Metamorphosis In Metamorphosis

In The Metamorphosis, Gregor is completely isolated throughout his whole life with his lonely job and later on due to his condition. When he was a human, a traveling salesman, he did not have a life outside of his job. Gregor focuses so much of his time on work, that his mother often worries that, “All that boy thinks about is work” (12). He isolates himself by not leaving the house when he is off the clock. He reads the paper, studies the train schedules and spends his time carving small frames all by himself. By doing this, he pushes himself away from a chance to socialize with others and create relationships. Gregor describes his traveling job as extremely lonely. He enlightens the readers on page 7 and 8 with a description that, “the steady stream of faces who never become anything closer than acquaintances”. Human beings need to have communal interactions with others. If not, well, it might bug you to death. When Gregor realizes that he is now a monstrous vermin, the alienation he experiences becomes even worse. He locks himself away in his room for days at a time. At first, his sister Grete, was understanding of his current condition. She often made meals for him to eat and left the living room of the house unattended, so Gregor could walk around. As Gregor

The deterioration of Gregor's life was in part due to the ostracism associated with his being turned into a bug. Once his family found out what happened, they banished him to his room, and his parents could not even bear to look at him. Prior to his metamorphosis, Gregor was an integral part of the family. He provided the money by which the family survived. Yet as soon as he changed, he was labeled an outcast, who was useless to the family, and therefore not paid any attention. He felt this ostracism, and it made him not want to continue on in life, he gave up because he felt unloved.

He supported his mother, father and Grete. Now that he cannot work, his family is desperate for money. The father decides to go back to work to bring home money. To make some more money on the side, they rent their apartment out to three lodgers. One night while the lodgers were there, Gregor was seen, which made the lodgers freak out and leave. This marks a turning point in how Grete feels about Gregor. She comes to realize that he has no humanity left. The reader sees this when Grete explains to her father, “It has to go,’ cried his sister. ‘That’s the only answer, Father. You just have to try to get rid of the idea that it’s Gregor. Believing it for so long, that is our real misfortune” (Kafka 1107). Grete no longer thinks of him as Gregor, but refers to him as “it”, showing that she really has no regards for him. This ultimately adds to the decision that they should get rid of

Gregor’s role in his family characterizes him as an altruistic individual whose nature made him ignorant to his family’s manipulation. Gregor endures most of his hardships without complaint and puts the needs of his family firmly above his own. Upon realizing his transformation at the beginning of the novella, his first thoughts were not of alarm but of great concern about being late to work because it is his only means of taking care of his family (Kafka 6). After his father’s business failed, Gregor “work[ed] with special ardor” (27) doing laborious work as a traveling salesman, not only to “pay off [his] parents’ debt”(4), but to also spend what little money he has to give Grete the opportunity to perform violin professionally (26). With all these responsibilities, it’s inevitable for Gregor to be under great stress, which can infer that Gregor’s transformation is a result of his willful desire to escape the pressures his overburdened life. Gregor struggled between remaining a steadfast provider or following his desire for independence, however, his metamorphosis freed him from a job he detests. Now that it is impossible for Gregor to work, Mr.Samsa reveals that “he possessed more money than Gregor knew about” (#). This is a significant event where Kafka uses the motif of betrayal to emphasize the corruption in familial infrastructure represented through Gregor’s sacrifice and interaction with his family, as well as to socially comment about how people in society use

Although Gregor turned into a bug, the real Metamorphosis occurred before the change and with the whole family. Kafka’s novella The Metamorphosis reflects the ideals about industrialization and existentialism during the turn of the century. In the novella, Gregor turns into a bug, and the whole family has to deal with it in different ways. Many characters go through a metamorphosis in the novella. Although the changes may not be physical the changes occurred greatly in Gregor, Mr. Samsa, and Grete.

Gregor Samsa's metamorphosis occurs one morning when he wakes up from unsettling dreams and finds himself changed into a monstrous vermin.  This change makes Gregor dependent on his family members and reverses his previous situation in which his family was dependent on him.  As a bug, Gregor is useless to his family and can no longer perform simple human tasks, let alone support his father, mother, and sister.

