Franz Samsa's The Metamorphosis By Franz Kafka

Franz Kafka was a nineteenth century Austrian writer who was famous for his bizarre yet comedic style of writing. Although he loved writing his whole life, he did not become famous until his death in 1924. Prior to his death he had no intentions of publishing any work until in 1912 when his friend Max Brod convinced him to. He had also asked for all of his work to be burned once he passed but Brod managed to do the exact opposite. Max then published three of Kafka 's unfinished works which then made him famous. He became best known for his short story The Metamorphosis, which was the longest work he had published in his lifetime. In many of his stories it seems that he relates several of the characters to himself or people in his life. There

This lead him to quitting his job, publishing a few stories, and doing a large amount of traveling. Soon after, he became severely ill and moved to a sanatorium in Vienna where his sister Ottilie lived. That is where he ended up spending the last moments of his life eventually passing away. In the story The Metamorphosis, Gregor Samsa, who is the protagonist, wakes up from his sleep in the body of a cockroach. Completely caught by surprise, his life was never going to be the same. He was now unable to communicate with his family or go to work as he did before. The situation that Gregor was now in is very similar to the one of the author. The transformation of Gregor turning into a cockroach could be referring to the disease and how it happened without any warning. I believe that the reason for Kafka writing this short story was to express how his life changed in many different aspects. Just like Gregor, he was now unable to work and eventually was forced out of his own home. (Puchner

He relates many of the situations in the story to the ones he encountered during his lifetime. He uses Gregor’s transformation and the relationship with his family to describe his feelings towards his own family. Kafka also does a great job of expressing his feelings towards himself and others through Gregor. Although there were most likely several reasons for Kafka writing this story, I believe that it was a way for him to both cope with what he was going through and allow the readers to better understand his