the Jewish faith.
Mrs. Freedman, Ozzie’s mother, also had an influence over Ozzie that led to his actions and behavior at the end of the story. Because the role of the father is missing in Ozzie’s household, as the other parent, it becomes the mother’s responsibility to instill the faith in her child. The Torah identifies that it is the parents’ duty to teach their children the way, the morals, and the beliefs of their religion. This responsibility falls into Mrs. Freedman’s hands, but she does not act on it. To the reader’s knowledge, she does not address any questions Ozzie has about the Jewish faith. Instead, she retaliates when she hears that Ozzie has to meet with Rabbi Binder because of his behavior in the class. The narrator states, “for the first time in their life together she hit Ozzie across the face with her hand” (Roth 143). She scolded Ozzie for what happened in school rather than addressing it and attempting to understand where he was coming from. Later that week, Ozzie gets into another altercation with Rabbi Binder that results in the Rabbi hitting him across the face and drawing blood. In a panic, Ozzie runs up to the roof of his Hebrew school. Whilst everyone is beginning and pleading for Ozzie to come down from the roof safely rather than throwing himself, Ozzie forces everyone to proclaim that he or she believes in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. His intentions are not to convert those of the Jewish faith, but instead to make them realize that it is a possibility God could conceive a child without intercourse. Afterward, Ozzie proclaims, “Mamma, don’t you see – you shouldn’t hit me. He shouldn’t hit me. You shouldn’t hit me about God, Mamma. You should never hit anybody about God” (Roth 158). He insists that no one should be hit or scolded or reprimanded for wanting to know more about his or her religion. Both Rabbi Binder and Mrs. Freedman scolded Ozzie’s inquisitiveness and withheld him from gaining a deeper comprehension of the Jewish faith, so Ozzie took matters into his own hands. The lack of a paternal figure in Ozzie’s life that was meant to teach him about Judaism and provide him with honest answers is ultimately what led him to the actions, behaviors, and decisions at the end of the story. Neither of the other adult figures in his life provided him with this, so he was left on his own.
Similarly to Ozzie Freedman, Eveline experiences the loss of a family member that alters the structure of her household and leads her to the decision she makes at the end of her story. Her mother has passed away recently. The reader learns this when Eveline says her brothers and sisters were now grown up and her mother was dead. Just as fathers play an important role in the family dynamic, mothers do as well. John Ruskin, a writer of the Victorian Era, believes that a woman’s true power lies within the home where she instills morals and values and ethics into her children (Ruskin 68-69). Without the mother, according to this idea, this responsibility is now left to the father, and it may not be as simple for him to do. Eveline’s father does not introduce good values and morals to Eveline and her family, and in fact, he does quite the opposite. He was abusive to her mother, which Eveline believes is what caused her death, and to Eveline’s older brothers as well. Eveline’s mother was the one who kept the family in order to the best of her abilities. After she died, the responsibility was then left for Eveline. She manages the household, which includes paying expenses and seeing that the two younger children went to school and ate their meals. Before Eveline’s mother died, she made her a promise. Eveline recalls, “she knew the air. Strange that it should come that very night to remind her of the promise to her mother, her promise to keep the home together as long as she could” (Joyce 22). Eveline believes this is something she owes to her mother since her mother is no longer alive to do it herself, and she promised her mother that she would before her mother died. When Eveline is deciding whether or not she should leave home, her promise to her mother is a force that prevents her from leaving.
Eveline’s father is a factor that comes into play during her consideration to leave home. While thinking about her father, Eveline recalls, “when they were growing up he had never gone for her, like he used to go for Harry and Ernest, because she was a girl; but latterly he had begun to threaten her and say what he would do to her only for her dead mother’s sake. And now she had nobody to protect her” (Joyce 21). Her father was more of a threat to her than someone she could go to for protection. She felt unsafe and mistreated in her own household, and she wanted a way out of it. She wanted to fulfill her mother’s promise like the dutiful daughter she strived to be, but her father consistently challenged that idea time and time again. Eveline’s father made being home unbearable, so she was willing to leave the country with her new lover. She vowed that no one would treat her the way her father had, and no one would treat her the way her mother was treated. She would be married and respected. All of these ideas that Eveline proposed to herself intrigued her enough to make her consider leaving everything behind. Her father was a negative force that drove her to want to leave her home. Her mother’s influence on her pulled her to stay, but her father’s influence did nothing but push her away.
Though Frank, Eveline’s lover, is not a part of the family dynamic, he is what sets Eveline’s familial influences into motion. The narrator explains, “Frank was a very kind, manly, open-hearted. She was about to go away with him by the night-boat to be his wife and to live with him in Buenos Ayres where he had a home waiting for her” (Joyce 21). She believed that she could find peace, happiness, respect, love with Frank in Buenos Ayres. He would take her away from all the harm and stress she faced at home and give her a new life. This was what she dreamed of, and this is what she believed she wanted. Despite this, she could not make a decision. She wanted to leave, but she wanted to fulfill her promise by staying. She wanted love, but she knew she had to give love to those still in the household. She did not want to be mistreated, but she feared to leave the house to be with a man who promised her everything she wants. These are the opposing influences that are imposed on her by her mother and father. She wants to go out and create a life that is better for her, but she wants to stay true to her word by keeping the family together for as long as she possibly can. She has to make a decision in the end. Eveline has to decide whether she is going to stay home and care for the family or go to Buenos Ayres with Frank and fulfill all the promises Frank has proposed. In the end, she does go to the station to meet Frank, but she does not leave with him. The narrator depicts, “he rushed beyond the barrier and called her to follow…She set her white face to him, passive, like a helpless animal. Her eyes gave him no sign of love or farewell or recognition” (Joyce 23). Eveline did not choose to go with Frank. She chose to stay home and fulfill the promises she had given to her mother. She let go of Frank and showed no remorse by doing so. Her family was held at a higher level of importance, so she ultimately chose them.
