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Who Is Gregor Samsa's Existential Crisis In The Metamorphosis

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At one point in life, we all begin to question the meaning of our existence. Gregor Samsa experiences an existential crisis in the story The Metamorphosis. Gregor undergoes an existential crisis as he believes since he transformed into a pest, he can’t provide for his family anymore, Gregor tries to adapt to his new lifestyle, but ultimately can’t. The primary outcome of Gregor questioning his existence leads to him deciding to kill himself and his family deciding to move on and look for a husband for Grete. Gregor’s existential crisis begins when he starts to think that his life is worthless as a bug. According to Kafka,“At the time Gregor’s only concern had been to devote everything he had to allow his family to forget as quickly as possible the business misfortune which had brought them all into a state of complete hopelessness. And so at that point he’d started to work with a special intensity and from an assistant had become, almost overnight, a traveling salesman, who naturally had entirely different possibilities for earning money and whose successes at work at once were converted into the form of cash …show more content…

Life for Gregor was tough enough as is, and it never got better. Throughout the story, Gregor attempts to become accustomed to his new life as a bug. While he tried his hardest to adjust to his unique situation, he ended up becoming a different being. Grete even said, ”But how can it be Gregor? If it were Gregor, he would have long ago realized that a communal life among human beings is not possible with such an animal and would have gone away voluntarily”(Kafka 86). In the end, Gregor’s existential crisis occurred because he could no longer provide for his family and never adjust to his new life as a bug. This existential crisis has led to multiple outcomes for Gregor and his

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