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Franz Kafka Metamorphosis Symbolism

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In Metamorphosis, written by Franz Kafka, Gregor Samsa works as a traveling salesman in order to provide money for his sister’s education and parents living expenses. Gregor is underappreciated and taken advantage of by his ungrateful family. One morning, Gregor wakes up as a massive bug that reflects the truth of how his family views him. Throughout the novella, Kafka uses symbolism of the repugnant bug that Gregor becomes, removal of furniture previously used by Gregor and an apple thrown at Gregor by his father, which essentially takes a large part in his death, to express the need of care and love to feel true happiness and the importance of receiving attention to avoid the consequences of loneliness and isolation.
The giant bug that Gregor wakes up as symbolizes the emptiness of Gregor’s life and how before turning into a repulsive bug, his life is just as insignificant as it is after. As a bug, Gregor ultimately sees himself as the insect his family thought of him as. He is supporting his family because his parents were too old and his sister too young, but in actuality when …show more content…

The second apple thrown at Gregor hits him squarely in the back and injures him. However, “No one dared to remove the apple lodged in Gregor’s flesh” (Kafka) and it continued to rot, becoming a serious wound that caused “...incredible pain…” (Kafka). The apple is a symbol of the beginning of exile and the suffering that Gregor endures with the rotten apple in his back which alludes to when Adam and Eve ete the forbidden fruit and “...So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken...” (Genesis

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