Franz Kafka wrote the short story, The Metamorphosis. The novella has been studied in different universities and colleges in the Western world. The story is about Gregor Samsa’s transformation from a human being to a monstrous creature. The Metamorphosis starts with the main character Gregor waking up only to find that he has been transformed into a huge insect-like outrageous and verminous being. As a result, he has to adjust to his new look because he does not know the reason why he was transformed and this traps his life. Gregor became a burden to his family who kept away from him because of his monstrous look. In fact, they wished him dead, because he was not only a burden to them but also, cannot provide for them as they were in a bad financials situation. In the end, Gregor dies and rids his family of their burdens. Gregor’s metamorphosis not only affected him but also the other characters in the story.
Gregor was adversely affected by the transformation in his life thus changing his life for good. Gregor woke up as a monstrous insect, and this transformed his life. Gregor’s physique changed as he was now a hideous insect that could not mingle with the rest of the people. He had to change his way of speaking, eating patterns, living preferences, and way of life because he lost many of his human abilities (Rolleston 5). Gregor could not speak audibly, and he could only say yes or no to the members of his family. In addition, he lost his other human abilities, and he became more dependent on the people around him. The main character could not socialize with people because his life was now reduced to being locked up in a dark, dusty room.
The transformation not only changed his physical appearance but also his behavioral and living patterns because he had transformed from being a human being to a monstrous insect. This is evident when we see him in a dusty, empty room with a lot of dust. He no longer walked but crawled around very comfortably in the dark empty room (Kafka and Hoffman 87). His family locked him up because he could not walk like a human being. Besides, Gregor crawled on the walls and the ceilings while snapping his jaws as he had turned into an insect. He no longer lived a normal life as a human being because he was now a different creature. Therefore, the transformation in his life affected his actions and his way of life because he could no longer live like a normal human being.
Apart from the physical appearance and the behavioral changes, Gregor’s food choices changed too. Since he had changed into a verminous insect, Gregor had to change the types of foods he eats and this is evident when Grete brings him milk, which is said to be his favorite drink, but he refuses to take it. In addition, Grete also brings him an assortment of foods including fresh foods but he Gregor turns her down with a lot of repulsions (Kafka 37). In fact, Gregor chose the rotten vegetables as his preference. Therefore, it is evident that the metamorphosis changed Gregor completely because he could not eat the typical food humans ate. Gregor only ate foods that could be eaten by insects because of the metamorphosis.
In The Metamorphosis, Gregor faced a dangerous transformation after being confronted with a mysterious problem that left him into a monstrous creature, and he had to deal with it. Faced with an unexplainable metamorphosis, he decided to live like a vermin and adapt to the changes together with his family (Martinez 15). At first, he found the changes annoying and challenging but with time, Gregor learned to live with the transformation and later on this led to his demise.
Apart from Gregor, the Samsa family faced numerous challenges with the metamorphosis that happened with one of their own. They experienced changes with Gregor’s transformation because they also had to change their way of life. First, the family members depended on Gregor to take care of their financial issues, but because of the transformation, he could no longer provide for them. Therefore, they had to adapt to a life whereby they have to fend for themselves because Gregor could not do it because of the metamorphosis.
Secondly, Gregor became a responsibility to his family who saw him as a burden to them. Initially, Gregor was the sole family breadwinner and now tables have turned whereby he now depends on them. His mother and Grete cried for Gregor most of the time because they pitied him. In fact, they had to take the responsibility of taking care of the family’s financial needs. Grete started working as a sales girl while her mother in a lingerie-sawing store. On the other hand, his father was now working as a messenger to get enough for the family. The family members had to change their lives completely because of the metamorphosis. Gregor was a burden to his family until they contemplated of getting rid of him. The decision by Grete to get rid of him Hurt Gregor’s feelings until he hoped to die to ease his family from the burden of taking care of him. In the story, Gregor was nearly killed by his father until her mother intervened (Kafka 42). Even though she lived with the hopes that Gregor will be back to his human from one day, she was hurt and suffered about it without doing anything to make her son well again.
Besides Gregor’s family, the other characters in the story were also affected by his metamorphosis. For instance, the maids working for the family quit their jobs because they were tired of taking care of a verminous being (Rolleston 5). On the other hand, the cleaning woman treated Gregor so badly because instead of making his room clean, he turned it into a garbage dump. She could not live with the fact that she has to clean the room where a monstrous creature lived. They all stopped taking care of Gregor, which led him to isolation and detached from the people he loved. The transformation in Gregor’s life into a monstrous insect changed his life and the lives of the other characters in the story.
As the story ends, the central character loses his purpose of living and in the family and dies. His death brought a lot of relief to his family because the burden of taking care of their son who had turned into a monster was now lifted. This is evident when his father says that they can now thank God that it is now over. According to Bloom, Gregor’s father felt no sorrow or grief after the death of his son because he had left him neglected without even making an effort to make him feel better or come back to normal (92). Gregor was a hardworking man who took care of his family until the metamorphosis occurred and led to his ultimate death.
In conclusion, The Metamorphosis is a story about an explainable change that happened to Gregor Samsa. Gregor was an ordinary person who used to work and take of his family. Suddenly, he undergoes a transformation that changed everything about his life because he turned in a heinous being. The metamorphosis of the main character’s life had numerous effects on his life and the life of his family members. The transformation changed not only the protagonist's physical appearance, but also his social and mental life. Gregor lost his human attributes, behavior, and abilities because of the metamorphosis and this had adverse effects on all the characters in the story. Overall, Gregor’s metamorphosis/transformation changed the lives of all the characters in the story.
Works Cited
Bloom, Harold. Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis. New York: Chelsea House, 1988. Print.
Johnson Scot. Structural Elements in Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 19(2), 2007: 149-157. Print.
Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis. New York: Crown, 2009. Print.
Kafka Franz and Hofman Michael. Metamorphosis and Other Stories (trans M Hofmann). Penguin, 2007. Print.
Kafka Franz. The Metamorphosis and Other Stories. NY: Barnes and Noble Classics, 2003. Print.
Martinez, Inez, Ph.D. "Unconciousness and Survival: Kafka's Metamorphosis and Borowski's This way for the gas, ladies and gentlemen." Journal for Jungian Scholarly Studies 5.2 (2010): 1-24. Print.
Rolleston, James. "The Metamorphosis." The Metamorphosis-Franz Kafka, (2009): 5. Print.
