Does anyone in the world truly understand who you are inside? As human beings, we have the ability to keep our true feelings hidden from others, showing a false, practiced self to the world. When we work, we show our superiors the self that they expect to see. To our family we show them the calm, relaxed self as to not worry them. But who are we truly? No one see the self that we strip down to everyday when we are alone. In the novella The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka’s choice in language suggests that Gregor Samsa was not as content with his past as his family believed him to be. That he wanted more in his life than living for his occupation and the lonesome consequences that came with it. Gregor was introverted, isolated from others, and ultimately
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The word wriggling has connotations of something bug-like or gross, symbolizing his disgust with himself and his humanity even while transformed into an animal.
Often times, Gregor seemed to daydream about other things, wishing he had freedom from the debts his family had accumulated and the occupation he grew to hate. Gregor would make it a habit to climb up and look out the window, “He did only in some kind of nostalgia for the feeling of freedom he has previously found in looking out the window” (960). The window symbolizing an unattainable door to his freedom that he often dreamed about. Now, slowly being unable to see what the outside, his eyes see a “desert” (960). When thinking of a desert, feelings of desolation, emptiness, and hopelessness all come to mind. Knowing he is trapped and unable to do anything he pleases.
Ultimately, Kafka did not aim to write just about the struggles of a man’s transformation into an insect, but a struggle with humanity that we all encounter in our lifetime. His personality before the metamorphosis, was exactly the same as his perceived presence after it. Isolated from his surroundings and unable to communicate his feelings with others. Trapped inside his “shell” of a life, hidden away from those close to
The word wriggling has connotations of something bug-like or gross, symbolizing his disgust with himself and his humanity even while transformed into an animal.
Often times, Gregor seemed to daydream about other things, wishing he had freedom from the debts his family had accumulated and the occupation he grew to hate. Gregor would make it a habit to climb up and look out the window, “He did only in some kind of nostalgia for the feeling of freedom he has previously found in looking out the window” (960). The window symbolizing an unattainable door to his freedom that he often dreamed about. Now, slowly being unable to see what the outside, his eyes see a “desert” (960). When thinking of a desert, feelings of desolation, emptiness, and hopelessness all come to mind. Knowing he is trapped and unable to do anything he pleases.
Ultimately, Kafka did not aim to write just about the struggles of a man’s transformation into an insect, but a struggle with humanity that we all encounter in our lifetime. His personality before the metamorphosis, was exactly the same as his perceived presence after it. Isolated from his surroundings and unable to communicate his feelings with others. Trapped inside his “shell” of a life, hidden away from those close to