In The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka pays attention to Gregor Samsa, a salesman and a dutiful son who singlehandedly supports his sister and parents. Gregor goes through a sequence of mental transformations that show how alienated he becomes from his family and other close people. Throughout the book, he becomes more aware of what he needs and what he wants rather than what others require him to do for them. One morning, after one of his unique overnight visits to the home of his parents, he is astonished to find that his body has changed to an insect. Additionally, his voice has changed to the extent that people cannot understand him. His family is shocked to find the change in Gregor. Soon the shock of his family paves the way for disgust. However, Gregor is heedful to their feelings, thus hides in the room when his sister brings his daily meal. His family rejects him after discovering that he is now a problem rather than a provider. Initially, his sister decides to take care of him, but she becomes indifferent to him, and he dies shortly after learning about the plans of his family to abandon him. His family rejects Gregor, and Kafka appears to point out that there is nothing like unconditional love.
The author depicts that Gregor is less worried after realizing that he has been changed into a giant insect (Kafka 89). His main concern was to get to the workplace so that he could provide for his family. A steady income is what makes the latter important to the family. Kafka uses Gregor as a piggy bank, thus creating an image that he is just an object to his parents and sister. Gregor is separated from the customs of lifestyle and the family he works for and rarely with his parents and sister to regain his position. His transformation into a giant insect, particularly a creepy one, shows the feelings of alienation mentioned above. The feelings of separation and an air of immaturity about his parents and sister are his father’s reactions when he reveals himself as a giant insect. The family makes Gregor work at a job he does not like to be able to pay off his father’s debts. Gregor’s main concern is to be accepted and appreciated by his family. The author wants his readers to know that the family accepts the money that Gregor provides. However, as soon as he cannot provide for them, they lose appreciation of his hard work.
Due to his inability to continue working, Gregor’s father has to find a way of providing for the family. After getting a job as a bank messenger, Kafka shows the readers that the father has now gained a sense of fitness and authority he did not have at the beginning of the story. Throughout the novella, Gregor’s sister changes into a strong and confident woman. Initially, when Gregor was transformed into an insect, Grete’s work was to take care of him as far as feeding and cleanliness are concerned. She is determined to see his brother change and return to his normal life. However, as time moves, Grete realizes that Gregor will not change soon and has become a potential threat to the family. As a result, her affection for him starts changing slowly, and she stops cleaning his room and even feeding him. Her focus now as Grete becomes an adult is to concentrate on more important things like keeping her family afloat. She now joins her parents in planning to get rid of the bug (Kafka 133).
The radical transformation in Gregor is fueled by the events that happen in his family. He discovers the lies that he had been told about the financial woes of his family. In other words, his family did have money they had saved up; they just wanted more. The discovery mentioned above makes Gregor lose a sense of individuality and the care of his parents and sister. Consequently, he starts to alienate himself from his family and human society in general. The author wants his readers to know that Gregor becomes aware of what he has to do rather than what others require. Throughout the book, Gregor appears to be living a life of serving without receiving anything because of his troubles. His family makes him live a life of a servant. Each member gets into debt because of making bad economic decisions. He is asked to help, but simultaneously he feels that it is his responsibility to help, and his father decides to take advantage of it. “Ah, well, I haven’t given up hope yet; once I’ve got what my parents owe…I’ll make a clean break (Kafka 65). One of the themes the author wants to bring into the picture is alienation since Gregor’s job as a salesman takes away from him for prolonged times. He is alienated from his parents and sister even before the development of the astonishing metamorphosis. He offers for the upkeep of his family, although he is not part of their day-to-day lives. Other themes include compassion, identity, and the absurd. While the book is all about a man who casually turns into an insect, greater analysis shows the audience that the author explores the irrationality of the human condition and life.
The metamorphosis of Gregor shows how he turns out to be less human day after day, paying no attention to his requirements to becoming someone who seems not to care anymore. As the story begins, the author tells his readers that Gregor is complaining of waking up early “Why don’t I keep sleeping for a little while longer and forget all this foolishness,…(Kafka 3). The quote above shows how uneasy Gregor is with his day-to-day activities and wants them to change, but he does nothing about it. He goes to the extent of comparing himself with other salespeople who are planning to have their breakfast when he is going back to do a check-in. Gregor sees how his life will also be different for him, but he ignores the feelings to please his family at the end of the day. Gregor starts to speak to himself about leaving and doing what he feels to do. On the other hand, he ends up ignoring his desire to go and make his life better and the feeling to do away with the job he seems to hate so much.
Gregor’s efforts to deal with the alienation he is going through are seen when he sneaks out of his room and peeks out of his door. The act of resistance mentioned above makes the family decided that he has to go; but rather than being let loose or be killed, he is found dead in his room, completely deteriorated, a sign of the way he had been exhausted by always trying to please his family to accept him. He did not fight his death because he knew it would bring happiness to his family. His last change was death.
In summing up, throughout the book, the metamorphosis of Gregor is a symbol of how he had become less human himself and become distant from human society. Like at the start of The Metamorphosis, Gregor was a person who was concerned with the welfare of his parents and sisters and worked hard to put food on the table for them. On the other hand, he became somehow lagging by having faith that he was a bug. He became less concerned with his wellbeing and those who were close to him. In other words, he was not concerned with developing strategies that would help him in due course. The more he went through his metamorphosis, the more he became less than a human being. His behavior separated him from his parents and other people who were close to him, making him avoid interacting with them. This, in turn, resulted in his death ultimately. The family feels a sense of relief upon discovering that he is dead.
Work Cited
Kafka, Franz. The metamorphosis. Schocken Books, 1948.
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