Essay on Gregor as Catalyst for Metamorphosis

     Throughout the story there is a metamorphosis that is taking place in his home. He has traded places with the family and is now living the life they had previously embelished in. His father begins to work along with his sister and his mother must now work and do the cooking and cleaning. Gregor on the other hand does nothing but daydream, crawl, and nap through his days. One ironic statement from his sister “He must go, if this were Gregor he would have realized long ago human beings can’t live with such a creature, he’d have gone away one his own accord. This creature persecutes us, drives away our lodgers, obviously wants the whole apartment to himself, and would have us all sleep in the gutter.” How selfish of her, had he not taken care of them and he was not the only one working

When individuals are rejected by family and society, they tend to feel abandoned and unloved. In Franz Kafka’s, The Metamorphosis, Gregor’s transformation into a “monstrous vermin” (Kafka 1) results in him being psychologically and even physically abused by his family. Rejection from his mother, sister, and father leave Gregor feeling unwanted and feeling as if he is a terrible burden on the family and their well being.

Gregor Samsa's metamorphosis occurs one morning when he wakes up from unsettling dreams and finds himself changed into a monstrous vermin.  This change makes Gregor dependent on his family members and reverses his previous situation in which his family was dependent on him.  As a bug, Gregor is useless to his family and can no longer perform simple human tasks, let alone support his father, mother, and sister.

Isolation not only changes the personalities of Gregor and his family, but also it changes the role and duties Gregor plays in his family. Before the metamorphosis, Gregor worked alone to provide for the entire family. For example, in the beginning, before the transformation, he says, “But besides that, the money Gregor had brought home every month he had kept only a few dollars for himself” (4). This shows Gregor’s selfishness and his family’s heavy dependency on his income. It establishes the fact that Gregor’s family’s loyalty to Gregor was strong because the family depended on Gregor for their own survival, and shows how they betrayed him by disregarding him after he became an insect. The isolation of Gregor caused by the transformation not only affects Gregor’s role in the family, but also changes the role of Mr. Samsa. Mr. Samsa originally told by Gregor: ”Now his father was still healthy, certainly. But he was an old man who had not worked for the past five years and who in any case could not be expected to undertake that much” (17). This shows how irresponsible Mr. Samsa acted for his family in the beginning. Mr. Samsa, a man in his 50s, blamed his unemployment on anxiety and depression from a past failed business. Mr. Samsa changes his role as the useless drag to the provider of the family, and even obtains a new job as a bank manager.

In the article, written by Walter H. Sokel, he goes into depth about how Franz Kafka’s life is reflected in the book The Metamorphosis and his other writings. Sokel ties together multiple aspects of the novel and their importance to Gregor and his family dynamic as a whole. Many of the points made in the article address the absurdity of the situation the novel presents and the underlying meaning in the actions of the characters. The premise of the article is pointing to the facts that Gregor's predicament is Kafka inserting his own life frustrations into his literary works. In each passage of the article another part of Gregor's life is laid bare. Sokel’s many inferences that the fault is in Gregor's own doing and not his situation in life, create a complex maze of cause and effect.

Kafka’s Metamorphosis suggests to his readers to take a glimpse inside a dysfunctional atmosphere triggered from a painful childhood, to see how influential each member of the family contributes to the dynamics, but also to learn how to make light of the situation with acceptance. Kafka is reflecting on his own relationship with his family in Metamorphosis. He sees himself in Gregor, or is he him.

Gregor’s metamorphosis brings many positive and negative changes in himself as well as his family. His family used to rely on him for his income as he was the only source of money in the family, but now they all worked and earned money themselves that is a very big positive change in the family. The negative change was bad for the Gregor himself as he couldn’t face the world with his new appearance,

On the surface, “The Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka is an evocative story of a man transformed into a “monstrous vermin”. It seems to focus on the dark transformation of the story’s protagonist, Gregor, but there is an equal and opposing transformation that happens within Gregor’s family. Although Gregor has physically changed at the beginning of the story, he remains relatively unchanged as the novella progresses. The family, on the other hand, is forced to drastically change how they support themselves. Although the change was unexpected, Gregor’s transformation into a vermin sets into motion a change in the Samsa family that leaves them better off in almost every facet of their lives. Thus, Kafka’s story is not one of descent into darkness, but one of a family’s ascent towards self-actualization. The metamorphosis the title speaks of does not take place in Gregor, but rather in the Samsa Family; consequently, Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” is not a tale of darkness, disconnection and despair, but rather a story of hope, new beginnings and perseverance.