From the first day of Gregor’s new life as a bug, Grete voluntarily steps up to the Samsas’ new challenge. She brings food to Gregor, she cleans Gregor’s room, and she cooks for her family every day, often dealing with the stench of Gregor’s room, the financial status of the family, and the lack of help given to her. Grete’s parents do not even go into Gregor’s room until the fifteenth day after his transformation. However, they acknowledge Grete’s current work and her transformation, “whereas before they had often become angry with [her] because she appeared to them to be a fairly worthless girl” (p.40). This change is more significant than Gregor’s change in ability because the only action Gregor is able to perform better than before is controlling his

Gregor falls into severe depression after his metamorphosis. Before Gregor’s transformation, he lived a routine life. He would wake up early, go to work, and come back late only to start the process all over again the next morning. As well as being extremely draining, this lifestyle held no benefits for Gregor, as his work was centered around sustaining

The transformation that Gregor underwent was not an extreme change in his usual way of how he acted. Gregor was noted, by his parents, to have always been locked up in his room buried in his work showing that Gregor isolated himself from the rest of society along with his family. The transformation only furthered his isolation as he was further pushed away from his family, as no one would care for him as well as his boss running away

Ever since the metamorphosis, Gregor’s perception of himself begins to change as his family sees a bug more than their own son. Gregor does nothing but lock himself in his room.

Gregor's existence before the metamorphosis was much like after it; limited to work and family, he went unnoticed by both. After changing into a cockroach one night, Gregor is forced to live a life of isolation with a family who is appalled by him. He is placed in a "dark bedroom, in the jumble of discarded furniture and filth" a " monstrous vermin, a grotesque, hidden part of the family" (Eggenschwiler 211). Shock and terror, resulting in Gregor being locked away, marked his family's reaction to his metamorphosis. His sister is the only one that, while frightened, would tend to Gregor's room and meals. She even took the responsibility so far as to get angry with anyone who

The most obvious metamorphosis is that of Gregor. Throughout his entire life, Gregor has let other people make his decisions for him. The physical metamorphosis that he undergoes is the first occurrence in his life that no one in his family has told him what to do. This change allows Gregor to find his inner self and disconnect himself from the orders and hardships brought out by his family. By means of his transformation into a giant insect, Gregor has been released from his responsibility to support his family without having to assume the guilt of letting them down. He has also changed from the provider to the dependent. Richter brings up the point that the transformation of Gregor was not necessarily a bad one.

Metamorphosis is transformation of an insect from an immature form to an adult form. Although this term is ordinarily used in Biology, Franz Kafka uses this term to title his peculiar story. This is a story about a young man named Gregor Samsa, who is a traveling salesman. He is a typical hardworking man trying to pay off debts. However, he wakes up one morning as a human-sized beetle. His parents see him as a beetle, they react negatively, but his sister, Grete, is not so concerned. In months following, she helps him get through the change. Without Gregor working, the family is financially suffering. Gregor dies from an apple thrown by his father. Surprisingly, the families’ lives improve after Gregor’s death.

Gregor’s metamorphosis brings many positive and negative changes in himself as well as his family. His family used to rely on him for his income as he was the only source of money in the family, but now they all worked and earned money themselves that is a very big positive change in the family. The negative change was bad for the Gregor himself as he couldn’t face the world with his new appearance,

Marx would say this was because the bourgeoisie no longer benefited from Gregor so he no longer needed him around. Supporting that statement, as soon as the manager saw that Gregor in his transformed state, he fled the house and never returned or sent any word to the family. After Gregor becomes unable to support his family financially, they all eventually abandon him as well. Marx and Engels state that "The bourgeoisie has torn away from the family its sentimental veil, and has reduced the family relation into a mere money relation" (771). The Metamorphosis shows an example of this when Gregor is no longer capable of working which leads him to be unfit to provide for his family with money, his relationships suffer. The second person in the story, first person in Gregor's family to abandon him is his own father. Gregor has worked his whole life trying to pay off his father's debts. Gregor and his father were never very close and was the harshest towards Gregor. His father never once tries to help his son once he has transformed into this inset instead he shames him and even attempts to kill him. For example, upon first seeing his transformed son, he "clenched his fists, as if to drive Gregor back into his room" (15). Then, one day when his son is trapped outside of his room, he attacks him by throwing fruit. The apple that he threw left Gregor with a "serious wound, from which he