Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis Literary Analysis

In The Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka, Gregor’s evolution to an insect symbolizes the loss of thorough communication, representing the disconnection of the individual from his family and his surroundings. Through this metamorphosis, the once loving family begins to remove itself from any past interactions with Gregor. In addition, the setting and surroundings of Gregor completely overcome him and persuade him to lose hope. The family and surroundings, not the change to an insect, lead Gregor towards death. Not only do the uncontrollable surroundings change Gregor, but so does the family.

In the metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, there are significant actions and transformations which make the story sad, and strange with a happy ending. Explanations that are dramatic events that intensify the excitement of all these actions. Reality and reflection play an important role in this story because the events that happened could be applied and assimilated with modern society.

Kafka’s timeless novella, The Metamorphosis, first shows, the physical and mental change of Gregor Samsa. As Gregor wakes up for work, he realizes that his body is not what it used to be. He has completely transformed into a giant beetle-like insect and he begins to notice his “hard... armor plated back… dome-like brown belly divided into stiff arch segments, [and] numerous legs… which waved helplessly before his eyes” (Kafka 6). Mentally, Gregor continues to think like a normal person. Even though he has just transformed into a nasty insect, his main concern is still about getting to work and supporting his entire family. This concern fades when he understands that his illness releases him from his job. Wilhelm Emrich also believes that Gregor gains freedom by stating that, “Samsa complains of his “grueling job,” of the “upset of doing business,” “worrying about changing trains, eating

Much of Franz Kafka's story “The Metamorphosis” spends it's time talking about Gregor as he struggles to live his new life as a bug. Gregor tries to find a analytical reason as to why he has taken upon this form but later on finds on that he has to accept the truth. From being an ordinary travel salesman and provider for his family to a abomination, Gregor becomes hopeless as he can't work or provide for his family. His new life as an insect causes a hardship as he is faced with isolation from his family, transformation, and guilt. Gregor discovers himself when he sees how the world looks at him from his transition from a human to an insect. Gregor's death illustrates the cruelty of society and denial of his family when they can't obtain the things they want in life anymore because of his new form.

Analysis of the story “The Metamorphosis”, by Franz Kafka was written back in the early 1900’s, but reflected a more modern way of thinking and lifestyle of today. Gregor felt that he was a slave to his job, isolated from his co-workers, and misunderstood by his family. Although that is the norm in today’s society, it was not the norm back then. In the story Gregor finds himself transformed into a cockroach and his internal struggles become a permanent reality. Kafka’s choice of the family member to play the role of the cockroach was necessary in portraying the curse of the working man only living each day in hurried lifestyle with no freedom.

Living a relatively monotonous life, Gregor Samsa has his world change one morning when he discovers his transformation into an oversized insect. In Franz Kafka’s short story, “The Metamorphosis,” Gregor struggles with not only his physical devolution into a vulgar organism, but also the condemnation and revulsion from his family. Gregor’s metamorphosis ultimately illustrates a disturbing fact: once Gregor is no longer the provider for the family, he loses all significance to his family. This in turn raises the question of who the real parasite is in the family, which the reader soon sees is anyone but Gregor, despite his physical, superficial metamorphosis.

In “The Metamorphosis,” Gregor Samsa is a travelling salesman trying to find his place in the world, earn a living and support his family. His adult life, although uneventful, is inevitable, which he begins to accept over time, primarily when he awakens one morning with the grotesque body of an insect. Gregor contemplates life as it was before his transformation when he was the sole breadwinner for the family. Now that he is a bug, the other members of the family lose both the financial and emotional security associated with his career, beginning to disregard Gregor as a member of their family. In ‘The Metamorphosis’, Kafka uses the metaphor of the bug to describe the transformation and emotional separation experienced by Gregor Samsa to bring

“The pads on the bottom of his legs exuded a little sticky substance. His jaws, of course, were very strong, with their help he actually got the key moving and paid no attention to the fact that he was undoubtedly hurting himself in some way, for a brown liquid came out of his mouth, flowed over the key, dripping onto the floor” (27.) Clearly showing how now, Gregor’s physical appearances are becoming more insect like, but he lost all attention to it and became immune to it. Yet he’s never able to fully bring his mind and body into harmony. Gregor gradually behaves more and more like an insect, not only craving different foods then he did as a human, but also beginning to prefer tight, dark spaces, like the area under his sofa, and enjoy crawling on the walls and ceiling.

