Biblical Allusions In Htrllap, By Thomas C. Foster

Gregor’s major transformation occurred not when he turned into a bug, but through the changes in his life. Gregor’s life before the changed into some sort of bug was like a bumble bee. He would go through life doing as others told him. In

Turning the character into a giant, monstrous insect helps the author demonstrate the situation in which a person becomes absolutely vulnerable, helpless and pathetic. At that very moment of Gregor’s new form the attitude of the family becomes absolutely clear and transparent: everyone feels ashamed and diverted from the personality of Gregor. Betrayal of his mother and his sister is nowhere near what Gregor would have ever imagined. His relationship with his father was rocky. He never expected the mishap to become so realistic and his lift to be so heartbreaking. So the main

Gregor maintains submissive personality and does not defend himself. Gregor’s physical change into a bug is the only aspect of him that changes. Gregor continuously allows himself to be abused. Upon Gregor’s transformation, he is unable to go to work. Therefore, the chief clerk visits Gregor to force him to come to work. Gregor remained locked in his room and would not leave for work. So, the clerk became extremely impatient. The frustrated clerk divulges into a cruel and demoralizing speech. He maliciously accuses Gregor of hiding because of unethical involvement in cash receipts. Later, Gregor’s family and the clerk become restless and want to see Gregor. The door to Gregor’s room is unlocked to open and reveal Gregor in his insect form. Gregor’s family and the clerk react with horror. The clerk and Gregor’s mother run away from him in fear. Gregor’s father grabs a stick and a newspaper and dashes toward Gregor, herding Gregor back into his bedroom with prods and fierce language. Gregor injures himself badly while trying to fit back through the doorway. Gregor’s door is slammed shut behind him and he his left alone, frightened and injured, in his room. The events subsequent to Gregor’s transformation exhibit his passive nature. Clearly such passivity was not useful to Gregor.

"’You, Gregor!’ cried his sister with raised fist and piercing eyes. These were the first words she had addressed directly to him since his metamorphosis.”(Kafka, 34). There are many different types of betrayal in one’s life, In The Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka, Gregor Samsa was regularly betrayed after his transformation. One day, Gregor suddenly turned into a bug and his family turned their back on him and inevitably betrayed him. Gregor was not a family favorite, this is demonstrated by his family instantly treating him with disregard when he was struck with the unexpected hardship. Gregor cared for his family and made several sacrifices for them in turn made the betrayal even more difficult to cope with. Betrayal is a blatantly apparent theme shown throughout the novel. Betrayal is shown through society betraying Gregor due to him transforming into a bug, Gregor’s family betrayed him by not caring for him in a time of need, and Gregor betrayed himself by ending his own life for the good of the family.

He was very shocked by this change and couldn’t go to work and even tell his family about this. But his family soon came to know about his transformation into a big insect. They were surprised because they counted on him for the family’s income as he was the only source of money in the house. Gregor was transformed into an ultimate insect both psychologically and physically. This transformation into led to complete alienation which prevented him from working and providing his family with money. His transformation not only changed his life but also made his family’s economical condition bad. They used to have cooks and maids for household works but now they worked by their selves and also had people living in their house who paid them monthly rents. This shows how bad their economical condition had become.

Gregor had a crappy, thankless job, and even though it was difficult, he was despised and scrutinized by his co workers, making the job that much more unpleasant. Gregor was such an isolated and poor person that he cut the picture of the lady with the fur or a magazine to hang on the wall, to remind him of better things. Gregor's metamorphosis into a nasty little bug is strange but at the same time is reasonable, because insects as beetle, but or cockroaches are associated with old dirty houses, and trash. If Gregor would have been a cat or a dog or really any other animal, his parents would not consider him so disgusting and they would not have rejected him. But in this case, Gregor is a bug and his parents really thought that a giant cockroach is something that must be hidden. “This kind of things happens everyday” (Franz Kafka). Not the strange thing as transformation into a bug, but the fact

In the novella, Gregor transforms into an insect; he and his family must navigate his new life as a bug. As Gregor undergoes a physical transformation, there is also a shift in financial power in his family. Kafka shows that a capitalist society dehumanizes the working class, this is seen through the characterization of Gregor, the symbolism of food, and diction surrounding Gregor’s father

This passage takes place when Gregor first wakes up and realizes his body has morphed into a bug. He can’t stand the feeling of his new body. The author introduces the symbolism of the story here because it seems as though Gregor has finally been enlightened to what he has become- a ‘worker

Gregor's life as an insect, or vermin, as he described himself, is a metaphor for feelings of alienation and isolation that existed long before his transformation. Gregor’s loss of humanity in the eyes of his family condemns Gregor into what he describes as an “imprisonment” that restricts him from any of the comforts and securities of human interaction.

Another indication that Gregor represents the Jews is the meaning of his name. "Samsa" comes from the Czech word sám, meaning "oneself,"and "Gregor" most likely is a version of "Gregory," which comes from the Latin word which means "of the flock" (Robertson 80).3 By combining these two names, one gets the full meaning: "one of the flock." The flock could very possibly refer to the flock of God, in other words, the Chosen People—the Jews.

Initially, how Gregor will get to his workplace as a bug concerns him. There is no thought that as an insect, he will not be able to work. Eventually, he owns up to his state and begins living his rebirth as an insect. Feeling that he is a burden, Gregor commences the act of starving himself to relieve his family’s duties of tending to him. When the Samsa family has roomers eating dinner with

Franz Kafka uses metaphors in the story to show the readers that Gregor’s worthless and useless as a human bug. By doing so, Franz is able to show the readers how Gregor human life is really similar to a bug life.

The novel shows how people can have negative physical effects from the demands of society. The book shows Gregor isolated from a man having dinner with his boss laughing and having a good time while Gregor proceeds to storm up a fleet of dark stairs with a very upset facial expression (Kuper 11). Grogor being physically separated from the feast will have a negative effect on him because being isolated like this will have a lonely upset feeling on any individual. Just before chapter three Gregor's father in an angry commotion throws an apple directly into Gregor's back illustrating stars and lines causing Gregor to make a very painful face (Kuper 50). The apple in gregor's back represents being stabbed in the back by society. Gregor is also seen being spat on by the new roommates, at the same time Gregor looks dead with scratches all over him and a

This causes Gregor to acquire a gash on his side. In the next chapter, “he [Gregor] broke out” (Kafka 35) Mr. Samsa is enraged by this and begins to throw apples at Gregor. One eventually gets lodged in his shell, and by the end of the novella kills him. Not only is the apple itself symbolic but this scene also shows how sometimes parents

Gregor?s becoming an insect symbolizes the changes in Kafka?s life from being a slave to his father and doing everything that his father wanted him to do (for instance being a lawyer) to doing nothing at all.  Gregor?s death symbolized that Kafka had failed to communicate with his family.  They thought of him as an insect, and he too thought that he was an insect, because he was looking at himself through their eyes. Through his family?s eyes they saw Gregor as an insect.  He wished that they could love him for his true self, even though he was in the form of an insect.  If Gregor was able to be accepted as a insect, by his family then maybe he would have been able to metamorphosis back into a human.  They could not except him he was different than them and people are afraid of change and someone who is different.  Same thing with Franz, writers were unknown to the Kafka family in a way almost bug like or alien to them.  They could not handle the change.