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Metamorphosis By Franz Kafka Essay

684 Words3 Pages

Franz Kafka’s absurdist short story “The Metamorphosis”, told in three parts to illustrate the drastic and violent changes taking place in the main character Gregor Samsa’s life and the life of his family, takes a long hard look at the life of a man who is solely dictated by routine and driven by his quest to balance money, work, and family and turns everything the character knows on its head and makes him battle with his own ideals of humanity and existence. All of this because he woke up one day as a huge bug. The area in the story in which we see the most drastic effects of the changes is the climax where we see Gregor finally come to terms with what he must do if he wants to continue making his family happy. Throughout the story, the tension continues to rise as the family must come face to face with the bug that was once Gregor month after month as they lose the only source of income they …show more content…

Through this, we know that Gregor holds no ill will towards any of the members of his family during his time as a bug, even when we see them brutalize and neglect him. “His thoughts went back to his family with tenderness and love” (Kafka 125). The love for his family is the only part of his old human life that he can reasonably keep intact, though his family would rather he didn’t. Every single one of them wants him gone, especially his dear little sister Grete. When she finally locks him in his room she cries, “At last!” (Kafka 125) because she feels with this he will finally be gone for good. Within the story, Grete has changed the most, even more so than Gregor, becoming more assertive and mature as the story goes on. She is the force that makes Gregor’s isolated room even more of a prison, with the area being overrun with trash and useless, broken items that the family has no use for. His room reflects his current state, beaten and

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