This is a story about a young man named Gregor Samsa who is a clerk at a local firm. He is the typical work-a-holic living with his parents, trying to work off the family debt. However, he wakes up one day to find that he is a human-sized beetle.
At first he struggles to get out of bed and can hardly maneuver his body, as he's not used to moving with so many legs. When his parents see him as a beetle for the first time, they react pretty strongly, but his sister, Grete, is not so apprehensive. In the coming months, she cleans his room and feeds him.
Grete decides to move the furniture out of Gregor's room so that he can climb around the walls. In doing so, the mother catches another glimpse of Gregor and faints.
As time passes, Gregor realizes that without him working, the family is in deep financial trouble. The family brings
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Gregor, upon hearing this, goes back to his room and dies.
The family finds him dead and their life seems to turn around. They all get jobs and find a new place to live. And in the end, Gregor's parents recognize Grete, Gregor's sister, as a beautiful young woman.
Initially, this is a story about the metamorphosis of Gregor - a transformation from a human to a beetle. However, what we really see is a metamorphosis of the family unit. In the beginning, we see a family who is strained under debt and apathetic towards this problem. And at the end, each member of the family begins to take initiatives to work and to change.
This story is also about perspective, as we are mainly placed into the mind of Gregor. Although he is a beetle from the beginning of the story, the part of him that is still human characterizes and humanizes how we too might react in a similar situation. Throughout the story, Gregor hovers between insect and human. We see this in moments when he is considerate of his sister seeing him, covering himself with a bed sheet so as to not scare her with his