Gregor's Obsession with Money Exposed in Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis

Gregor endures his personal hell for quite a surprisingly long time. His sister is one of the only people who still talks to Gregor, but eventually, she couldn’t take it any longer. “They were emptying his room out; taking away everything that was dear to him; they had already taken his fretsaw and other tools”(Kafka 28). As time goes on, Gregor feels like he is gradually being stripped of his humanity especially after his room was cleaned out by his family. Eventually, his sister deems Gregor as inhuman, saying that if the insect was still Gregor, he would have left by then. Gregor’s father and mother both seem to agree with Grete that Gregor must go; that

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.

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.

He worries about not showing up to his job on time or losing it entirely because he knows that his family depends on it. Ultimately, Gregor is concerned about how his inability to continue as the provider will affect his family. He believes his role as provider is a responsibility that he must carry out in sickness and in health. Indeed, family provides a part of a person’s sense of self, but it is the decision of each individual of how much of an influence family is. In Gregor’s case, it was an overwhelming influence because he was more concerned about what would happen to his family instead of what would happen to him physically and emotionally as a consequence of his transformation into a bug. This overwhelming influence is psychologically unhealthy because it can cause Gregor and other individuals to be so focused on their family’s needs that they forget about their own needs. Likewise, the other extreme is also unhealthy – leaving one’s family on their own with no concern about what could happen to them. It would be more psychologically healthy for a middle ground where individuals are concerned about their family’s well being and attempt to help them only when their family is in the most need. Otherwise, individuals should only wish them well and work on tending to their own needs to be emotionally and physically healthy.

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.

The human truth in The Metamorphosis can be seen in various ways depending on your point of view of Gregor and Franz Kafka. Gregor Samsa was working for his family in result of the family needing money (so he thought); his parents and sister did not work. He is the only working child in the entire family. His father forced him to work, but he dislikes his job, and this does not make his life any easier. Gregor had to give up his own ambitions to provide for his family. Gregor finds himself trapped in a bubble. “Gregor’s goal to sustain his parents’ debt and provide for the family becomes more important than his own happiness”(Sadler). He struggles with the burden of providing for his family and maintaining himself simultaneously. The truth at this point of the book contains the little facts we know about Gregor, alienation will get you nowhere in life and will hold you back from accomplishing goals in life. Gregor takes notice to his transformation, but “does not seem to find it terrifying or even that unusual, merely an inconvenience or perhaps a delusion” (Smith). I think Gregor is transforming into a bug like creature due to his financial burden, his depression, alienation, guilt, and his terrible job.

One of the reasons Gregor morphed into a bug is so the family could go undergo their own transformation instead of always relying on Gregor. The transformation was more of wakeup call for the family so they could realize that they shouldn’t put all the financial burden him and that they should share the responsibility for the debt and income. Another reason why Gregor turned into a bug is because bugs are mostly considered insignificant and little and most of Gregor life he was just someone that the family looked up to for money reasons and he never got to enjoy his life or even do normal things such as relationships. Immediately, he’s concerned about how’s going to get to work “I’ve got to get up, my train leaves at five” (Page 8) and isn’t worrying about his health which shows how worried is about his job because he knows that income is going straight to his family

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 his novel The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka describes his own life through the life of his protagonist Gregor Samsa.  Careful study of Franz Kafka's life shows that Kafka's family, workplace, and reaction to the adversity in his family and workplace are just like those of Gregor.  So we might ask why Gregor was transformed into a bug since Kafka obviously never turned into a bug.  The absurd image illustrates how Gregor lacks self-respect and feels like he's a bug in the eyes of his family and society.  Franz Kafka was unhappy and never found his place in life, either.  Therefore, he might have felt just like Gregor, like a bug.  Furthermore the novel describes Kafka's expectations of his own future and he was partially

Throughout the story, his family has shown Gregor hostility. In the end, even Grete, the family member Gregor is closest to, abandons him and sees Gregor as a bug more than a person. In the many situations, from the father throwing apples at him to when Grete slammed the door on him, leading to his death, Gregor’s hope and faith in his family and a solution to his metamorphosis is tested. This indicates that Gregor still has his humanity and does not let the bug consume

When Gregor inexplicably becomes an insect his family is primarily worried about how this will affect them, and their financial security. The morning Gregor awakes as a ‘monstrous vermin' is the first day he has missed work in five years; his family's immediate concern is for Gregor's job. His father begins to admonish him before he can even drag himself out of bed. When Gregor hears his sister crying at his door he thinks, "Why was she crying?? Because he was in danger of losing his job and then his boss would dun their parents for his old claims?" This is very significant to their relationship; he considers himself close to his sister, but feels her emotion spent on him is related to money. Gregor has been the sole breadwinner for years; working at a job he abhors only to pay his fathers debts. The family leads an extremely comfortable life of leisure; the father sits at the kitchen table and reads all day, the sister wears the best clothes and amuses herself by playing the violin, and all even take a mid-day nap. Gregor is extremely pleased and proud to provide them with this lifestyle; however, his generosity is met with resentment by his father and indifference by his sister and mother. Once the family grew accustomed to this lifestyle they no longer felt the need to be grateful, "they had grown used to it, they accepted the money, but no particularly warm feelings were generated any longer." At one point Gregor is deeply

“Go to college”, “go to bed’, “stop being so weird”. Demands from society are a constant that will constantly breath down your neck. Gregor is a gargantuan ball of stress who always has a demand to be fulfilling whether it be work, family, or money. All of these will pile on causing Gregor to morph into a bug. Demands like these represent what the stresses of society can do on most individuals, not every person could be affected like this but it's possible for the majority.

Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis is a masterfully written novella about Gregor Samsa, a man who devotes his life to his family and work, for nothing in return. Only when he is transformed into a helpless beetle does he begin to develop a self-identity and understand the relationships around him. The underlying theme of The Metamorphosis is an existential one that says that any given choice will govern the later course of a person’s life and that a person has ultimate will over making choices. In this case, Gregor’s choices of his part in society cause him to have a lack of identity that has made him to be numb to everything around him.

He’s lost his humanity physically, yet he’s still mentally as human as any of his family members, which is hard for them to see. His conversion from man to insect disgusts his family and his relationship with them, which can be represented by his fluctuation of hunger/appetite, gets worse as they are horrified by his appearance. When he first wakes up, “Gregor really felt quite well, apart from a drowsiness that was utterly superfluous after such a long sleep, and he was even unusually hungry” (91). His hunger symbolizes his wanting to be loved by his family, and since they haven’t seen him in bug-form at this point, he doesn’t expect anything to be unusual about their relationship. Later on, he discovers that Grete has left him food outside his door, “But soon in disappointment he withdrew…he did not like the milk either, although milk had been his favorite drink and that was certainly why his sister had set it there for him, indeed it was almost with repulsion that he turned away from the basin and crawled back to the middle of the room” (105).