Has anyone ever had a friend or family member get transformed into a beetle over night? In Franz Kafka’s novella The Metamorphosis, Gregor Samsa, a traveling salesman awakes one dreary morning only to find himself transformed into a monstrous vermin. Franz Kafka, the author, was a Jewish, German speaking man from Prague. Kafka lived an unfortunate life he was the oldest of six, his two brothers died in infancy and his three sisters were killed in the holocaust. His upbringing was not the best as Kafka’s parents were often out of the home working and as a result Kafka often felt lonely and alienated. His father has been described as a “huge, selfish, overbearing businessman”. His father significantly influenced his writing, which in The Metamorphosis …show more content…
His job as a traveling salesman was not one, he chose but he took it out of necessity to pay off his parents’ debt (Kafka, 4) Gregor has a strong dislike for his job which we can gather when he says “If it weren’t for my parents’ sake, I’d have quit ages ago” (Kafka, 4). After Gregor was transformed his first thoughts were not of his bug state but of the impracticality of missing work. This ignorance Gregor has of his own personal problems shows Gregor’s dedication to his efforts of paying off his family’s debts (“Gregor Duty to His Father”). When Gregor first wakes up he wants to go back to sleep so that he can forget about the constant pressure and responsibility that is always on his shoulders (Kafka, 1), but due to his hardworking attitude Gregor ignores his surroundings and personal needs to fulfill his duty to his family (“Gregor Duty to His …show more content…
His family did not respond well to his bug-state and rejected him isolating him in his room. Gregor accepted his family’s rejection and continued to live isolated in his room. To keep his family comfortable, he hid anytime someone came in the room. When his mother and his sister started to move his furniture out of his room Gregor was initially grateful for the extra space, but when he realized that they were taking his last pieces of humanity from him he panicked because he did not want to accept that things would never go back to normalcy again (Kafka, 30-34). Gregor’s ultimate acceptance came when he realized that his family would be better off without