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.
1. Before Gregor’s metamorphosis his family treats with moderate respect, for they make sure he is always following his schedule and is never late for work. Gregor before his metamorphosis is seen as an asset to his family, for he provides another source of income for them, a better opportunity to life comfortably. However, along with this sense of comfort his family also treats him rather distant from a son, and a brother. Gregor in a sense is treated like a tenant in his own home; his parents never enter his room, only reminding him of waking, eating and leaving.
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.
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.
The existence of Gregor as a monster-like creature brings extreme disruption to the household, in which Gregor’s parents begin to work due to the lack of income. Kafka particularly used the disgusting image of a bug in order to convey the disgust and disdain of a
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.
In Franz Kafka's classic drama novella The Metamorphosis, Gregor is a hard working traveling salesman with little to none social life when he wakes up one morning to find that he has been transformed into a cockroach. Gregor is vary calm at his unfortunate predicament unlike his family who freaks out and nearly kills him the first morning of his transformation. Throughout the story Gregor is always vary calm while everyone around him loses composure. Towards the end Grete says “We have to get rid of it”(47 Kafka) after gregor hears this he is left will no will to live and starves himself to death. Kafka creatively uses several different symbols to create a “more than meets the eye” feel with his story.
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.
Despite Gregor being the sole provider for his family, no one thanks him. In addition, when Gregor is turned into an insect, his family is not worried about Gregor’s health, they are worried about when he will go back to work. His family is
This story is about a person named Gregor Samsa who one day wakes up to find out his transformation from human to a horrendous creature. The Metamorphosis is divided into three parts which depicts the various stages of transformation of Gregor and how he and the people around him adapted to the change. It all began one morning when Gregor Sansa woke up to realize that he has turned into a bug and it’s for real, he struggles to get going on his expected schedule due to difficulties he was facing while getting up from his bed. He was getting late for his work and manger could send anyone to check on him. All his family members one by one enquired about the condition since he was very late for work, even the manager himself arrived at the home due to his absence in the office.