Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis

“The Metamorphosis” is a surreal story by Franz Kafka surrounding the transformation and betrayal of Gregor Samsa, who wakes up one day, reborn into a large insect. Along with the bizarre and nightmarish appearance of his new hard back, brown segmented belly, and many legs, Gregor only desire is to live a normal life, unfortunately, this is impossible because he struggles to even get out of bed. Gregor transformation into an insect is a vivid metaphor for the alienation of humans from around the world. After losing human form, Gregor is automatically deprived of the right to be a part of society. Franz Kafka could relate to Gregor because he too was mistreated/neglected by his father and worked a job that he was unhappy doing. Franz and Gregor both were providers for their families. Alienation, isolation, and loneliness were not hard to recognize during the Modernity and Modernism time period.

In The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka accounts the metamorphosis of Gregor’s care for his family. Initially, Gregor cares for his family out of an alternative motive, to gain acceptance, rather than a genuine love for his family. Prior to his physical metamorphosis, Gregor commits his life to care for his family’s financial needs. He willingly gives the majority of his income to his family. After Gregor’s physical metamorphosis, his care’s transformation begins. As a dung beetle, Gregor finds it impossible to care for his family. This change in his life forces him to see the many ways in which he hinders his family’s physical and mental growth. Over time, he learns how he must understand life from his family’s perspective in order to genuinely care. At the end of his life, Gregor thinks loving thoughts toward his family, even though he did not receive acceptance from his family. Although Gregor commits his life to care for his family, he unknowingly cares to gain approval until his care transforms into selfless love.

In a family setting, it is normal to become attached to our surroundings and become accustomed to our day to day lives. The ill effects that change can have on a family, however, can cause them to act erratically. In Franz Kafka’s signature story, The Metamorphosis, the main character Gregor finds that during a bad dream, he has awoken transformed into a bug-like creature; his family reacts to his transformation not with compassion and a search for resolution, but rather with shame and neglect, leaving Gregor helpless in his situation. Because of his family’s reluctance to change, Gregor perished. Changes can be destructive and lead to chronic problems if not properly addressed; only when changes are dealt with can life resume as normal.

Frank Kafka’s short story, The Metamorphosis, is a story that observes human experiences through family bonds, the question of morality, and confronting mystery. The overall theme of the book is confronting the unknown. The story starts out with Gregor Samsa, a salesman, who wakes up as an insect. From the beginning of the text, Gregor and his family were already put to the test of confronting Gregor’s unknown situation. It is unusual for a man to turn into a vermin over the course of one night, which is what happened to Gregor. When Gregor originally turned into a bug, his ties with his families became cut off. His parents did not take care of him the way that they always had, and Gregor could not take care of his parents the way that he always did. Gregor’s ties with his sister became close because his sister, Grete, felt obligated to take care of her brother even though he was transformed. The question of morality come up at the end of the story right before Gregor dies. Gregor’s sister explodes with frustration and contemplates on getting rid of Gregor all together. The story question morality because Gregor’s family decides on getting rid of him, as if he had not been a part

In the short story, The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, the main character Gregor Samsa wakes up to see that he has become a giant bug, and he and his family have to adjust to the changes that this has brought about. Kafka weaves several images and symbols through out the story, so many that writing a paper on all of them would be incredibly long. However, the thing I will concentrate on is the use and symbols of food that Kafka has placed in the tale. Just what do these symbols mean? Why are they there and what do they show about Gregor and his family and their relationship? I will prove in my paper that a piece of bread and bowl of milk can be much more than just a meal. The food in this story shows how life has changed for Gregor, and also that in some of the scenes, that it even has references to passages from the Bible itself.

In the story, The Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka, a young man named Gregor unexpectedly turns into a human sized cockroach. Consequently, this causes a drastic shift in Gregor and his family’s lives, for Gregor was the only person who was able to support his family with their demands. As time passes by, his family’s responses towards Gregor’s sudden transformation alters, giving insight into their characters throughout the story. These insights also correspond with many of their interactions with one another and with the minor characters. Moreover, Gregor’s family’s responses all correlate to Gregor’s transformation throughout the story, as this change not only affects himself, but his parents and his sister as well, in their everyday

In “Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka, the author employs Gregor as a vehicle for not only Gregor’s own metamorphosis, but also the metamorphosis of his entire family. In the beginning of the story, Gregor transforms into a bug that disables his movement. Without his ability to move, Gregor handicaps his family, unable to help pay off Mr. Samsa’s debt. Meanwhile, Mr. Samsa finds a new job at a banking company to satisfy the masculine prerogative of having to work and provide for his family. Additionally, Mrs. Samsa finds her role as a caretaker for Gregor in his helpless state. Even though Mrs. Samsa was afraid of the sight of her son, she still views him in a mutual manner . However, with the fulfillment of Mr. Samsa and Mrs. Samsa finding their

In toady's society, people have a tendency to not think about the worst case scenarios. Which coincides with the book Kafka's The Metamorphosis, the story displays how a young man named Gregor experienced a life changing event. Gregor went from a hard working man providing for his family to turning into a gigantic insect. Imagine the difficult time Gregor must have had to transform and feel useless. Gregor's transformation effected his state of mind; he is faced with isolation, loneliness and that makes it harder for human to get forget his human life.

