Transformation In Franz Kafka's 'Metamorphosis'

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“When Gregor Samsa woke one morning from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed right there in his bed into some sort of monstrous bug” (21). Franz Kafka’s “Metamorphosis” describes extensively the events of the story. However Gregor’s transformation occurs without any explanation. Gregor experiences the transformation because of the amount of stress that he endures due to his father’s debt. The concept of debt, causes many issues for families. When Gregor’s father loses his job, it sends the family into debt. Gregor takes it upon himself to repay the family’s debts. Over time the family grows to expect that Gregor will pay the debt back, so they feel that they do not have to work. Being the only one to work puts …show more content…

His loss of humanity throughout the story symbolizes how in the family’s eyes, Gregor should no longer be part of the family and should be removed. When Gregor first turns into a bug, his sister and mother show him some sympathy. Grete and Frau Samsa both believe that some part of Gregor still remains inside him. The belief that Gregor still has his humanity slowly disappears as he continues to become more bug-like. Grete sees how much Gregor has changed and her view of him drastically changes. At first, when Gregor transforms into a bug Grete gives him milk and food, but he will only eat rotten food. Grete starts to view Gregor more as a bug and that has a lasting effect on Gregor. She starts to lose touch with him and he gets moved to the back burner by the family. Gregor experiences a big dilemma about his humanity because he can’t seem to accept the fact that he turned into a bug. Gregor can see that he now acts like a bug, but doesn’t want to give up human thought. The suffering that Gregor goes through ends up causing his death and he is just swept out into the trash. The family realizes that because Gregor cannot work, he has become more of a burden than a member of the family. When Gregor chased away the boarders, that was the final straw for the family because they felt like Gregor would never do something like that: “You have to try to let go of the notion that this thing is Gregor. The real disaster is that we believed this for so long. But how could it be Gregor”

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