Identity In The Metamorphosis

He glanced out of the window, watching the sky turning from a deep blue shade to a clear, blue, breezy morning. ‘A good day.’ He made a mental note to himself. The sun baked through the curtains, sharpening his enormous shadow. He thought of that fussy factory owner and sighed.

Love in itself is a very complicated emotion, being either the driving force for a great blessing or a pressing burden. When comparing the surrealist chronicle, The Metamorphosis, written by Franz Kafka, and the down-to-earth short story Samsa in Love, written by Haruki Murakami, this idea truly takes form. The Metamorphosis is the story of Gregor Samsa, a young man who works vigorously to support his disconnected family. One morning, Samsa awakens to find spontaneously himself transformed into a giant cockroach. No longer able to support them, the roles are flipped and Gregor is now being cared for and quickly becomes a burden on his family. On the other hand, Samsa in Love transforms Kafka’s original story as in this version, Gregor Samsa

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.

Kafka’s Metamorphosis suggests to his readers to take a glimpse inside a dysfunctional atmosphere triggered from a painful childhood, to see how influential each member of the family contributes to the dynamics, but also to learn how to make light of the situation with acceptance. Kafka is reflecting on his own relationship with his family in Metamorphosis. He sees himself in Gregor, or is he him.

People have a high amount of pressure on them in their daily lives with social, mental, and physical appearances. Kafka represents this pressure he has on himself through Gregor. This allows Kafka to vent many emotions and feelings through this novella Everyone is there own person but some take others opinions to heart to often and need to see things are not as bad as they seem. Throughout The Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka, Kafka displays himself through Gregor, and shows his true feelings about people and society he lives in.

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

In the novella, Gregor transforms into an insect; he and his family must navigate his new life as a bug. As Gregor undergoes a physical transformation, there is also a shift in financial power in his family. Kafka shows that a capitalist society dehumanizes the working class, this is seen through the characterization of Gregor, the symbolism of food, and diction surrounding Gregor’s father

In the novella The Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka, the main character Gregor undergoes a physical transformation from human to bug. Despite this change in appearance, he maintains his human brain as insect tendencies slowly take over his day to day behavior. He maintains his thoughtless state of mind, memories, and inner dialogue during his exterior transformation. Although he maintains his mental capacities, it is his change in appearance that causes his family to turn against him and eventually kill him. These events show how people can become dehumanized by society and the government only because of a difference in behavior or appearance.

In Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, Gregor Samsa, a traveling salesman, wakes up one morning as a cockroach. In his job as a traveling salesman, he is not required to make his own decisions and only has to follow the orders of his boss. Gregor is okay with his job because it allows him to provide for his family, as is parents are in debt and he wants to support them. This leads him to a career that does not allow him to make any choices and therefore doesn’t require any individuality. As a result he never makes his identity unique and he finds himself unable to develop uniqueness because he realizes that he can’t have both individuality and provide for his family. Seeing that he stands in the way of his family’s happiness, he convinces himself that disappearing is what’s best for them.

Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis (1915) is a novella about protagonist Gregor, a hard-working traveling salesman transforms into some a vermin overnight and struggles to adjust to his startling change. Kafka characterizes Gregor as a selfless individual whose profound love for his family misleads him about their genuine disposition. As he adjusts to his new change, he undergoes great difficulty to determine his identity and humanity. Gregor has deceived himself into believing that his family will love him despite his repulsive appearance. In The Metamorphosis, Kafka uses characterization and third-person narrative to demonstrate Gregor’s self-deception and self-awareness regarding his family and circumstances to establish the theme of identity.

He was just a pest, a nuisance, a cockroach. The analogy that he was not intimidating, such as a spider or snake, but just really an insect that people tried to rid themselves of, like a cockroach, drove deeper into his self-condemnation. Kafka chose Gregor to be the cockroach as he was the only one working in the family, yet he still felt unappreciated and miserable. The moral is that self-loathing can make you an outcast, even if you started out far from it. You will become what you think of yourself, if you do not take necessary steps to improve your reality. Gregor felt like he had no freedom and was trapped in his life caring for and doing everything for everyone else except himself.

Without the constraints of external forces, is human nature inherently good or evil? In Franz Kafka’s novella, The Metamorphosis, Gregor Samsa’s transformation into a "monstrous vermin” serves as a window into the human psyche. Through lack of obligations, decreased sense of shame, and increased sexual drive, Kafka reveals Gregor’s relationship to the outside world weaken, as his internal instincts grow stronger. Kafka utilizes Gregor’s transformation as a symbol to show the dangerous potential of the human “id”, a term coined by Sigmund Freud, to break down social norms. This psychological venture reveals humanity’s true instincts as animalistic, when not contained through personal and societal pressures.

Franz Kafka uses metaphors in the story to show the readers that Gregor’s worthless and useless as a human bug. By doing so, Franz is able to show the readers how Gregor human life is really similar to a bug life.

Many views of existentialism are exposed in Kafka's Metamorphosis. One of these main views is alienation or estrangement which is demonstrated by Gregor's relationship with his family, his social life, and the way he lives his life after the metamorphosis. Namely, it suggests that man is reduced to an insect by the modern world and his family; human nature is completely self absorbed. Kafka reflects a belief that the more generous and selfless one is, the worse one is treated. This view is in direct conflict with the way things should be; man, specifically Gregor should be treated in accordance to his actions. Gregor should be greatly beloved by his family regardless of his state. This idea is displayed in three separate themes. First,

In The Metamorphosis Gregor Samsa is forced to deal with his transformation from a human being into an insect. After his transformation Gregor is no longer able to do everyday ordinary things. He now has to depend on someone to do these things for him. His younger sister, Grete, makes herself responsible for Gregor. She takes it upon herself to make sure that Gregor is fed and his room is cleaned. This leads to the question; why does she place such a huge responsibility on herself? An optimist like Gregor who only sees the good side of people would say it is because she is a loving and caring person. That her brother’s current condition makes her feel sorry for him and