In the novel, Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka revealed some of the struggles that people face and some of the struggles he faced in his own lifetime. The novel began with a young man, Gregor Samsa, who had been working hard to pay off his family's debt. Most of the time Gregor was sad, lonely, and underappreciated by his family and his boss. When Gregor suddenly woke up as a cockroach, Kafka shows that Gregor has been treated like a bug his whole entire adult life by the people that are supposed to be loving, but now that his physical appearance has changed it is more apparent. Most of Gregor’s life he had sacrificed his own happiness for the well being of his families, but his family didn't give anything back to him, because of this Gregor, just like Kafka is isolated from having a normal life in the outside world. As the novel progresses, it becomes more and more apparent that Gregor was being treated almost as if he was a bug his whole life. Gregor has been working a job that he hates, but he has no choice because in order for his

The very premise of “The Metamorphosis” is driven by the story’s only magical element, Gregor’s transformation into an insect. Without that twist, “The Metamorphosis” is nothing but a ho-hum tale about a traveling salesman and his family. Kafka grounds the story in a mundane setting, as per magical realism, and the novella’s genius lies in the contradiction between Gregor’s buggy reality and an everyday world. When he first discovers himself a bug, Gregor realizes “It was no dream. His room, a regular human bedroom, only rather too small, lay quiet between the four familiar walls” (Kafka 87). Note how Kafka makes it clear to readers that Gregor is in a “regular human bedroom.” Readers can identify with the world Gregor operates in because it is their world too — we all have a bedroom. Kafka uses Gregor’s bedroom and his furniture regularly throughout the novella to represent the standards of reality. For example, when Gregor accepts his transformation and starts to withdraw from his family and society in general, Kafka does not allow readers to lose their grip on the familiar setting or their sympathies with the protagonist. Gregor’s acceptance is represented by his desire to rid his room of human furniture so he can scuttle about

Metamorphosis is a novella written by Franz Kafka and published in 1915. It is considered one of the most absurd novellas of the 20th Century dealing with a wildly irrational event. Metamorphosis illustrates the struggles and the state of mind of Gregor, a young salesman who has just transformed into a giant cockroach. The novella, entitled Die Verwandlung in German translating into “The Transformation”, recounts how society and Gregor’s family deal with and treat him after his transformation. The ways in which Kafka portrays social alienation will be explored throughout this essay by analyzing the symbolism in Metamorphosis.

Generally, when one thinks of “classics” they think of old books written by dead guys who wrote in old English that nobody under the age of forty-five would be able to understand. However, a “classic” is simply a piece of literature that is timeless, universal, and has the ability to have vast interpretations. Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka is a “classic” because it is a timeless novella with universal themes that are open to numerous different interpretations, as without those three components this book would have been easily forgotten as time passed.

Gregor’s metamorphosis serves as a metaphor for the type of impairment that leaves a worker unable to work. Because the specific characteristics of Gregor’s insect form are unimportant in relation to the concept of class struggle, Kafka’s description of the bug is quite vague. The story focuses on the way Gregor’s morals and values as a worker diminish when he is unable to work. When Gregor loses his skills as a laborer, he is left to die a solitary death.

Often times, a son may be forced or obligated to do something for their family that doesn’t benefit him. The Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka, explores Gregor’s role as a provider in the Samsa family, and how this role inhibits his progress and freedom. This novella demonstrates how people are unaware of the situations that confine them, which they have no control over. In Gregor’s case, he remains trapped as a traveling salesman, a job which he dislikes, due to his lack of agency regarding family responsibilities and potential for social advancement (movement). Only after his metamorphosis does Gregor realize that his freedom and quality of life have been impeded by his family obligations and lack of movement.

Writing can seem to some as one of the daily trials and tribulations of life, but for others is an emotional outlet for all of life's hardships. The Metamorphosis, authored by Franz Kafka, exhibits these hardships and struggles. The Metamorphosis is a novella, a short novel, that manifests Kafka's life through the fictional story of a man turning into an insect. This novella highlights Kafka's relationship with his father, Hermann Kafka, which by no means is a loving and caring relationship. Kafka's relationship with his father is difficult and hateful. Kafka wants to always please his father, but he loathes him at the same time. Additionally, the significant problems in Kafka's life stemmed from this relationship, such as Kafka's depressive mental state, and the field of work Kafka's father forced him into. Kafka revealed elements of his own life through the main character, such as their attitudes towards their occupations, mental illnesses, and the relations with their families and significant people, in particular the father figures.