Curate, connect, and discover
i feel like gregors roach traits could be read as allegories for PTSD/trauma. obviously the way he got them was a very traumatic experience, but i wanna focus on the war shit and the other genetically modified veterans we see. Like how he grows more buggy when he gets really stressed, and the more traumatized he gets the less physically human he becomes (because trauma dehumanizes you!!). and when he survives the war and tries to live a normalish life, the one thing that keeps it from happening is his cockroach arm. It won’t go away, even if he tries to cut it off, and it lashes out indiscriminately much to his scorn and resentment. like that scene in the subway where it attacks that woman seemed to be followed by mentions of the war and thoughts of it on greg’s part. I also think that the way gregor and all the other insectoid smoke war vets who turned to enkephalin (can’t say i blame them:( ) couldn’t get their lives back and were used and thrown away is like obvs a statement on how the govt/war machine/military industrial complex treats (disabled, but that’s another text post for another time) veterans. not to mention the fact that gregor explained they were operated on without their consent!! gregor and co are seen as disposable, disgusting insects who are less than human. i also think there’s something to be said about the fact that he’s a cockroach specifically. yes, they’re viewed as gross, disgusting pests but they’re also survivors. no matter how disgusting people think they are they don’t die in water and they can literally survive decapitation. also like the way trauma makes you feel so disgusting and tainted and like how your own mind and body don’t belong to you. he can’t look at him own arm/body without remembering that his own mother decided to surgically experiment on him… he consistently talks down on himself for being a roach human hybrid or whatever. he makes me so sad. the way other people treat him like he’s gross too like omfg it makes me sooo mad. he has endured so much dehumanization on so many different fronts :( i hope he has a good support system. anyways i like gregor hes a dilf cockroach milking