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How Does Kafka Present Gregor's Relationship In The Metamorphosis

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The Metamorphosis is a novella written by Franz Kafka about a man, Gregor, who wakes up one day and has turned into a gigantic insect. The story follows Gregor’s experience following the transformation, as well as how every member of his family is affected. Since Gregor is unable to work anymore as a result of the transformation, his family was forced to adapt to a new way of life. The relationships between the characters in The Metamorphosis show how Kafka believes that a person's isolation and alienation in society is initiated by individuals at the highest levels of social hierarchy and gradually extended downward until everyone in the society has been persuaded to accept the original decision of one individual. Due to his parents’ debt, Gregor is obliged to work for a corporation that Kafka employs to illustrate the top of the social hierarchy, with the manager serving as the most significant figure. When Gregor does not show up for work that day, for the first time in five years, the manager shows up at their house. The family’s treatment of the manager …show more content…

This is shown when she places milk in his room, which "had been his favorite drink and that was certainly why his sister had set it there for him" (Kafka 105). Her reaction to Gregor’s isolation represents how, in society, those with the closest relationship with the person being isolated are most likely to resist aiding the alienation. Kafka then represents the often changing opinions by demonstrating a change in Grete’s perspective throughout the story. By the end of the story, Grete declares, "we must try to get rid of it. We’ve tried to look after it and to put up with it as far as humanly possible, and I don’t think anyone could repreach us in the slightest'' (Kafka 133). The shift in viewpoint illustrated how, in Kafka’s opinion, people stop feeling sympathy for the alienated once it becomes inconvenient for

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