“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”
One morning, “as Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect” (Kafka 3). Although Gregor has transformed into a vermin with
‘’This internal lack of self-esteem and the insecurities it produces are heightened by the change in his body. One of the major problems to reading The Metamorphosis is accepting Gregor’s transformation as literal and not merely symbolic; he has really turned into an insect. The strangeness of this fact, along with his and his family’s reactions to it, is what makes the narrative so fascinating and rich in interpretative possibilities’’(Silet). In the Metamorphosis it’s quite odd the way his family reacts to him during his transformation from a human to a creature. They act as if it was something common like, a flu or something. The fact that Gregor initially greets his metamorphosis with a chilling calm suggests that he previously saw himself as vermin like. In the same sense even when he knew he was a bug all he could think about was not being late for work. And even though Gregor was not the best salesmen he made going to work a priority because he wanted to provide for his family, Gregor never missed
Gregor’s father demotes societal views of himself by his actions. Gregor’s father depends on Gregor for the income for the family. When Gregor morphs into a bug, Mr. Samsa reluctantly becomes the sole provider for his family. Getting a ...
Franz Kafka’s beginning of his novel, “The Metamorphosis,” begins with what would seem a climactic moment: “As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.” From this point on, the reader is determined to make sense of this transformation. However, the reader later comes to realize that Gregor is actually not an insect, but this metamorphosis into a vermin was purely symbolic. It symbolizes the degrading lifestyle that Gregor leads to support his family. This leads the reader to understand Gregor’s absurd dilemma.
In the story “The Metamorphosis” Gregor starts at the top of Maslow's hierarchy of need. As the story goes on Gregor loses self-esteem. Gregor wants to give up, he feels that he isn’t loved. I noticed that Gregor’s family honestly just used him, because they were in debt, so he paid it off. In the end Gregor’s family seemed better off without him, they were out of debt and his father didn’t rely on him anymore.
Gregor is the focal point of the family, he provided for them when they needed the money. Gregor also brought the family into turmoil with his change. Just as Gregor brought them into turmoil he brought on growth for the family. His death gave his family a new life. Before Gregor’s metamorphosis, his family was a helpless and selfish. There was little meaningful interaction among them. Once Gregor had become a creature the family had to become resourceful, they learned valuable skills. Gregor gave his family something that could bond them together, they discussed what to do about Gregor almost every night. Gregor’s tragedy brought his family together. Gregor served as a “savior” for his family, he played the same role that Jesus did for the world. Gregor’s life was taken so that the rest of his family may achieve salvation. His family had changed from a selfish and lazy group of people to a loving and caring family. As Gregor grew closer toward death, his family grew closer to
Before the transformation, Gregor was a human form of nonchalant reclusiveness. It’s almost as if it was crucial for him to go through the conversion so he could become more emotionally aware despite the irony of him not even being human but a bug. For someone who has been human for about 20 years with absolutely no experience of being an insect, then suddenly become more humane as a creature is odd and outlandish. Gregor’s care for his family increases and begins to worry about their loss of financial and emotional security. He fears that what “if all the peace, the comfort, the contentment were to come to a horrible end?” Gregor’s attitude towards his transformation is hopelessly mundane: he does not question why he has been transformed into a cockroach. Significantly, he fails to find the horror and the absurdity in the situation. Right before his death, Gregor feels all kinds of warm and fuzzy feelings about his family members. Despite his pathetic condition, he seems more humane than the rest of the characters. In a way, Gregor’s transformation and all of the events after that day illustrates both the rewards and sacrifices of defying social convention and living the extraordinary
“One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that in bed he had been changed into a monstrous verminous bug” (Kafka). What just happened? Has Gregor really become a bug? This story, The Metamorphosis, is about Gregor Samsa who deals with a job he hates in order to financially support his family and pay off their debt. The story is told through the lens that is Gregor Samsa. As the eyes and ears of the story, Gregor tells the reader many things that all lead to one conclusion, he really has become a bug; however, this is not true, Gregor, in his current mental state, cannot be trusted. Due to the extreme amounts of stress Gregor is under, he has convinced himself that he has become a “monstrous verminous bug” and Kafka tries to convince the reader of that same fact (Kafka).
Sadly, Gregor's family treats him like the beast that he truly has become. Seeing the damages as irreparable, they strip him of his worldly possessions and leave him in a "naked den fit for a beast." The struggle that he puts forth when his furniture is taken is symbolic of his struggle to return to human form.
Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis is so strikingly absurd that it has engendered countless essays dissecting every possible rational and irrational aspect of the book. One such essay is entitled "Kafka's Obscurity" by Ralph Freedman in which he delves down into the pages of The Metamorphosis and ferrets out the esoteric aspects of Kafka's writing. Freedman postulates that Gregor Samsa progresses through several transformations: a transformation of spatial relations, a transformation of time, and a transformation of self consciousness, with his conscious mutation having an antithetical effect on the family opposite to that of Gregor. His conjectures are, for the most part, fairly accurate; Gregor devolves in both his spatial awareness and his consciousness. However, Freedman also asserts that after Gregor's father throws the wounding apple, Gregor loses his sense of time. While his hypothesis certainly appears erudite and insightful, there really is no evidence within the book itself to determine whether if Gregor has a deteriorating sense of time. If Freedman had only written about Gregor's spatial and conscious degradation, then his entire thesis would be accurate.
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka is the story of Gregor Samsa, his turning into a bug, and his ultimate death. In the beginning of the novel Gregor wakes up as a bug and struggles to become used to his new body. Gregor is locked in his room and late for work; he is the only one who works in his family, so it is important that he shows up and earns money to pay off his parents debts. His office manager shows up wondering where he has been and everyone is shocked to see Gregor’s transformation when he finally makes his way out of his room. Upon seeing him, his father shoves him forcefully back into the room, scraping Gregor’s back. Grete, Gregor’s sister, is his primary caretaker throughout the book and she makes certain he is receiving the food he wants and is the only one to clean his room for him. Gregor’s mother and father do not pay much attention to him at all throughout the book. The mother occasionally checks on him, but can barely stand the sight of him. Eventually, Grete starts working and stops taking care of him too, leaving Gregor all by himself. Betrayal is evident in The Metamorphosis and contributes to
Gregor Samsa awakes one morning to discover that he has been transformed into a repugnant vermin. One may never know what initiated this makeover, but the simple truth is that Gregor is now a bug, and everyone must learn to live and move on in this strenuous situation. In Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, the characters that interact with Gregor, including his mother, his father, and his sister Grete, must come to terms with his unfortunate metamorphosis, and each does so by reacting in a unique way. Gregor’s family members are constantly strained by this unusual event, and all three of them are pressed to their breaking point.
When comparing Franz Kafka and his personal life to The Metamorphosis it is obvious in more ways than one that he was writing a twisted story of his life. The emotional and physical abuse Gregor goes through are similar to what Kafka went through in real life. They were both abused and neglected by their fathers when they were disappointed with them. Kafka uses Gregor transforming into a bug as a way of exaggerating himself, trying to express his feelings and point of view. When writing, Kafka felt as if he was trapped in his room which he referred to as "the noise headquarters of the apartment". Gregor was an exaggeration of this because he could not leave the house to escape the noises and abuse.
“The Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka is an interesting and extremely allegorical tale. The story starts out by introducing the main character, Gregor Samasa, who is a traveling salesman. One morning Gregor awakens to find that his body has been transformed into something unusually horrifying, a large insect with many tiny legs.
His family used to care about him but after the transformation, they were no longer concerned for him. Every time the family talks about money, Gregor feels guilty and embarrassed because he can no longer provide for them. When he was able to work before, he had brought money home and “They had simply got used to it, both the family and Gregor; the money was gratefully accepted and gladly given, but there was no special uprush of warm feeling” (Kafka Ch 2 pg 6). Now that he can no longer provide, the family had to come up with ways to keep up with finances. Gregor is dehumanized each time his sister Grete walks into the room to look after him because she cannot bear the sight of him so he hides each time. Each day following Gregor’s transformation, the family’s behavior towards him became more cynical and resentful towards him. They do not allow him to leave his room and worry about how they can go on living with him. They think of him as being a creature, losing their view of him as a human being and no longer important. When Grete decided to take his furniture out of his room, Gregor feels he is dehumanized because they are taking away the link to his humanity. When it came to Gregor’s father, Gregor would “run before his father, stopping when he stopped and scuttling forward again when his father made any kind of move.” His father then threw at apple at him which ‘landed right on his back and sank in; Gregor wanted to drag himself forward, as if this startling, incredible pain could be left behind him” (Kafka Ch 2 pg