Metamorphosis And Endgame: A Literary Analysis

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

Thirdly, he suffers isolation from the physical world, which he is no longer able to participate in due to his presence and lack of mobility. Lastly, he suffers isolation from other people around him, especially his family. By the end even his sister, Grete, the most compassionate member of the family, explanations that they should stop thoughtful of the creature as the person they knew. She says that “the fact that we’ve believed it so long is the root of our trouble” (Kafka 48), which can be taken to mean that at some point Gregor stopped being a person not only because of his entrance but since of his non-conformist actions. The beating he receives from his father shows the extent of the cruelty he endures, though his father knows that “family duty compulsory the conquest of disgust and the use of endurance, nothing but patience” (Kafka 36). The tragedy is that this alienation ends up killing Gregor, who “dies not as a vermin, but as a human being thinking of his family”. The transformation is an indication of the breakdown of Gregor’s psyche and alienation within his self. The reader is not told how the transformation

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.

When Gregor first turned into a bug, his sister Grete, showed him kindness by bringing him some food “She brought him, to test his taste, an entire selection, all spread out on a newspaper. There were old half-rotten vegetables, bones from the evening meal, covered with white sauce which had almost solidified, some raisins and almonds, cheese, which Gregor had declared inedible two days earlier, a slice of dry bread, a slice of salted bread smeared with butter… and out of delicacy of feeling, since she knew Gregor would not eat in front of her, she went away very quickly… Gregor could now make himself as comfortable as possible.” (Kafka 153) As the story progresses Grete becomes careless and no longer is sympathetic toward Gregor. In fact she hardly even feds him anymore “But even when the

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

But, as time goes on his sister Grete, who had been the one to care for him the most, begins to lose faith in his humanness. She says to her parents, "You must just try to get rid of the idea that this is Gregor. The fact that we've believed it for so long is the root of all our trouble." This same idea is reiterated when Gregor finally dies and his mother says, "Well, now thanks be to God." His family was convinced after a short while that it wasn't even their own Gregor underneath that hard exoskeleton.

While the weeks and months passed Grete and his mother and father struggled to give little any compassion or concern for Gregor as their finances plummeted to the ground. Prior to his metamorphosis Gregor was physically alienated from any semblance of a social life due to his job and financial obligation to his family afterward the transformation and he was deemed a burden to his family that he had provided for countless months he was psychologically isolated from them as well. Notably while Gregor had finally been emancipated from his dreaded job as a salesman, he had become a parasitic to his family without being labeled as a provider they slowly began to turn against him only worsening his mental state and exile.

As a young child, he was a lone Jew attending a German school-which no doubt forced him to learn the "value" of conformity from an early age. As for Gregor, his family refuses to associate with him any longer and casually discards him because he is useless and perceived as different; i.e., dangerous. As such, the family finds this nonconformity almost threatening to their existence. A particularly pivotal and heartbreaking moment in Gregor's life occurs when his own beloved sister is asha! med of Gregor: Things cannot go on any longer in this way...I say only that we must try to get rid of it. We have tried what is humanly possible to take care of it and to be patient...I believe that no one can criticize us in the slightest...it is killing you both. I see it coming. When people have to work as hard as we all do, they cannot also tolerate Cheng 4 this endless torment at home. I just can't go on any more...this animal plagues us. It drives away the lodgers, will obviously take over the entire apartment, and leave us to spend the night in the lane. (Kafka) Basically, Grete is willing to kill her own blood relation purely based upon his unusual, repulsive appearance. However, despite the constant threat of extermination, his thoughts remain surprisingly selfless; he "did not have any notion of wishing to create problems for anyone and certainly not for his sister...he felt a great pride that he had been able to provide such a life in a

