In Franz Kafka’S “The Metamorphosis” Gregor Samsa Dreads

His boss tells him that he is causing his parents unnecessary worry, but his parents are not worried at all or they would have busted into his room to see if he was okay. Whilst in the middle of all of this Gregor is starting to get scared of what the change is bringing into his life and causing unnecessary worry. In chapter 2, Grete brings in food for Gregor and for a change he is being treated somewhat correct and they notice he has became a full time crawler. This causes the family to question what he is doing is not human and they are starting to fear his new abilities as a “bug”. As an example, his mother and Grete take out the furniture to give him more room to crawl. Losing all faith in Gregor they take the furniture out because the fear is too great they may never get their son back and they have to accept the fact Gregor is a nasty vermin.

The main character of Kafka’s book, The Metamorphosis, is a normal, everyday salesman named Gregor Samsa who happens to wake up one day only to find that he had suddenly become a hideous insect overnight. Throughout the book, Gregor experiences neglect, disgust, and eventually complete isolation

     Throughout the story there is a metamorphosis that is taking place in his home. He has traded places with the family and is now living the life they had previously embelished in. His father begins to work along with his sister and his mother must now work and do the cooking and cleaning. Gregor on the other hand does nothing but daydream, crawl, and nap through his days. One ironic statement from his sister “He must go, if this were Gregor he would have realized long ago human beings can’t live with such a creature, he’d have gone away one his own accord. This creature persecutes us, drives away our lodgers, obviously wants the whole apartment to himself, and would have us all sleep in the gutter.” How selfish of her, had he not taken care of them and he was not the only one working

“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.

Isolation not only changes the personalities of Gregor and his family, but also it changes the role and duties Gregor plays in his family. Before the metamorphosis, Gregor worked alone to provide for the entire family. For example, in the beginning, before the transformation, he says, “But besides that, the money Gregor had brought home every month he had kept only a few dollars for himself” (4). This shows Gregor’s selfishness and his family’s heavy dependency on his income. It establishes the fact that Gregor’s family’s loyalty to Gregor was strong because the family depended on Gregor for their own survival, and shows how they betrayed him by disregarding him after he became an insect. The isolation of Gregor caused by the transformation not only affects Gregor’s role in the family, but also changes the role of Mr. Samsa. Mr. Samsa originally told by Gregor: ”Now his father was still healthy, certainly. But he was an old man who had not worked for the past five years and who in any case could not be expected to undertake that much” (17). This shows how irresponsible Mr. Samsa acted for his family in the beginning. Mr. Samsa, a man in his 50s, blamed his unemployment on anxiety and depression from a past failed business. Mr. Samsa changes his role as the useless drag to the provider of the family, and even obtains a new job as a bank manager.

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,

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.

A metamorphosis can be described as a change in structure, form, or appearance, or as a change in form from one stage to the next in an organism’s life. In Franz Kafka’s novella, “The Metamorphosis”, change is a major theme. The theme of change is significant as the main character, Gregor Samsa, a traveling salesman, undergoes a metamorphosis of his own as he experiences changes living as a giant insect. However, Gregor’s journey through his new life is not subjective, as his transformation provokes significant changes in his family’s dynamics. In fact, Gregor’s transformation into an insect is not the main focus of the novella. Kafka uses Gregor’s metamorphosis as a way to emphasize the more significant metamorphosis within the Samsa

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.

Gregor’s parents evade the situation and avoid touching the subject of Gregor’s transformation. His dad forbade his mother from seeing his son. On a cleaning day, mother and sister began to remove his furniture which scared Gregor and caused him to run away. When the mother sees him, she goes into shock and faints. This episode triggers Gregor’s dad’s anger towards him as he slams Gregor with apples causing him a severe wound. When the family finds themselves in economic hardship they rent out rooms for guests. Gregor causes some problems for his family becomes very depressed and stops eating. He believes that it will be best for his family if he dies freeing them from all the problems he has caused. The next day the maid finds Gregor dead and throws him in the

Prior to the metamorphosis Gregor led a physically isolating life with little time for anything other than superficial relationships. Hinted at the beginning of the piece he longed to break free from his traveling salesman's job and shrug off the financial burden placed on his back. The metamorphosis was equally as mentally imprisoning as to what it was physically. Gregor was unable to express his emotions or even communicate his needs to his family this ultimately led to the family’s gradual shift of resentment towards him solely because they were unable to see how much of their once family member remained.

Gregor’s sister, had once he underwent his transformation, took care of him by visiting to help him.But even Gregor’s sister eventually forgot about him and could no longer deal with Gregor in his new transformed state.Gregor’s sister completely forgot about Gregor and went on and underwent her own transformation to help fill the void of income that Gregor’s transformation left behind. Furthermore, when Gregor died his family did not really mourn for him or pay much attention to him but rather had the maid take Gregor’s body out and threw him away like trash. This revealed how little the family cared for Gregor after the transformation as he was no longer able to provide for them now that he had transformed and was no longer accepted into society or the workplace.

To begin with, Gregor already isn’t too happy with his dad because he is out of work and leaves Gregor as the only one supporting the family. After Gregor’s transformation, Mr. Samsa takes charge of the family. He gets a job and the family takes in a group of boarders for extra money. Mr. Samsa orders Gregor to stay in his room so that the boarders don’t discover that Gregor is now an insect, and he constantly throws insults at Gregor which emotionally hurts him.

Furthermore, Gregor’s descent into social and physical abjection then forces his family to change radically in order to support themselves. In the beginning, Gregor starts off as the provider for his family. He hates his job, but he still goes above and beyond the call of duty to give his family a more comfortable life, even indulging the expensive endeavour of his sisters’ dream of studying the violin. However, after the metamorphosis, he is thrust into the role of a dependant – forcing his family to take responsibility and support themselves. His sister steps up to the plate in the beginning, giving him a selection of foodstuffs to find what he likes and even cleaning up after him. His parents are still in denial at this point, so much so that they refuse to see him at all. But as time goes by, his family begins to accept the situation and even try to help Grete out. His father produces some money from his previous failed business venture and his mother and sister try to make life more comfortable for Gregor. Grete in particular changes the most noticeably; Gregor himself notes at the beginning that her life up till that point had been “enviable”, consisting of “wearing nice

Like in all fantastic literature, the relationship between the magical element and the rest of the world causes a huge problem. The world as the characters know it does a 180 degree turn around that Rabkin mentions. The family was completely dependent on Gregor before the metamorphosis. Now Mr. Samsa has a job as a bank guard, Mrs. Samsa sews underwear, and Grete is a saleslady, and the family has nothing to do with Gregor. They turned on him when he needed them. This feeling of worthlessness kills him.