Materialistic Necession In Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis

“Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.” Although perhaps a trivial interpretation of the role of conformity, John F. Kennedy captures the essence of Kafka’s The Metamorphosis by identifying the principle struggle faced by Gregor as he experiences life following his inexplicable transformation “into a horrible vermin.”(1) The Metamorphosis explores the existential dichotomy between the societal pressure of conformity and the individual's drive for meaning, the resulting message being the necessity of societal rejection in achieving true existentialism.

On the outside, Franz Kafka’s novella, The Metamorphosis, seems to be just a story of a man who woke up one morning to discover that he transformed into a giant insect. However, with a closer look, it exposes a central metaphor that provides the very unlikely story a great deal of relevance to the structure of society and the alienation of humans in the modern world. Gregor Samsa, the protagonist, is alienated, oppressed, and persecuted after his metamorphosis. By holding these feelings of isolation and alienation, from modern society and family, they have caused him to lose touch with reality. Gregor’s physical isolation from the outside world, by staying in his room when at home shows his general alienation from modern society. As the story goes on, Gregor feels more and more out of

“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 Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis”, the character Gregor transforms from a man into a bug, specifically a cockroach. Although Gregor physically changes, he does not change as a person. Gregor merely accepts his new condition as a bug and his family’s continuous abuse and hostility. Gregor’s acceptance of his new bug form is representative of his passive personality before and after his transformation. Gregor’s passivity, in response to the hostile world around him, causes his eventual downfall. Therefore, Kafka uses the character Gregor to exemplify how a passive attitude can cause one’s demise.

Throughout Franz Kafka’s novella, The Metamorphosis, he tells the story of one young man’s transformation from a human to a monstrous vermin. However, there is much more meaning behind this transition than just a young man turning into a beetle. I will discuss the effect of Gregor Samsa’s “metamorphosis”/transformation on himself and the family, Gregor’s role in his family, why he has so much responsibility, and how his familial role is changed. Also, I will discuss what circumstances in Gregor’s life caused him to feel dehumanized before the metamorphosis took place, what the novella reveals about Gregor/Kafka and the father/son relationship, and finally, how the metamorphosis can be further interpreted. Without a doubt, Gregor’s metamorphosis changed the Samsa family dynamic and had effects on many other things.

Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, is the story of Gregor Samsa, a traveling salesman who is responsible for the financial well-being of his entire family, yet experiences an unfortunate metamorphosis into a giant bug. However, while Gregor undergoes a disturbing physical transformation, the family dynamic changes drastically as well. The family’s treatment of Gregor slowly deteriorates from them regarding him as the basis for their financial success and security to regarding him as no more than an extraordinary nuisance that holds them back from a brighter future.

Franz Kafka’s twentieth-century classic, The Metamorphosis, shows the changes of the Samsa family after their son, Gregor, turns into a vile insect. Even though Gregor has turned into the most disgusting of creatures, this “metamorphosis” is ironic compared to the transformation that his family endures. While Gregor still sustains his humanity, the lack of any compassion and mercy from his family, is what makes them the disgusting creatures rather than Gregor. The changes of Gregor’s father, mother, and sister prove that the theme of metamorphosis is not exclusively present within Gregor.

In Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis, Gregor’s life dramatically changes with the event of his transformation to a bug. His family is not in full acceptance of what has become of him and Gregor begins to lose himself. He had once been the provider for his family and now it is as if his family reproaches him for his inability to take care of them. Gregor wants to again have a role in his family yet recognizes that his family would be better off without him and dies. There are several situations that Gregor experiences that makes him lose all hope. From Maslow’s hierarchy of needs it can be be seen that Gregor loses his humanity including the essential needs to humans such as his safety, his desire to be successful, and his desire for affection from others. The desire to feel love from his family and their rejection is the final event that leads to his depression and at the end to his death.

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

In Franz Kafka’s novella, The Metamorphosis, the travelling salesman Gregor Samsa wakes up one morning, in his family’s home, to find “himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin” (Kafka 3). While this immediate physical change, supported by ensuing physical imagery, suggests that the “metamorphosis” introduced in the title is purely physical, other interpretations are also possible. When the reader relies upon the extended and embedded metaphors present in this text, he or she may construe Gregor Samsa’s transformation as an emotional, mental, or internal change. It is a combination of both physical and nonphysical interpretations of Gregor Samsa’s metamorphosis, however, which produces a multifaceted,

When reading The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, one experiences the surreal transformation of Gregor Samsa from man to vermin. From the beginning of the story to the end, the reader follows Samsa’s difficult life as a man and as a vermin, and also discovers how being a man-sized beetle changes his perspective of life. Although it may seem as though Gregor Samsa is a man-sized vermin that still has the thoughts and personality of a human, this is not so. Being isolated and mistreated for such a long period of time led to the complete dehumanization of Gregor Samsa, and it could not have just been the vermin body and lifestyle taking over his mind. In order to understand how this could be possible, learning about how isolation affects the human

In Franz Kafka’s fiction novella The Metamorphosis, the isolation of Gregor Samsa is made apparent as he “[looks] out the window, obviously with some sort of memory of the freedom he formerly enjoyed”. As Gregor loses his humanity, his physical isolation parallels the social isolation he experiences from his family and society. Through the use of theme, symbolism, and characterization, Gregor’s transformation reflects the changes within an individual, a family, and a society.

In “The Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka, Gregor goes through a transformation in which he turns into a bug. Due to his metamorphosis, his role within the family disappears along with his social status. His family tries to deal with his transformation, but as time passes by, they can not stand the sight of him anymore. They realize that there is not a bit of humanity left in Gregor. As soon as they realizes that, they decide to get rid of him. Gregor’s family plays an important role in his death. But the Grete and Mr. Samsa is the main cause of Gregor’s death, due to their lose of faith in Gregor’s humanity.

The Menace of Expectations In Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis, he describes a huge life change for a man named Gregor. One day, Gregor wakes up and finds himself transformed into a bug. Scholars have tirelessly debated whether Gregor transforms into an actual bug or a figurative bug. State aside, it is impossible, unrealistic, to think that a man can one day become a bug. Gregor becoming a literal bug is more extreme than if he would wake up just “think” that he is a bug.

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.