When the Samsa’s family first discovers Gregor’s repulsive transformation, Grete is the only person that tries to takes care of Gregor. Grete and Gregor hold a strong and close relationship from the start of the story that deteriorates as time passes. Grete looks up to her old brother because he is the only one that believes in her musical ability. Grete perceives Gregor physically as a critter, but emotionally, Gregor is still her brother and she shows pity toward him and becomes Gregor’s primary caretaker. Grete is Gregor’s only emotional connection to the family, and to all humanity itself. Internal conflicts begin to arise as Gregor begins to feel isolated from his family and confined by his room which he refers to as “imprisonment.”(25) Although Grete is the only one that shows sympathy toward Gregor, Grete perceives Gregor differently than how Gregor perceives himself. Gregor feels distanced from his family because of his physical appearance, something Gregor cannot change, which causes his family to try and think in the perspective of an insect rather than to take Gregor’s human emotions in account. Grete and her mother begin to “[clear] out his room; depriving him of everything that he [loves]”(33) not realizing Gregor’s emotional turmoil as everything from his human life was being taken away from him.

For the most part, Gregor attempts to negate who he has become and his condition deteriorates quickly because of the pressure that his family places on him. In a 2014 article published in Labyrinth: An International Refereed Journal of Postmodern Studies, Shahriar Kabir states, “From a familial perspective, Gregor loses his position both as a son and as a brother.” At one point in the story, Greta abandons her empathetic ways with her brother, Gregor. She tells her father that it is time for them to take action and get rid of the bug which she claims can in no way be her brother Gregor. She goes on to say that Gregor will only be a burden and is too much to handle on top of their jobs. This part of the story shows that, in the eyes of Greta

He is just burdened with the feeling of neglect since he can no longer complete his daily tasks as “Gregor had lost much of his mobility” (90). His old role in family life was to help provide economically, which is challenged by his new body, “At that time Gregor’s sole desire was to do his utmost to help the family to forget as soon as possible the catastrophe that had overwhelmed the business and thrown them all into a state of complete despair.” Before he became an insect, he was an introvert and this does not change throughout the novella. Gregor is selfless in the sense that he cares more for his family before and after his

There exists no one true approach to examine writing; consequently, Literature continually proves to be a misunderstood art. Emerging through time, theories have been conceived due to the study of literature, but different readers believe in different theories. For instance, Franz Kafka’s short story, The Metamorphosis, may be interoperated countless ways do to its intricacy, as well as by varying literary theorists. Kafka himself and historical background may even be scrutinized, when studying The Metamorphosis. Complexity in The Metamorphosis lies throughout the entirety of the story, for the story tells the telling tale of salesman Gregor Samsa and his time as a gigantic insect (Kafka). Despite their differences, Biographical Criticism, Historical Criticism, Psychoanalysis, and Marxism all provide methods by which to analyze Kafka’s The Metamorphosis.

The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms defines the Absurd as “A phrase referring to twentieth-century works that depict the absurdity of the modern human condition, often with implicit reference to humanity’s loss or lack of religious, philosophical, or cultural roots. Such works depict the individual as essentially isolated and alone, even when surrounded by other people and things.” (Murfin 2) Franz Kafka and Samuel Beckett were two of the more influential writers in this movement, as both The Metamorphosis and Endgame contain examples of this genre. While the Absurd did not fully develop until after his death, it owes much of its development to Kafka.

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).

By this chapter, Grete has almost completely transformed too. She began taking sides with her father, and condoning his pure rage towards Gregor. Grete’s transformation remained a major part of the story up until the final sentence, where she completes her own “metamorphosis”. However, within Grete’s changes lie a deeper meaning, showing that people will forget about you when you offer them no good. Gretes character changes from a young girl showing a strong sense of pity towards Gregor, to the character who suggests that they get rid of Gregor. In the final chapter, we also see the mother changing too, not nearly as significantly, but her changes are still shown. Gregor’s mother begins to lose her pity along with Grete, until not one person in the family recognizes Gregor as the human he is in inside, but instead view him as a vile creature that needs to be