Gregor as Symbol of the Jewish Race in Franz Kafka’s 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.

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,

With this in mind, Gregor, being an allegory for Kafka, portrays his feelings towards his family and his involvement with them. He portrays most of his feelings through his sister, and father, who are mainly static characters

What led to Gregor Samsa’s tragic end? In the novel, The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, published in 1915, a young man named Gregor Samsa wakes up one day, only to find that he has gone through a very shocking physical transformation into a human-sized bug. Throughout The Metamorphosis, Gregor’s family basically disowns him, and he begins to feel like a burden to them, so he decides something needs to change for them, and for him, death is the only option. One of the literary elements in this novel is the incorporation of biblical allusions. The first example, is when Gregor is hidden away and shunned by his family, this can be looked at as a biblical reference to Gregor’s situation, when Jesus is turned against by his followers. The second, and most prominent example of biblical allusion is the role that the apple plays in the plot. The apple can be interpreted as the same Biblical fruit, from the tree of knowledge. Lastly, when Gregor cannot move from the pain after an apple is wedged in his back, he states that he feels “nailed in place” (Kafka 52). This is just like Jesus, and how he was nailed to the cross.

Considering his youth, it is odd that Franz Kafka uses biblical allusions as he does. Kafka grew up as a part of a Jewish family in Prague, Germany. In contrast with his Jewish past, Franz uses Christian ideals and makes references to the story of Adam and Eve in the Bible. The serpent is the basis for all sin in the Bible. Kafka puts all of the responsibilities of the family on Gregor. Early in the story, Gregor wakes up and sees his small vermin legs and gets up for work but realizes that he has to crawl on the ground with his stomach down. Adam and Eve eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, in which they are strictly told not to eat from. The two were persuaded to eat from the tree by the serpent who was then commanded to go about all of his days on his belly. He is also told to only eat dust something that no one else would eat. Gregor, along with becoming a bug, loses his appetite and eats things that nobody else would, such as rotten milk and moldy bread in a bowl.

“The Making of an Allegory,” by Edwin Honig and “Franz Kafka’s ‘Metamorphosis’ as Death and Resurrection Fantasy,” by Peter Dow Webster illuminate how sacrifice and transformation are a vital part of the deeper meaning of "The Metamorphosis." Gregor Samsa is an ordinary young man until he wakes up one day as a giant vermin; metamorphosised into something horrendous and reviled by the world. Through Honig’s and Webster’s critical essays, this transformation, as well as many more, and sacrifice made by all involved are explored in a thorough and definitive way.

On one hand Gregor's defence of the photo could represent Gregor’s defence of his own feminine traits and his wish to embrace those traits, like he embraces the photo. On the other hand Gregor may view the photo in an idolising or pornographic light, objectifying women and utilizing the picture as a marker of their opportune place in society. The picture of the woman representing a thing to own, a thing to be optically canvassed and revered. This fight over the picture is a fight of the transmuted masculine image now associated with Gregor. When Gregor fails to meet the family’s and his employer’s prospects and loses his job, the ensuing de-crease in masculinity is visualised as a loss of humanity altogether. He turns into a beetle, whose maleness becomes associated with filth and perverted sexuality rather than vigor, as his clutching the picture of a lady in furs suggests. Where Gregor once had the sexual upper hand and power to do what he wanted with the picture, he feels a loss of sexual male control over other females. He virtually figuratively ravishes the photo by rubbing up against it with his full body weight in a last ditch effort to assert his male preponderation. After this incident Gregor is now an ‘it’ to the rest of his family. He is genuinely a parasite both physically and emotionally. His room is filled with unwanted object promoting Gregor as an unwanted part of his family’s lives. The Samsa’s prosper from

In the novella The Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka, the main character Gregor undergoes a physical transformation from human to bug. Despite this change in appearance, he maintains his human brain as insect tendencies slowly take over his day to day behavior. He maintains his thoughtless state of mind, memories, and inner dialogue during his exterior transformation. Although he maintains his mental capacities, it is his change in appearance that causes his family to turn against him and eventually kill him. These events show how people can become dehumanized by society and the government only because of a difference in behavior or appearance.