But, as time goes on his sister Grete, who had been the one to care for him the most, begins to lose faith in his humanness. She says to her parents, "You must just try to get rid of the idea that this is Gregor. The fact that we've believed it for so long is the root of all our trouble." This same idea is reiterated when Gregor finally dies and his mother says, "Well, now thanks be to God." His family was convinced after a short while that it wasn't even their own Gregor underneath that hard exoskeleton.

In The Metamorphosis Franz Kafka tells the story of a young man named Gregor who observes the radical changes in his life after transforming into an insect. Gregor’s life was centered on his job as a traveling salesperson and his family. One morning Gregor woke up transformed into an insect. Afraid of the transformation Gregor stays in his room and ignores calls from his family. When Gregor realized that his new body did not allow him to have a normal life, he tried to adapt. After his metamorphosis, Gregor is abandoned by his family and only maintains a small relationship with his sister Grete, who is in charge of serving and provide him with food, but always leaving some distance because of his ugly appearance.

The novella, The Metamorphosis, follows the transformation of a character into a vermin that is then an outcast from society and even from his family. Gregor’s transformation was used in order to further Gregor’s isolation and to show how society pushes away those that are different from the general population.

Many views of existentialism are exposed in Kafka's Metamorphosis. One of these main views is alienation or estrangement which is demonstrated by Gregor's relationship with his family, his social life, and the way he lives his life after the metamorphosis. Namely, it suggests that man is reduced to an insect by the modern world and his family; human nature is completely self absorbed. Kafka reflects a belief that the more generous and selfless one is, the worse one is treated. This view is in direct conflict with the way things should be; man, specifically Gregor should be treated in accordance to his actions. Gregor should be greatly beloved by his family regardless of his state. This idea is displayed in three separate themes. First,

Change is unavoidable and inevitably in every moment of our lives. In every second of our lives, changes appear and disappear, impacting our lives. Humans perceive change differently and it reveals the true nature of our heart. It is due to the dissension of change between humans that determines the differences in our individual perceptions. In the novel, “ Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka, the word change is taken to a entirely absurd degree as the main protagonist, Gregor Samsa is illogically transformed into a bug. Although Gregor’s thoughts still shown traces of his human self, Gregor’s family is unable to cope with his hideous form and isolates him from their world. Once perceived as the breadwinner of the family, Gregor is now seen

Furthermore, Gregor’s descent into social and physical abjection then forces his family to change radically in order to support themselves. In the beginning, Gregor starts off as the provider for his family. He hates his job, but he still goes above and beyond the call of duty to give his family a more comfortable life, even indulging the expensive endeavour of his sisters’ dream of studying the violin. However, after the metamorphosis, he is thrust into the role of a dependant – forcing his family to take responsibility and support themselves. His sister steps up to the plate in the beginning, giving him a selection of foodstuffs to find what he likes and even cleaning up after him. His parents are still in denial at this point, so much so that they refuse to see him at all. But as time goes by, his family begins to accept the situation and even try to help Grete out. His father produces some money from his previous failed business venture and his mother and sister try to make life more comfortable for Gregor. Grete in particular changes the most noticeably; Gregor himself notes at the beginning that her life up till that point had been “enviable”, consisting of “wearing nice

However, as the story progresses this compassion seems to become, or may have always been, obligation. His mother had a waning rather reminiscent sympathy for her son, but she never seemed to reconcile that the creature in the bedroom was the son she had loved. She certainly could not deal with his appearance having fainted at the sight of him (p. 876). As for Gregor’s father, he had begun to re-assume responsibility for the family’s welfare, which as it turned out, had never been as poor as Gregor had been lead to believe. For Gregor himself, the adjustment was a mix of discovery and disquiet. Adjusting to his body, “He especially enjoyed hanging suspended from the ceiling” (p. 873). However, the reader also learns that Gregor’s health is on the decline as “he was fast losing any interest he had ever taken in food” (p. 873). It seemed for a while that the family had established a bit of a détente, but it was not to would last. The end of the second chapter saw Gregor’s father gravely wound the insect with an apple thrown into and embedded into the creature’s back. It was this wound that eventually became infected and was likely the death of the creature.