Gregor's Transformation

Gregor’s major transformation occurred not when he turned into a bug, but through the changes in his life. Gregor’s life before the changed into some sort of bug was like a bumble bee. He would go through life doing as others told him. In

Whenever Gregor leaves his room he causes an uproar which usually ends with him being physically punished and forced back into his room by his father. This can be seen in the first chapter when Gregor reveals himself to his parents and boss, and becomes injured when his father forces him back into the room. In addition in the second chapter Gregor sustains mortal injuries for following his sister Grete into the house to help his collapsed mother. In the end, with his injuries and seeing himself as a nuisance and a monster like his family did, Gregor dies.

Once I’ve got together the money to pay off the parent 's debt to him— that should take another five or six years—I’ll do it for sure. Then I’ll make the big break.”(pg.5) In other words, Gregor is working so much for his parents and the debt that he needs to pay off. As a result of that, Gregor is overworked, he never really goes out, and spends his time reading the newspaper or looking at the bus schedule. Kafka writes, “The young man has nothing in his head except business. I’m almost angry that he never goes out at night. Right now he’s been in the city eight days, but he’s been at home every evening. He sits there with us at the table and reads the newspaper quietly or studies his travel schedules.” (pg. 15) Gregor has lost his sense of humanity and spends his time thinking about business. He has also lost all sorts of creativity he had before he started working so much. He is pretty much used to a routine based lifestyle, which lacks creativity because he has a set schedule that he follows almost everyday. This resulted into his metamorphosis. His parents relied on him to work so much, they forgot that Gregor is human just like themselves. Gregor is human who needs basic human essentials. Like going out with his friends, relaxing, and learning to appreciate the things and people around him. He could not do so because he was stuck paying off debt with a job that he hated.

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.

In the beginning of the novella, Gregor undergoes a transformation. Many readers view his transformation as he turns into a bug because of the way Kafka describes Gregor. Kafka may have been undergoing a transformation of his own. Kafka dealt with many issues growing up such as self doubt, issues with his father, and eventually, health issues. Like Kafka, Gregor deals with issues with his father and within himself and begins to feel less and less like himself as the novella continues. He awakes from his sleep to ask himself, “What’s happened to me (Kafka, 3)?” With the conflicts Gregor has with his family, especially his father, he begins to feel unwanted and unappreciated. Gregor also feels that he is becoming less sensitive when that used to be one of his main traits as a human (Kafka, 24). Seeing that Gregor is losing his sensitivity, that shows that he is truly losing himself since he is losing one of his main traits. Feeling less like himself, Gregor becomes more distant with his close

The deterioration of Gregor's life was in part due to the ostracism associated with his being turned into a bug. Once his family found out what happened, they banished him to his room, and his parents could not even bear to look at him. Prior to his metamorphosis, Gregor was an integral part of the family. He provided the money by which the family survived. Yet as soon as he changed, he was labeled an outcast, who was useless to the family, and therefore not paid any attention. He felt this ostracism, and it made him not want to continue on in life, he gave up because he felt unloved.

From Gregor’s point of view, the fact that he did not have to go back to his job that he hated could be considered a positive aspect of his transformation. Because of the way his boss treats him, it seems as though Gregor is somewhat okay with not being able to go to work anymore.

Throughout “The Metamorphosis” we learn about a character named Gregor and everything he has going on with him, his thoughts, with relationships, his physical and mental limitations, and the overall situation he’s been so unfortunate to be a part of. Gregor has a lot going on now that he’s transformed so i’ll cover everything i’m able to.

Despite his major transformation, Gregor instead begins to worry about catching a later train since he had already missed his first train, Gregor thinks about things like him being the provider for his family and things of work. At first it seems as though he has not yet caught on to his transformation, he already feels removed from humanity. This raises the question of whether this distance is a result of his transformation or if this indicates his already pre-existing distance from other people. No answer, of course, is given, and both might be possible. There is a hint here that Gregor's entire metamorphosis may be the result, or the metaphorical equivalent, of his

Throughout the novella, Gregor’s deeply rooted sense of guilt transitions from having the power to drive his actions to merely plaguing his thoughts. Immediately after his transformation, Gregor reveals that he has to “deal with the problems of traveling, the worries about train connections, irregular bad food, temporary and constantly changing human relationships…” (Kafka 4), in his daily work. Although he appears to hate his job, Gregor does not quit, as he has both intrinsic motivation to provide and extrinsic pressure from his family to keep them afloat. Rather than reflecting on his feelings and emotional baggage attached to his job, Gregor focuses on grievances set in reality, and allows this to occupy his conscious mind. After Gregor’s transformation, his

Though Gregor changes into a bug, the reader never sees Gregor as a human. The reader just sees Gregor as this static character throughout the novella. This is important because Gregor starts out in the novella as a bug, and ends as a bug. Also, when contrasting the personality change of the Grete and Gregor, Gregor’s personality did not change all that much.

The last few lines of Franz Kafka’s, “Metamorphosis,” points out that Gregor is not the only one in the family that undergoes changes of some kind. There are two other changes that have happened throughout the story. When Gregor turns into the bug, his family realizes that he can no longer support them. Here it seems to be like Gregor dying was an answer to their prayers. When it says, “And it was like a confirmation of their new dreams and good intentions,” they could now move on with their lives and start over. Since Gregor dies, his family realizes they would all have to get jobs. This made them feel safe. His family went from being sad to being very happy with their new life. The other transformation that happened was how Grete went from a little girl to a woman. When Grete starts to take care of Gregor, she slowly starts to become more mature. The very last line of the story, “Their daughter stood up and stretched her young body,” represents how she has a nice, young body and she is mature enough to find a husband. She transformed into a woman, just as Gregor transformed into a beetle, and his family into a happier one.

The other theme that is at the center of Gregor’s troubles is the theme of duty to family. Duty to his family is what informs the kind of choices and interactions that Gregor has. He is totally committed to supporting his family and ensuring their wellbeing. Gregor’s metamorphosis makes it particularly hard to fulfill his duty to family. In the first part of the narrative, the office manager arrives to inquire why Gregor had not reported to work. It is only when Gregor realizes that he would lose his job does he make an effort to open his room. Before that he was content with the people not knowing what was wrong with him. (Bloom 31). This shows that for Gregor, the only thing worse that his metamorphosis, was the fact that he would be unable to take care and support his family.

Life for Gregor was tough enough as is, and it never got better. Throughout the story, Gregor attempts to become accustomed to his new life as a bug. While he tried his hardest to adjust to his unique situation, he ended up becoming a different being. Grete even said, ”But how can it be Gregor? If it were Gregor, he would have long ago realized that a communal life among human beings is not possible with such an animal and would have gone away voluntarily”(Kafka 86). In the end, Gregor’s existential crisis occurred because he could no longer provide for his family and never adjust to his new life as a bug. This existential crisis has led to multiple outcomes for Gregor and his

The setting reveals the theme of this story by having the story unfold mainly inside one confined area, Gregor’s bedroom. “His room, a proper human room although a little too small, lay peacefully between its four familiar walls.” (Kafka paragraph 2). “Gregor then turned to look out the window at the dull weather.” (Kafka paragraph 3). According to these quotes, Gregor had a small room with only one window. His room sets up the gloomy and dark theme, because his room becomes more like a jail cell than anything else. When the family first sees Gregor in his new form, they were shocked and never wanted Gregor to leave his room. The only occasional interaction he would get from