Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Kafka’s the Metamorphosis and Delillo’s White Noise

Throughout Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Kafka’s The Metamorphosis and Delillo’s White Noise, family duty is a topic that is presented in several situations to emphasize how important acknowledgement of family duty is. There are vast differences of opinion weighing moral perceptions of this responsibility and the query remains, what are the duties one owes to his family unit and what are the consequences if these duties are not fulfilled? While Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Kafka’s The Metamorphosis and Delillo’s White Noise consider the question of family duty in different ways, each text illustrates a similar moral reflection: that family members should be dutiful to each other regardless of the circumstances presented to them in society.

There are many different family duties but one of the most important is that of a parent to a child. A parent should be held accountable for the development of their creation; moreover, the child is entitled to being taught, nourished, protected and sheltered. In Frankenstein, Victor does not take any responsibility for his creation and effortlessly leaves the monster to survive on his own. After the creation, he explains, “But it was in vain: I slept indeed, but I was disturbed by the wildest dreams”(35). To be able to sleep after such a huge event displays irresponsible character; moreover, it is the duty of a parent to teach their creations how to survive from the moment of their arrival and Victor does not fulfill this duty at all. This abandonment is recognized by the monster when he exclaims, “When I looked around I saw and heard none like me”(85). Victor ignores his obligation of family duty to care and provide, which is morally wrong. Shelley allows the monster to express emotions of this absence of Victor’s parental responsibilities, “Unfeeling, heartless creator! You had endowed me with the perceptions and passions and then cast me abroad an object for the scorn and horror of mankind”(100). Abandonment of one’s creation is wrong because as a parent, one should care for the needs of the child until it can care for itself or the child will suffer.

This same concept is supported in The Metamorphosis during the time Gregor is being cared for by his family members after his transformation into an insect; however, they soon act as Victor does towards his creation. Furthermore, Gregor has lost his use value in their lives, and because he has morphed into unthinkable circumstances and essentially become of no value to them, their emotional value and attachment to him diminishes. Grete exclaims “We’ve done everything humanly possible to look after it and put up with it, I don’t believe that anyone can approach us in the slightest”(104). This marks the vivid realization that the family’s sentimental value for Gregor is gone--note the transition from the pronoun ‘him’ to the pronoun ‘it’. Grete has the audacity to say, “When one has to work as hard