How Does Gregor Samsa Change

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, tells the story of how a young adult, Gregor Samsa, in his early 20s becomes a bug out of nowhere. Kafka doesn’t explain why this happened, but it is expressed indirectly throughout the book. Gregor Samsa just wakes up being a bug, he doesn’t know what happened, but indirectly, the perspective of his family about him makes him transform into a bug. Gregor’s father, inspired from Kafka’s father, just thinks of him as a source of money, but when Gregor becomes a bug, he becomes useless, insignificant, a pest to him. His sister thinks of him as pest, towards the end of the story, but expresses it indirectly. Gregor transformed in what his family thought of him; however, his dehumanization starts even before the …show more content…
At the very beginning of the story, as stated before, he becomes in what he is seen as, a bug, but his family needed the money, so Gregor was useful before he was unable to work and becomes a pest; “‘It must be gotten rid of,’ cried the sister, ‘That is the only way, father. You must try to get rid of the idea that this is Gregor. The fact that we have believed for so long that is truly our real misfortune.” (Kafka 69). His beloved sister didn’t believe him to be himself anymore, Gregor was abused by his family, because he was still there and the hatred that each one of them expressed, dehumanized him more. As said before, he became isolated from society as expressed on page four, “The stresses of trade are much greater than the work going on at head office, and, in addition to that, I have to deal with the problems of travelling, the worries about train connections, irregular bad food, temporary and constantly changing human relationships which never come from the heart.” (Kafka 4). As he became more antisocial, he was losing his human qualities in a job he didn’t like where he had to pay a debt that wasn’t his and became enslaved. When he locks the door, …show more content…
Was he rally eager to let the warm room, comfortably furnished with pieces he had inherited, be turned into a cavern in which he would, of course, then be able to crawl about in all directions without disturbance, but at the same time with a quick and complete forgetting of his human past as well?” (Kafka 44). Since his possessions were taken away, his human past was disappearing, he was losing himself to the transformation, and his family, primarily his sister, stop taking care of him because it was too much, so the conditions in which he lived were hopeless. Everyone has lost hope in Gregor’s return, first it was his father, filled with rage who threw apples at him mercilessly, hurting him almost to death, he hurt Gregor multiple times because Mr. Samsa’s rage and greed was stronger than anything. In contrast, Grete’s reactions were first of helping him, but then believe that the monster living in their homes had no worth