He retreats back into his room one last time without anyone following behind him. “…He barely noticed that not a single word, not an ejaculation from his family, interfered with his progress.” (Kafka 497). His family did not believe that Gregor was still present. At this point in the story they are giving up on Gregor, and they want to put an end to him. They locked the door behind him and from then on they went about their lives without him.
Metamorphosis is a very unique novel and is written by Franz Kafka. It is about the transformation of Gregor Samsa an insect. Gregor has no idea why this has happened to him. He discovers his transformation after waking up late for work one day. He finds his back is now armored and his belly is brown, both characteristics of an insect.
The Metamorphosis illustrates the consequences of assimilation for the Jewish identity and human sense of self through Gregor’s struggles to communicate, the betrayal of his father, his loss of civic identity when he can no longer work, and the isolation that accompanies the bourgeois lifestyle. Kafka drew from his personal experiences as well as contemporary politics to frame the anxiety of the Samsa household. The Judaism passed onto Franz Kafka from his father left him longing for something more, something Gregor hungers for as well in The Metamorphosis. Isolation and despair fill the pages of Gregor Samsa’s tale but it is the hunger Gregor cannot satisfy. He eventually copes with his loneliness and finds hope beyond his despair, but the hunger is more problematic.
In December 1915, German author Franz Kafka wrote a short story called The Metamorphosis. It tells of a man named Gregor Samsa who is working as an accountant non-stop over the past few years and does almost nothing outside his job; He also has to pay off debt to his parents for his apprenticeship at his now current job. One morning, he wakes up only to find that he transformed into a cockroach. His family obviously does not react well to his metamorphosis and locks him up in his room. With time, they don’t regard Gregor as a family member; they take away all of his things and use his room for storage; they took away what kept him human.
Society looks down on those who refuse to participate in the rat race, whether voluntarily or circumstantial. In The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka warns us of the consequences that befall those who do not conform to the norms and expectations of the modern society. The 1914 novella tells us of the metamorphoses in the life of Gregor Samsa, a travelling salesman who woke up one morning as a “gigantic insect”. Gregor Samsa’s physical transformation into a “gigantic insect” brought drastic changes to the dynamics of the household. However, Kafka’s in a matter-of-fact way of narrating made the piece seem like a light read, a disparity to the dark unfolding of events.
“The Metamorphosis”, written by Franz Kafka, takes place in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the city is unspecified. The protagonist, Gregor Samsa, is turned into a giant bug and struggles to regain his harmonious life as a traveling salesman. Gregor goes through both a physical and emotional change throughout the novel, from turning into a bug and then being unable to provide for his family because of his condition. Gregor has been changed into a giant bug where he is a not a pleasant eyesight to his family and isn't accepted by his father and mother but only his sister. As the novella begins,”he found himself transformed right there in his bed into some sort of monstrous insect”.
The life of Gregor Samsa, the protagonist of Franz Kafka’s novella The Metamorphosis, revolves around his family - he slaves at work under the pressure of his family’s debt until, one day, he wakes up as a monstrous vermin. Kafka narrates this bizarre tale of Gregor’s transformation in an unsettlingly detached manner, isolating and examining the Samsa family members on an individual level by introducing Gregor as a disturbing factor in the unit. Through inspecting the family’s reactions towards Gregor, Kafka conveys how people fundamentally are isolated individuals whose actions are motivated by desire. Mr. Samsa uses the family as a medium through which he can fulfil his desire to exercise authority. After Gregor’s transfiguration, Mr. Samsa becomes the only male member of the family that can work to provide for the family and protect the women from Gregor.
Published in 1915, Kafka’s The Metamorphosis is a tale of a salesman named Gregor Samsa who one day wakes up to discover that he has quite literally transformed into an insect. Unable to support his family as an insect, he is only able to stay in his room and eat the rotting scraps of food that his sister brings him. Over time, Gregor’s transformation into a large bug begins to affect the lifestyle of his family, and they slowly become resentful of him. His family secretly wishes Gregor would leave, and knowing this, Gregor willfully dies in his room. His death marks a new, brighter future for the rest of his family.
Kafka creatively uses several different symbols to create a “more than meets the eye” feel with his story. Kafka uses symbols such as The Picture Of the Fur Coat Lady, Doors and Windows, Gregor as a Bug to provide insight to his dehumanization. Kafka uses the picture of girl in the fur coat to symbolize the last of Gregor's humanity before he turned into a cockroach. One example of this is Gregor's reaction to his sister Grete and his Mother.”That picture, at least, which Gregor was now completely covering, surely no one would now take away”(Kafka 35) he thinks this when Grete and his mother are moving his furniture out of his room. This is unusual behaviour for Gregor even as a bug, he has never once
On the other hand, some people find life meaningless. These people do not seek any element in life, nor do they search for the true meaning of life. . Kafka, the author of the story “The Metamorphosis”, illustrates the concept of meaningless of life through the usage of the character Gregor Samsa, who faces a crisis where he is transformed into a bug-life figure and gradually doubts his own existence. In fact, Kafta mentions Gregor’s transformation in the first sentence of the story.