The Theme of "Change" in Franz Kafka's "The Metamorphosis

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In Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, a traveling salesman named Gregor wakes up to discover that he has become a giant insect. This, as one would imagine, is a cause of immense strain upon Gregor’s family. However, despite their grief and confusion, they inadvertently develop changes in themselves. If there is a change in anyone, there is a change in the people close to him or her as well. Through the transformation of Gregor’s father, the family’s new jobs, and Gregor’s parents’ newfound appreciation for their daughter, we can see why this is true, and that Kafka intended to convey this point in The Metamorphosis. Chronologically, the first dramatic change we see is in Gregor’s father. After his father’s business collapsed, he became forlorn and idle. He rarely leaves the house, and does not work for five years. “…but he was old and had not worked for five years and thus could not be counted on for very much. He had in these five years, the first holidays of his laborious but unsuccessful life, put on a good deal of fat and thus had become really heavy.” - Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis, Pg. 21 To help support the family, Gregor had began work as a travelling salesman and became so successful that he could support the family and all their expenses entirely on his own. However, after Gregor’s metamorphosis took place, he could no longer hold a job, as he was an insect. This forces Gregor’s father to go seek occupation. Gregor spends months locked away in his own room without seeing his father. At one point, while his mother and sister are removing furniture from the room, he escapes to see his father for the first time in months. He has become slimmer, is dressed nicely in his bank uniform, and is even physically able to chase Gregor about the room, and throw an apple at him hard enough to have it lodged into his back. Here, we see that Gregor’s

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