"Metamorphosis" Alienation Essay

“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 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.

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka is a reflection on how alienation and isolation begin and develop in a society by employing the characters in his novella as a representation of society as a whole. Using Gregor’s manager to demonstrate the initiation of isolation and alienation of a person, Gregor as the person being isolated and the inhabitants of the Samsa household as the other members of society, Kafka creates an effective model to represent the hierarchically structured effect of isolationism and alienation in society on a larger scale.

Gregor's physical transformation also sparks a streak of cruelty on the part of his family. It is understandable that they be frightened when he first appears, but they continue to lock him in his room without ever trying to communicate with him. The only person who ever goes in his room on a regular basis is his sister and she can barely even tolerate his presence. At one point when Gregor successfully escapes from his prison cell, his father ends up throwing apples at him with the intention of causing injury. "Gregor came to a stop in alarm, there was no point in running on, for his father was determined to bombard him." As Gregor merely sat there on the wall, his own father sunk an apple into his shell. After this event they leave him to whither away and die alone in his room. Gregor did not bring this horrid behavior upon himself by his actions, but instead they result because his different appearance and behavior led his family to think of

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 “The Metamorphosis”, the main character, Gregor Samsa, wakes up as a gigantic bug and figures he can’t be discovered with his appearance like that. Gregor was like any other individual (jobs, responsibilities, loved ones to look after, etc.), but as he changed, his view towards himself began to change. He hated being this bug because it caused him to feel unmotivated to keep living life. Gregor’s conflict in himself can be related to people in society to this day. When Gregor metamorphosed, he began to feel rejected by many.

Gregor’s metamorphosis into an enormous insect and the thoughts, the replications and feelings this deep change causes in him on the first day. Gregor’s thoughts are short and presented very carefully; while there is a monologue which is indirectly delivered by Gregor’s character. The events in this novel can also be found in modern families today. The protagonist (Gregor) is the one who sacrifices himself working to pay his father’s debts, instead of living his life. He really worked hard, and he wasn’t being recognized by his family for all the efforts he did for them. As soon as Gregor’s mother saw him, she was shocked with amazement, she even fainted with surprise. His father’s response foreshadows the violence that he visits upon his son. In other words, his father’s response showed anger and seeds of hatred that exist in the relationship. His family was taking him for granted, and his only duty was too support his family; but they never consider his needs, even he has a life. After the transformation, the family

The opening line of The Metamorphosis, describing Gregor’s discovery that he has become a giant insect, sets the tone for the rest of the story. The line describes the unusual incident in a serious, straightforward manner. The contrast between a strange situation and normal descriptions creates the expectation that the story’s setting to be strange and chaotic, instead of normal and logical. When he first recognizes his transformation, Gregor treats like an ordinary disturbance. In a similar fashion, the significance in the end of the first section of the book lies in the chaos created in Gregor’s loss of consciousness of his new physical state. Gregor remains focused on ordinary distresses, such as losing his job and worsening his family’s

The novella has many different themes along with some that go hand in hand to help build this complex work. Some examples include alienation, isolation, loneliness, love, and death. The thematic concern that this paper is focused on is alienation. Alienation is shown when almost all humanity is stripped from Gregor. The only item that remained and barely connected Gregor to humanity and society was the framed photo of the woman dressed in fur. Gregor protects this item from his mother and sister while they cleaned out his room to give him some comfort and room to roam around. At this point in time his mother and younger sister still cared and worried about him.

“His room, a proper human room, if admittedly rather too small, lay peacefully between the four familiar walls” (Kafka, 400). Although his room seems familiar, Gregor feels out of place in his own room after the metamorphosis. The phrase a "regular human room" suggests that he is already feeling dissociated from his “human” self. Aside from his physical transformation, “the others were no longer able to understand his words” (Kafka, 406). Gregor’s inability to communicate with his family further alienated him from his family and his humanity.

Metamorphosis is the story of Gregor Samsa’s transformation from a human into a huge bug. When Gregor Samsa, a traveling salesman, woke up he found himself looking at his “brown belly” while he was laying on his “armour like back.” The transformation was a bit confusing for Gregor as he had awoken from his sleep and thrown into a state where his movement was quite limited. All though the transformation was very sudden, Gregor was very calm and understanding throughout the whole story, trying his best to adjust to his new lifestyle. He recalls his previous life as a human while crawling about in his room and observing his family. As I said before Gregor was a traveling salesman who supported his parents and sister, Grete. They obviously were

In the story of the Metamorphosis, Gregor Samsa, a traveling salesperson wakes up to find himself transformed into a large insect. He looks around the room, which appeared normal to him and he tries to go back to sleep thinking that it was all a nightmare. Since he cannot turn to his side, he cannot fall asleep. Gregor looks at his new body and found out it was not a nightmare. Gregor now must adjust to his new conditions as he deals with the financial crisis from his family. This might be a very bad way to rise up early in the morning but on Gregor’s point of view there are some positive aspects in his metamorphosis.

“Gregor is a human being in an insect’s disguise; his family are insects disguised as people.” As the novel “The Metamorphosis” unfolds, Franz Kafka shows the plight of the protagonist, Gregor Samsa, and his family when Gregor turns into a large insect during his sleep. The interactions among the family is amusing and complicated. In light of Gregor's unexplained transition, he worries about his family’s problems and wants to go to his job so he can provide for them. His situation in the house causes Grete to change from her childish ways to a responsible and independent woman. However, her new adult nature changes her perception of Gregor. She changes her attitude from pity to resentment. Gregor’s father shows only feelings of contempt and violence towards Gregor, because he sees Gregor as a burden and often lashes out at him. Which explains the quote from Mr. Nabokov, “Gregor is a human being in an insect’s disguise; his family are insects disguised as people”.

Gregor’s physical transformation into an insect alienated him from himself, his own species, and his own families. “When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from unsettling dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin” (Kafka, Pg 4). Not once did Gregor question or panic about his physical change. Despite his indifference state of mind about his appearance, he emerges to be more distressed in terms of not attending work on time rather than his impulsive alteration. Gregor has failed to develop a sense of individuality and lack of humanity. “By the appellation ‘vermin,’ linguistic usage designates the lowest form of human self-contempt. Seeing himself as vermin,

Gregor metamorphosed into an insect. While he is in this form, he learns what he truly values, his family over his job and money. Gregor’s family, however, is devastated that he can no longer provide for them. They show greed and selfishness. They do not care for him, now that he is in a non-human, and disgusting form. Gregor woke up on an ordinary day, to find out he can not go to work because he had been transformed into a creepy-crawly. He was devoted to his job, and “[...] had never once been ill in his fifteen years of service.” as a traveling salesman (1). Soon enough Gregor and been entirely changed into a bug “So they couldn’t understand his words anymore.” (3). “Half-rotten vegetables, bones from the evening meal [...] and