As it becomes apparent to the family that Gregor’s new physical appearance is permanent they decide to no longer acknowledge him as part of the family. Since Gregor is no longer providing for them and without Gregor being able to communicate with his family due to his transformation he becomes useless to them. This declaration coming from the sister Grete who is the youngest Samsa and who had the closest relationship with Gregor prior to his transformation. As the family now lives the life Gregor once had to live as a middle-class worker they feel warranted to have peace at home and do not see it being possible with Gregor still living with them. Gregor’s family alienation towards makes him feel non-human, this causes his metamorphosis, which leads to his demise.

In Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” the character Gregor Samsa is transformed into a giant bug while he is sleeping. Although it is never said why he turns into an oversized insect, the characters never seem to wonder why or how this has happened. It is ironic that even after undergoing something dramatic and life changing as becoming a vermin, Gregor does not question his transformation; his reaction undermines the situation entirely. Irony in “The Metamorphosis” is a reoccurring theme that affects each of the characters in the story. Gregor, who was once a genuine hard working, family orientated man, is now a beetle who feels guilty about not being able to help his family anymore. Gregor’s family sees him as a burden. Their bitterness towards him instead of sympathy through his ordeal is greatly satirical.

In The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka conveys the series of emotional and psychological repercussions of a physical transformation that befalls the protagonist, a young salesman called Gregor Samsa. As the story progresses, Gregor finds himself unfairly stigmatized, cruelly rejected because of his clear inability to financially support his family, and consequently increasingly isolated. Through extensive use of symbolism, Kafka is able to relate the surreal and absurd, seemingly arbitrary events of this short story to a general critique of society-particularly on the alienating effects that conformity generates. On a broader level, the combined themes-which include the themes of conformity, freedom, and alienation--found throughout The

Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis (1915) is a novella about protagonist Gregor, a hard-working traveling salesman transforms into some a vermin overnight and struggles to adjust to his startling change. Kafka characterizes Gregor as a selfless individual whose profound love for his family misleads him about their genuine disposition. As he adjusts to his new change, he undergoes great difficulty to determine his identity and humanity. Gregor has deceived himself into believing that his family will love him despite his repulsive appearance. In The Metamorphosis, Kafka uses characterization and third-person narrative to demonstrate Gregor’s self-deception and self-awareness regarding his family and circumstances to establish the theme of identity.

He was just a pest, a nuisance, a cockroach. The analogy that he was not intimidating, such as a spider or snake, but just really an insect that people tried to rid themselves of, like a cockroach, drove deeper into his self-condemnation. Kafka chose Gregor to be the cockroach as he was the only one working in the family, yet he still felt unappreciated and miserable. The moral is that self-loathing can make you an outcast, even if you started out far from it. You will become what you think of yourself, if you do not take necessary steps to improve your reality. Gregor felt like he had no freedom and was trapped in his life caring for and doing everything for everyone else except himself.

Within many literary works, the presence of religious symbols is a very common use in order to show themes such as banishment and negative ideas. In The Metamorphosis, Gregor is faced with the same form of dismissal as Adam and Eve within the bible. When Gregor’s father encounters his son in his newfound

Engelberg exclaims, “the common alienation of two urban men, both suffering all the deleterious consequences of subsequent isolation, dehumanization, death” (Engelberg). Gregor’s isolation after turning into a cockroach continually provides evidence that he is no longer a part of the family; thus, he also loses his own instincts as a man. Kafka uses this isolation to exhibit what he experienced throughout his life, especially for being a Jew during World War I. Goldfarb explains, “For one thing, Gregor's repulsive appearance means he has to remain in his room, a prisoner, completely isolated. His existence was always a fairly lonely one, but this is worse: as far as friendship and intimacy are concerned, Gregor's transformation is not an escape from his past loneliness but an intensification of it” (“Goldfarb”). Gregor is isolated from his family because he looks different and he is rejected with any hope of reconnecting with them. Kafka utilises Gregor to show how being different from others leads to being isolated and eventual suffering. The dehumanization of people is caused by the isolation from others; thus, they often lose their will to live.