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Elizabeth Garcia

Professor Beadle

Writing 115

02 April 2019

The Metamorphosis: One man's cry for help as he’s saved through his own motives

The “Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka, published in 1915, was known as his “best work of

literature”(Stephens). It details the life of Gregor who has physically transformed into a vermin.

Throughout the story, Gregor has battled with connecting with his family, work and himself. He

faces doubts, just as Kafka did, putting himself in his work makes him a prime example of the

loneliness he endurand, as he accentuates the true view he has of himself. The story rose into

popularity once it opened up conversations about people's own selves while questioning personal

roles and purpose. The Metamorphosis is an allegory for isolation in society. Throughout

Gregor's transformation, he was subjected to estrangement and rejection. He undergoes distortion

of reality and dehumanization, that further emphasizes alienation and rejection. This represents

man's dissonance to reality that can be experienced by some or all.

Gregor's newly found form as a vermin has overcome him, as he has become

subsequential to the new lifestyle he must abide by. Immediately he becomes antagonized with

the choice of his job, as he struggles to get out of bed he comes to this conclusion that he is

toured with traveling because it comes with all kinds of side effects that just make, “no
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relationship last or get more intimate”(Kafka 4). Considering his job to seem social, instead, he

has shied away from making connects. His family plays a vital role here because of the basic

foundation of he was able to learn with them. since there isn't much communication. Welz states

that “Even if one should succeed in hiding the feeling before others, at least one’s cover, one’s

mask, is exposed”(Welz). Gregor's life has unmasked the distance that has been created. Where it

becomes inevitable to notice he doesn't fit into a societal standard. In Gregor’s case being

different is dangerous as he becomes an easy target for exclusion and differentiation.

Furthermore, Mishara says, “studies which suggest that people who feel lonely or lack social

connection tend to attribute human characteristics to non-human objects “(Mishara) where

Gregor inates more fear and manipulate the environment that he’s in. Gregor has been in

different scenarios where has been estranged and rejected, leading to his transformation, where

he has possibly altered his reality to seem as a vermin, an agitated gross creature. Similarly,

where Gregor morphed himself into a bug that is detested by many.

Gregor has seemed to maintain a relationship with his sister Greta, she seems to be the

only one to nurture him in his vulnerable state. Though as time goes on this relationships seems

to be demolished, as, “Here we find solitude, the reduction of sensory stimulation in the cell's

darkness”(Mishara). As he becomes more intact with his new buglike form, he becomes

accustomed to channeling an effortless, free behavior he had been dissimilar to. Giving him the

advantage he didn't have before, with all the time in his hands he could have new methods in

enjoying the little things he never got to enjoy, “with the help of imagination from the situations

in which [he] stand. [He] can even break away from [his]own habits and feelings, which in turn

allows [him]to relate to [him]selves and others in new and unfamiliar ways. This way, [he]
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supports [his] self-transformation”(Welz). Gregor soon begins to accept his transformation

physical, and mentally, he learns to learn about himself, as he learns more, the relationship with

his sister, was the only thing that kept human. Being able to become detached from this

relationship has realized the dissonances from a society he becomes obliged to the reality that he

must experience, so the becomes the example of what people are prone to by being human.

Kafka's had the tendency to “reflect [his] own state as a writer”(Mishara). Kafka

“suffered from severe, possibly cluster headaches, which may, in part, contribute to withdraw

from excessive stimulation. The suggestion that the narrator's mental state”(Mishara). Since he

was very close to both waking and sleeping states he could have been confusing reality with a

trans-state, where it was possible for him to have schizophrenia and hallucinations. The

“Metamorphosis” is a parallel description of Kafka's as he sees “double” and Gregor indicates

his (Kafka's) fall that was slow and agonizing for both men end to be the same. Gregor has

obtained small injuries over the years that incited a fragile vermin. While Kafka had fallen prey

to his father discomforting Kafka was constantly pressured to take on the family

business(Stephens).The relationship that Gregor and Kafka's father was very similar, depicted

detached fathers with violent tendencies that had led their sons into states of isolation and

schizophrenia that altered their realities, and the image of themselves are “associations between

