The Metamorphosis By Franz Kafka

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“The Metamorphosis” Essay In Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” Gregor Samsa wakes up one day and finds that he has to rebuild himself in ways he didn’t know were possible. Gregor is stuck with the task of finding his “humanity” by being transformed into an insect. Gregor is a travelling salesman who hates travelling, one morning he wakes up to find that he has transformed into a giant insect. Feeling embarrassed about his knew transformation Gregor hides under the couch to stop his family member from seeing him. Once Gregor comes out from hiding he is giving not the warmest welcoming from his family. His sister runs away, his mother faints, from the very look at him, and him father pelts him with apples causing him unconscious. Gregor is neglected and unwanted, whenever someone tries to help him, causes a family fight. Feeling like an insect Gregor is alienated from life at home, a place where the last thing he should feel is isolation. When the family’s tenants see Gregor, they declare that they will not be paying for the time they were living in the apartment. Noticing this Grete tells her family that Gregor needs to leave their home, and if he really loved them he would of done this voluntarily. Hearing this Gregor realizes that all he has is love and respect for his family so he goes to him room and waits to die. As readers we feel a chill to see the authoritarian control over Gregor and how the story seems to end. Seeing how Gregor just wants to be loved is a very relatable subject, and when the reader sees him being shunned away it make you root for him. Yet at the end of the story you can’t help but feel hatred for Gregor’s family members for causing so much guilt upon Gregor for something that was out of his abilty to control. Guilt is definitely a symbol in this story, because guilt played a role in Gregor’s death

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