The Metamorphosis By Franz Kafka

In the book, Metamorphosis, Frank Kafka tells the story of a dysfunctional family that becomes even more dysfunctional when their son, Gregor, transforms into a cockroach. Before and after his transformation, Gregor has a variety of identity and self-esteem issues. Through his transformation, many of these issues are maximized. He begins to not know who he is anymore, and he is disgusted by the fact that he has turned into a hideous creature, both figuratively and literally. This is demonstrated when he has woken up after turning into a cockroach with an itch. After he tries to scratch his itch, he notices one of his many insect legs and is revolted by the truth. The immensity of his disgust is portrayed in his reaction to his transformation into a bug. He does not react how most people would if they woke up one morning to find that they have been turned into what most would consider the world’s most repulsive insect. Instead of waking up in a panic, he simply reflects on his life as a human and how monotonous it was. In this reflection, it becomes clear that his family is codependent on him. Codependency is a major concern, and it should be addressed.

“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.

Now homebound Gregor is now able to be apart of family conversations. Metamorphosis shows Gregor yearning for human contact from his family, but it also shows his family eagerly alienating him from their life. With continuous alienation, Gregor loss interest in his family and no longer desires to have contact with them. Kafka shows families that are experiencing a financial crisis; a loss, unemployment, abuse or an illness can cause a breakdown in communication as a whole. Once Gregor is unable to communicate, he becomes an observer of the world around him. His insect form symbolizes the emptiness, insignificant and an outcast, which he was at work and at home.

Kafka uses symbolism on many occasions throughout the novella to convey Gregor’s sentiments and reflect on his current situation. The bug, perhaps the most important symbol in the whole novella, symbolizes Gregor Samsa and his life. “That boy has nothing on his mind but the business… he’s been back in the city for eight days now, but every night he’s been home,” (10). This quote directly shows how Gregor has been occupied with work ever since growing up and has never been able to do anything unrelated to work. Similar to bees or ants, Gregor has led the same exact life, which mainly consisted of working in order to provide for his family. In addition to the bug, the furniture in Gregor’s room is symbolic in the way that it signifies his humanity. “Had he really wanted to have his warm room, comfortable fitted with furniture...he would be able to crawl around unhampered in all directions but at the cost of simultaneously, rapidly, and totally forgetting his human past,” (33). By removing his furniture, Gregor’s mother and sister are unknowingly and slowly taking away his humanity, which is not what he wants. Furthermore, this confirms the undesirable fact that Gregor is gradually losing his humanity and that his family has become inconsiderate, especially of

The change begins with the family as they realize that Gregor can no longer support them financially. This puts in motion the most major metamorphosis of the story. Gregor’s initial concern is how his change will affect his ability to work. Likewise, the family seems to be concerned with the same thing; the mother fears Gregor is ill, and the father sends for a locksmith to open the door to Gregor’s room (214), all the while

Franz Kafka wrote one of his most popular books, The Metamorphosis, during the literary period and movement of existentialism. His novella stresses many existential ideals. The most predominant ideal that is seen through Gregor Samsa and his father in The Metamorphosis is that choice is the opportune of the individual. One’s ultimate goal in life is to successfully find a balance between work and leisure. It is through the juxtaposition of Gregor Samsa and his father, the conceding tone of the author, and the choice of diction that we see the acquisition of the homeostasis between work and leisure and in turn this exemplifies the father of Gregor as an existential ideal.

When Gregor inexplicably becomes an insect his family is primarily worried about how this will affect them, and their financial security. The morning Gregor awakes as a ‘monstrous vermin' is the first day he has missed work in five years; his family's immediate concern is for Gregor's job. His father begins to admonish him before he can even drag himself out of bed. When Gregor hears his sister crying at his door he thinks, "Why was she crying?? Because he was in danger of losing his job and then his boss would dun their parents for his old claims?" This is very significant to their relationship; he considers himself close to his sister, but feels her emotion spent on him is related to money. Gregor has been the sole breadwinner for years; working at a job he abhors only to pay his fathers debts. The family leads an extremely comfortable life of leisure; the father sits at the kitchen table and reads all day, the sister wears the best clothes and amuses herself by playing the violin, and all even take a mid-day nap. Gregor is extremely pleased and proud to provide them with this lifestyle; however, his generosity is met with resentment by his father and indifference by his sister and mother. Once the family grew accustomed to this lifestyle they no longer felt the need to be grateful, "they had grown used to it, they accepted the money, but no particularly warm feelings were generated any longer." At one point Gregor is deeply

