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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 one of his “best

work of literature”(Stephens). ​The story ​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 also faces doubts, just as​ Kafka did, as Kafka put himself in his

work, making him a prime example of the loneliness Gregor endured, and accentuates the true

view Kafka had 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, which

further emphasizes alienation and rejection.​ Representing ​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 ​accustomed

to the new lifestyle he must abide by. Immediately he becomes​ uncertain​ with the choice of his

job, as he struggles to get out of bed he comes to this conclusion that he is​ fatigued​ with traveling
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because it comes with all kinds of side effects that just make, “no relationship last or get more

intimate”(Kafka 4). Considering his job se​em to be social, he instead has shy away from making

any long lasting relationships.​ ​His inability to make these connects, reflects back to his family

because it creates a foundation where he's able to learn first hand life skills.​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. ​Examining the

state he's in, there is an obviousness difference in the way he communicates, which has already

casted him out of society. ​ Gregor’s indifference has made me an easy target for exclusion.

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

connection tend to attribute human characteristics to nonhuman objects” (Mishara). Gregor

inates more fear while manipulating the environment that he’s in.​ His most recent bug form is

the way he can cope with the outside worlds vision of him. Since he has already classified

himself to very low standards, it reflects what he believes people think of him. His reality has

been altered to his mental estate that blurs his reality making him yet again more desirable

because if the darker human attributes he attributes to , because they are most dismissed.​Gregor

has​ been put in a situation that has created his casting out of society, through ​estrangement and

rejection, leading to his transformation.​ In order to coincide with his detahmentent with society

he has transformed into a vermin that is detested by many, only to describe his morphed self the

way he was seen by himself and others.

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

only one to nurture to him in his vulnerable state, “Here we find solitude, the reduction of

sensory stimulation in the cell's darkness”(Mishara).​ Just as his sisters relationship was the only
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thing that had keep him human, the relationship was beginning to demolish. As he lost his human

contact, he had self- dehumanization himself and accepted his new vermin 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]

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 “reflect [the] state as a writer”(Mishara). ​Gregor has become consumed with the

thought of his very own isolation, since he has become trapped. ​Kafka has “withdraw from

excessive stimulation to suggest of the narrator's mental state”(Mishara). ​The “Metamorphosis”

is a parallel to isolation, it indicates the fragileness oh the physical form that has overtaken his

whole life and the mental estate that has developed due to the pronounced loneliness hes

undergone. In his home Gregor had become more familiar with the family,s between "illness,"

"ugliness,"(Mishara), Gregor had become aware of the difference he came to believe hsi families

live was at compassion to what he had imagined​. ​Gregor had to maintain a certain image, for his

family sake, slowly but surely while he kept his family well he himself had felt alone and

unrelatable to his own issues and his family's issues. Even before his transformation began this
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little acts would be the ones to prey on his own deterioration.​ ​Kafka’s ability to reflect Gregor's

character as a relatable human being, brings to light the struggle​s of a person low self-esteem.

Gregor's character serves as reminder to society the likeness of doom caused by and everyday

runtaine, the silent killer. to “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, “The Metamorphosis” was just a book of fiction that tells the story of a

vermins life. Kafkas, “possibl[e] cluster headaches, [may have] contribute[d] to [the] withdraw

[of] excessive stimulation”(Mishara). Considering Kafka state of mind was physically

challenged it could have enhanced his imagination to be able to compose a story as elaborate and

intertaintatin as he did. “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 ). This sense

in the story clearly describes the bugs life come to and end. There is no emotional effect here and

Gregor thas been given a name as a reminder to the main character,just like any other bug's life

was short and expected​.

Although, Gregor life has come to the end 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
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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, “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 an

immense task that can deteriorate human beings. ​“The Metamorphosis” serves as a reminder that

the estrangement and alienation problem that has been created in the past, it continues to happen

today. Being able to overcome this problem serves as growth. Gregor is a great representation of

the dissonance and loneliness of dark human characteristics that come to define flaws. As for
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Kafka, he speaks of his own reality that he can express through his writing and the character

Gregor. Overall this hints to seek help when there comes a time of need. Mental health is vital to

any human as it can disrupt everyday life, although this isn't a problem that is touched upon

often, Gregor's an allegory for isolation.

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Worked Cited

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.