Dehumanization In Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis

In the short story The Metamorphosis Gregor wakes to find he has turned into a huge bug. As the story progresses, bit by bit Gregor loses the qualities that make him human. I believe this dehumanizing process started as he started realizing he could not do things he would normally do. The first example is when Gregor could not sleep on his side as he was accustomed to. “this proved utterly impossible, for it was his habit to sleep on his right side, and in his present state he was unable to assume this position. No matter how forcefully he thrust himself onto his side, he kept rolling back. Perhaps a hundred times he attempted it, closing his eyes so as not to have to see those struggling legs, and relented only when he began to feel a faint dull ache in his side, unlike anything he’d …show more content…
To me Gregor’s transformation does not start becoming real until he himself, realizes he cannot do things people often take for granite.
Gregor’s dehumanization did not stop at the realization he could no longer sleep on his side. In fact, coming to this realization was just the beginning of the dehumanization process. The next phase of Gregor’s dehumanization occurred when his boss and family finally got a look at him, and treated him like a giant bug instead of a human. Resulting in Gregor’s confinement to his room, and his complete separation for mankind. Upon seeing Gregor, his boss fled in terror. Gregor’s mother climbed furniture in hopes of escape. Then, Gregor’s father corralled Gregor towards his room like an animal. When Gregor became stuck in the door his father, “administered a powerful shove from behind, a genuinely liberating thrust that sent him flying, bleeding profusely, into the far reaches of his room. The door was banged shut with the stick, and then at last all was still.” (Kafka, 1915, p. 1890). The next stage is marked by growing resentment for his imprisonment and his family’s neglectful care. Gregor was not