The Metamorphosis: A New Stage in Life

“Metamorphosis: any complete change in appearance, character, circumstances, etc.” (dictionary.com). Families are changing all the time; whether a family member loses their job, moves to a different state, or dies, each person within the family changes mentally or physically. Change can both be devastating and it can also have a positive aspect on the rest of the family. Some say without change, a person will not live life to the fullest. The Metamorphosis is a novella about Gregor who has turned into a bug and now is living through his parents abandoning him and the transformation of not being a human. With Gregor’s transformation come a lot of minor and major changes with each character in the novella. These characters change both physically and mentally with the big event that has happened. In The Metamorphosis, Gregor is not the only one who experiences a change; instead all of the characters go through mental and physical changes.

Besides the obvious transformation of a human into a bug, Gregor’s changes throughout the novella are very minimal. When the change happens, the first thing that came to his mind is pleasing his family by going to work so he can support them. Otherwise he accepts who is now and starts to learn how to function in that state. Physically, there are many changes that happen to Gregor such as turning into a bug, not being able to speak, and lack of sight. However, mentally he remains the same throughout the story. He is always trying to be pleasing to his family, working to earn money for them, and to finally decide to leave them so they can have a better life. When his parents start to abandon him, he feels like it would just be better if he were gone, that way they can move out of the house like they ...

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... change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we aren’t really living” (Gail Sheehy). If Gregor’s transformation never happened, his father would have never gone back to work, and Grete would have never matured as fast as she did. Change can be something that breaks a family apart or brings them closer together. For the most part, the Samsa family did not come any closer together. They abandoned their son when he needed them the most and when he died, they felt no remorse. Grete, however, will live on and marry a wealthy man. The family will move on and the memory of Gregor will fade away. However, it was the transformation of Gregor was the entire reason that the family changed the way that they did. “Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist the; that only creates sorrow. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like” (Lao Tzu).