Metamorphosis

Franz Kafka

Gregor who suddenly over night turns into an insect over night is locked tragically in his new body. The story beautifully reveals his emotional struggle between his new identity as an insect and his old self as a working human being. He desperately refuses his new self and afraid of what he might become. He clings to his human self by clinging to his emotional feelings towards his family. He knew that insects don’t love or hate and they certainly don’t have emotions, for him as long as he gets hold of those these emotions then his transformation is not complete. Throughout the progress of the story lot his behaviors change and so is his family’s reaction to him. They stopped considering him as a brother or a son rather gradually they looked at him in sympathy and disgust until the end of the story when they his being is contradicting with their being.

What legitimizes a human being, is it the memory that he prints in people’s mind, is it the amount of money that they posses and willing to give. their attachment to one another is governed by a thin line that can be cut by time . everyone is replaceable and surely everyone is disposable even if the emotions in hand are pure family emotions. In gregor’s case, he was the money provider for the family and they depended on him hence he was respected. When he lost his ability to be involved in the working field they had to abandon him and look for other sources.

The story magically reveals the feeling of an insect, the way it moves or crawls on the walls, the way it eats or aches, the way it thinks and corresponds to external effects, we see this thorough his feeling of despair and shame of not being able to help his family, his feelings of hurt and deep sorrow and sadness. It should not be read in a biased manner towards him or his family , it is a story of every day happening and everyday life. the disgusting feelings of an insect that might push the reader to vomit while the feelings o f the family and their disgusting means of survivor after the his death is two sides of one coin.