A writer’s text is often the window to their soul, the truest reflection of their deepest thoughts. This could not be more valid than in the case of Franz Kafka. Franz Kafka is one of the greatest German writers to ever live. He uses his craft to construct abstract, puzzling stories of various characters and situations that tug at, or rather tear the reader’s heart strings. Kafka’s style of writing is so groundbreaking that it receives its own term, Kafkaesque. This term’s denotation describes the anticlimactic, depressing texts with often no catharsis for the reader. The connotation depicts the frustrating, bureaucratic situations Kafka creates. The way in which Kafka writes these tragedies is profound; every word has an underlying meaning,

In " The Metamorphosis" by Franz Kafka, Gregor is not perceived as a human, but rather as a commodity all the time. Gregor is expected to follow the society's expectation, including the rejection of his opinions towards what he does or does not want to do. Gregor is ultimately seen as an object who can be replaced. Gregor’s parents recognize Grete’s capability after Gregor is minimized. Gregor has no other alternative but to transform into a bug in order to rebel against his family and the patriarchal society's assumptions. However, his rebellion does not work for a long time because as time goes by, he gets less and less attention from his family resulting in his death. Gregor decides to destroy himself because of the lack of attention from

In the metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, the style enhances the nightmarish quality of the work. One example of how he shows a nightmarish quality is when he stated in the book, “I cannot make you understand. I cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside me. I cannot even explain it to myself.” In this example it gives it the nightmarish feel by providing a sense of hopelessness. From this quote it shows you how alone Gregor feels insides and how he can’t express his own feeling to anyone not even his family. Another example of this straightforward style was at the end of the story where Gregor thought to himself, “But Gregor understood easily that it was not only consideration for him which prevented their moving, for he could easily

In Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis,” Gregor Samsa deals with the alienation from his family stemming from both absurd and mundane circumstances. While Gregor’s transformation into a bug is the catalyst to his physical alienation, Gregor had for years been becoming more and more isolated mentally and emotionally from his family due to his displeasure at his having to work a job he hated due to his father’s failings and the lack of gratitude he received from his family for his hard work. It was not just his family who Gregor was becoming isolated from, but it was humanity in general that Gregor had been drifting apart from, as he had not mentioned having any friends or work colleagues which leads the readers to believe he had no social life

Marx’s theories on alienation with regard to family suggest that a working class man in a capitalistic society has reduced the family relation to a mere money relationship detached from its sentimental value. The Metamorphosis serves as a perfect example of this situation because once Gregor was no longer a finical asset to the family, he was deemed worthless. The father, was the first to reach this conclusion in the family, having no emotional attachment to Gregor after his transformation. . Upon first seeing his transformed son, he "clenched his fists, as if to drive Gregor back into his room" (Kafka, 15). Then, one day when his son is trapped outside of his room, he attacks him by throwing fruit that left Gregor with a "serious wound, from which he suffered for over a month" (40). The fact that the father is the harshest in the family is a little ironic given the fact that Gregor worked to pay off his father’s debts. This suggests that their relationship was solely based off of

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.

In comparison, Gregor's death in The Metamorphosis was far less heroic than Meursault's. Gregor is too self conscious about other people and what they think of him; he has sacrificed his life and his ambition for his family, to provide them a better life style. The dung beetle symbolizes the downtrodden feelings that are shoved his way especially after his transformation. All of the disappointment and sadness that washed over Gregor climaxed and resulted in his death. No one was around him when he died, and no one knew until the cleaning woman arrived. As Gregor lay dying, he "recalled his family with affection and love,"(49) he realizes that he spent his entire life caring for his family who did not care about him half as much, and he could have been more considerate about himself. Both authors tried to show how communication and happiness are interrelated as well as how vital communication is through the

Locking up his room in his own house suggests that he feels his home to be just as unhomely as a hotel. Norman Hollan states “Gregor’s repulsive appearance means he has to remain in his room, a prisoner, completely isolated.” This is true because he is not willing to leave his room because of what he is and so is basically a prisoner within his own home. Goldfarb also states “Gregor’s transformation is not an escape from his past loneliness but an intensification of it.” Gregor’s whole life has been basically devoted to paying off family debt, worrying about wasting an hour of his employer’s time and spending very little time developing his life.