"illness," "ugliness," and the "feminized" male body as expressed by the prevailing anti-semitism

at the time, Gilman articulates some of the factors which presumably impacted Kafka's own

experience of "body image”(Mishara). Both Gregor and Kafka had to maintain a certain image,

though it was never under their likely this added to the weight that was added to their slow

deterioration. Kafka’s ability to relate to Gregor's character makes him genuine to any person
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who can relate. Since this topic tends to be pushed aside, it brings to light the struggles of a

person low self-esteem. Gregor's character serves as Kafka inability to escape the abuse he

received from his father as he seems to be trapped in a room that has no escape, as it is in the

story, their lives have been carefully played out to a specific lifestyle they can't hide from In all

these characters have described their very slow and agonizing end, “the protagonist's name,

Gregor Samsa resembles Kafka's own name” (Mishara) that considers a society that prefers

people to destroy themselves as a manner to fit the norm.

However, Gregor has been burdened by his inhuman form and estrangement, though, he

was benefited, “as a matter of fact, Gregor's body was completely flat and dry; now for the first

time, really, since the body was no longer raised up anything else distracted the eye”(Kafka 52 ).

Gregor has come to the end of his journey he had made the decision to end his life, ultimately it

was a choice he made. He had seen no better outcome the longer he stayed the more he became a

distant burden to his family. He had come to the conclusion of escape his unhappy life through

death. Though this may both be literal or metaphorical, his body had been injured and overall it

had reached its peak until it finally gave up and died. Metaphorically Gregor had realized, this

was his only way out of a lifestyle he had no say in, being able to make this choice over anything

else shows his growth. This was the very first choice he made for himself, in any decision he

made he was selfless, his happiness was never his first priority. In the end, he had made the

decision for his family but mostly himself as he was able to detach from the chains that kept him

attached to his family toxic behavior. He didn't want what they wanted for him and realized his

situation. Once he was able to do this he let go of what had grounded him, he learned to accept

the mental state that limited him both physically and mentally. His death ultimately symbolizes,
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“his shamefulness to the saving interpretation to comes to a more favorable judgment not about

what he did in the past, but about himself here and now. Paradoxically, it is his

acknowledgment”(Welz).

Yet through both circumstances, Gregor had been disconnected. He had to have gone

through both estrangement,” but what now the comfort, the contentment were to come to a

horrible end?” (Kafka 21). At this moment Gregor is only being to process the situation,

although it foreshadows his death he has yet to overcome himself and the isolation build around

him. The story represents the short life for working-class men who undergo estrangement in

various aspects of his life. Throughout the various stages, he is taught to overcome a personal

area of his life that needs growth. Gregor learns to become firm with himself while choosing his

own way of life establishment. His mindset grows and his displacement is the beginning of his

forthcoming life which he can see through a new light because he can accept his situation.

In the end, Gregor and Kafka exemplify a society that has been consumed with un

tangible task that can deteriorate a human being. This serves as a reminder that just as much as it

was a problem in the past it is in society today. It may seem overwhelming, but this stages that

people go through in their lives are vital for self-growth. As for Kafka, he speaks his own reality

that he can express through his writing only since his own life seems to be falling apart. Overall

this hints to seek help when there comes a time of need because of mental issue that can arise if

the problem isn't touched upon. Gregor's allegorical isolation was only one of the many flaws he

had to deal with as a contender of transformation.

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Worked Cited

Bloom, Harold. ​Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis​. New York: Chelsea House, 1988. Print.

Modern Critical Interpretations.

Mishara, Aaron L. "Kafka, Paranoiac Doubles and the Brain: Hypnagogic vs. Hyper-reflexive

Models of Disrupted Self in Neuropsychiatric Disorders and Anomalous Conscious

States.(Research)(Critical Essay)." ​Philosophy, Ethics, and Humanities in Medicine​ 5

(2010): 13. Web.

Stephens, J. “(SP:) Franz Kafka's Personal Life Reflected in the Metamorphosis.” ​The Kafka

Project | Special Issue: The Metamorphosis | (SP:) Franz Kafka's Personal Life Reflected

in the Metamorphosis,​ Mauro Nervi, 1999, ​www.kafka.org/index.php?aid=218​.

Welz, Claudia. "Scenes of Shame, Social Roles, and the Play with Masks." ​Continental

Philosophy Review​ 47.1 (2014): 107-21. Web.