When Franz Kafka first penned his short novel The Metamorphosis in 1915, he had no idea that it would become one of the most influential pieces of fiction of the twentieth century, continuously being studied in colleges and universities across the Western world. The novel rotates around the life of a man named Gregor Samsa, who wakes up on a routine day, and suddenly finds himself transformed into an insect. As the story progresses, the reader can see how Gregor’s physical transformation triggers different emotions among the Samsa family. The situation is far from quintessential, and as a result of this sudden transfiguration, each person in the family changes drastically. While Gregor went through a horrid physical transformation, he may not have been the only family member who went through a metamorphosis. Although Gregor’s mother and father both changed characteristics throughout the book, specifically Gregor’s sister changed the most. Although Gregor transformed physically, his sister Grete went through the most realistic transformation both mentally and emotionally, as her character changed dramatically from the beginning to the end of the book, for better or for worse.

For the first time in the novel, the family feels a sense of unity – especially since Gregor is gone. Before Gregor’s transformation, he was the one dragging the family along, yet, after he becomes a bug, his family decides that caring for Gregor for three months “isn’t possible” (49). The sense of relief of his death demonstrates that his family, even Greta, did not care for him enough to prevent his death. Even though the story focuses on the metamorphosis of Gregor, Mr. Samsa and Greta both engage in their own metamorphosis. Mr. Samsa was forced to find a job, which allowed him to revive his sense of authority in the family and give him the confidence to tell the roomers to “leave the house immediately” (53) – a sense of courage that he

The straight forward style enhances the nightmarish quality of Franz Kafka’s, “The Metamorphosis”. For instance, the dialogue in the novel between the chief clerk and Gregor’s mother; the chief clerk states, “I hope it’s nothing serious. But on the other hand, I must say that if we people in commerce ever become slightly unwell then, fortunately or unfortunately as you like, we simply have to overcome it because of business considerations” (Kafka, 257-261). In this excerpt, the chief clerk shows no signs of mercy for Gregor. Unless he is on the verge of death he is expected to be at work. This heightens the nightmarish quality because it belittles the fact the Gregor has turned into a vermin and it supports the thought that Gregor is under

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka is an early twentieth century masterpiece in which the author tries to convey a certain theme to readers. To really understand this theme, readers have to be informed on who Kafka is and why he wants to convey a theme. They should be informed on him because they can better understand the protagonist, Gregor, and get a glimpse of why he feels a certain way about something. In this scenario, the theme is trying to display mankind’s descent into something sub-human. Mankind’s descent into something sub-human can be represented through Kafka’s depiction of Gregor’s tragic literal and metaphorical transformations.

Gregor very much loves his parents and has committed to almost 20 years of labor to pay of their debts. “If I didn’t hold back for my parents’ sake, I would’ve quit ages ago.” -Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis pg 5

"The Metamorphosis" by Franz Kafka and his other novels start like a fairy tale. Kafka, without preamble and intellectual justifications, puts us face to face with the unconscious, and illustrates existential problems. J.Stephens, who was a part of the “The Kafka Project” and analyzed this particular novel, tries comparing Franz Kafka and his personal life to “The Metamorphosis” because it is obvious in more ways than one that he was writing a twisted story of his life. The narrator is in the third person, "he lay on his armour-like back" and is an omniscient narrator. He tells the story completely from the outside and gives the impression as if he knows everything about all the characters. He is able at any time to penetrate the innermost areas of the psyche of the characters appearing in the story. The narrator could be the witness, or perhaps it is Kafka.

Franz Kafka’s ”The Metamorphosis” is acknowledged as a literary masterpiece to be read by any literary aficionado. “The Metamorphosis” has been referenced in many industries far exceeding the English scholarly genre and has crept its way into such studies as the medical and psychology field. Recounted in Psychology journal articles, a portrayal of the agony and sense of loss of self is portrayed so consistently throughout the novel and these feelings are often associated with a number of psychological illnesses. For this reason, “The Metamorphosis” can be found in psychology articles. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1910630/ The psychology articles take a detailed look at the psychological torment experienced by Gregor and present the literature such that you could almost imagine that Gregor Samsa is a psychiatric case study rather than a fictional character. However, opinions among scholars and literary enthusiasts have contemplated what it was Kafka was trying to convey when he wrote this piece. Indeed, Kafka suffered from mental issues and the point is often brought to light that Kafka could have been projecting his internal feelings and experiences about growing up onto Gregor Samsa. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2639911/ Franz Kafka also held a strained relationship with his family, particularly his father, and died at a young age from tuberculosis. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2639911/ “The Metamorphosis” can, and has, been