Gregor Samsa experiences an absence of his own in “The Metamorphosis” that alters his family dynamic and influences his actions throughout the story. Gregor is a man who lives with his mother, father, and sister and works to provide a steady income for them. Since he is the only one that works, he is the one who has to pay for all the expenses of the household. Typically, a man of his age would not be living with his parents. He would be married, seeing a girl, or simply living completely on his own. And yet, this is not the case for Gregor. He lives with his family because they are his dependents rather than a spouse or children of his own. Outside of the members of his family and Gregor’s boss, no one else is mentioned throughout the course of the story. There are no photos of friends in his room, but instead, the narrator describes, “above the table…hung the picture that he had recently cut out of an illustrated magazine and had placed in a pretty gilt frame. It depicted a lady who, decked out in a fur hat and a fur boa, sat upright, raising toward the viewer” (Kafka 11). This image was all that was represented to show Gregor’s connections outside of his family. Later in the story, Mrs. Samsa and Grete, Gregor’s younger sister, are emptying Gregor’s room to allow him more space. In an act of desperation, Gregor throws himself onto the picture to prevent the women from taking it out of his room. The picture is the last thing that ties him to a piece of humanity from before his transformation into a bug, and its importance to Gregor shows how lonely he was. His family was around him, but life was still lonely because all he did for them was work.
Gregor’s parents play a part in why Gregor behaves the way he does, and they contribute to his untimely death at the end of the story. A large part of why Gregor works as hard as he does is because he is working off the debt his parents owe to his boss. While considering taking a break from work, Gregor explains, “once I have the money together to pay off my parents’ debt to him – that should still take five or six years – I’ll definitely go through with it. Then I’ll make the big break” (Kafka 12). Not only does Gregor take care of the financial needs of his family and the household, but he actively works off to pay a debt that his parents owe. After the collapse of his father’s business, Gregor did everything he could to make sure the family was stable and well off. Later after Gregor’s transformation, he discovers that his father had pocketed some of the money that was given to him to pay off the debt. The narrator describes, “Gregor, behind his door, nodded vigorously, delighted by this unexpected foresight and theft. To tell the truth, with that surplus money he could have further reduced his father’s debt to his boss, and the day when he could get rid of that job would be much closer” (Kafka 30). After hearing that his family had not been giving the total sum of money to their creditor, Gregor was anything but upset. He was elated that his family now had some money to care for themselves with since Gregor was no longer able to provide for them. He was never concerned with the amount of money he made or the number of hours he worked, but he cared about his family’s wellbeing first and foremost.
Grete is another member of Gregor’s family that Gregor strives to provide for, which encouraged his worker-bug like behavior. Grete plays the violin, and her music was something that Gregor always adored. The narrator explains, “only his sister had remained close to Gregor all the same, it was his secret plan – because, unlike Gregor, she dearly loved music and could play the violin soulfully – to send her to the conservatory the following year, regardless of the great expenses which that had to entail, and which would have to be made up for in some other way” (Kafka 29). This is another example of how money was not of great importance to Gregor. He wanted to send Grete to school to further her music education because that was something she was passionate about, and all Gregor wanted was to see his sister happy. His parents were not all that fond of the idea, but it was what Gregor wanted to do for his sister. He knew he would have to work more to obtain the money to provide for her, and that was okay to him. As time went on and days turned into months, Gregor was still stuck in his bug-like form. He recognized he had become a burden on his family once Grete was the one who expressed her disgust with him. Grete proclaims, “it’s got to go, that’s the only remedy, Father. All you have to do is shake off the idea that that’s Gregor…If it were Gregor, he would long since have realized that it’s impossible for people to live side by side with an animal like that, and would have gone away of his own free will” (Kafka 48). Grete went from taking pride in being Gregor’s primary caregiver to refusing to even acknowledge Gregor as her brother. His family decided that he was nothing but an animal, a bug, once he was unable to provide them with money. They saw no use for him, so they discarded him. Gregor’s final act of selflessness for his family was when he died in his room. He knew he was only harming his family by staying alive, so he willed himself to die. Gregor did everything for his family from life to death. They drove and influenced every action he made.
Throughout the course of the three stories, the family has played a crucial and pivotal role in the lives of the main characters. They all experienced an absence or lack of something that hindered their family standings and drove them to the actions and behaviors shown. Both Ozzie and Eveline experienced the loss of a parent. This loss caused both characters to question the things around them, such as what should be considered right and what wrong. Ozzie wanted to know why the possibility of God creating a child without intercourse was wrong, and he did not understand why he was constantly reprimanded for questioning it. Eveline wanted to know why something that felt right, such as going with Frank to start a new life possibly filled with love and kindness, also felt so wrong since she was breaking the promise she made to her mother. Gregor and Eveline put their families above their own personal lives and wishes. They both chose to stay home to provide for their families as much as they possibly could. In the end, both characters made the ultimate sacrifice in their lives. Gregor chose to die so his family would no longer be burdened by his bug-like form, and Eveline decided to abandon her lover at the station so she could stay home and keep her promise. All three characters lacked the role of a loving paternal figure in their lives. Gregor and Eveline worked to provide for theirs but received nothing in return, and all three of them were consistently rejected by their paternal role models for various different reasons. Understanding the role of the family is important in these cases because it allows for a deeper understanding of the motives behind a character’s actions. It allows readers to understand why he made everyone proclaim their belief in Jesus Christ, why she chose to desert her lover at the station, and why he relinquished his life to benefit his family.