The Human Condition In The Metamorphosis By Franz Kafka

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka often questions the human condition as the main character Gregor endures a transformation from his usual self to a monstrous bug. Throughout the duration of the story he finds his sense of humanity decay as his life falls into disarray because of his inability to find reason in his situation. Kafka also often discusses the absurdity of life by exploring several aspects of the human condition beginning from the very beginning of the paper. The Metamorphosis explores the extent of human sympathy as well as Gregor’s family goes out of their way to care for him and ultimately leave him in the end. This allows the story to describe a disconnect of mind and body as Gregor sees his life run away with a fleeting sense …show more content…
Born in Prague in what is now the Czech Republic, Franz Kafka grew up in a middle class Jewish home in his home country at the time Bohemia (Biography.com Editors). His life was soon shaped by tragedy as his two younger brothers died before Kafka had even reached the age of six leaving him the only male with his three sisters. Kafka seemed to hold on to his family living in close proximity of them with his father’s over baring almost tyrant like behavior coming out in many of Kafka’s characters as they held an oppressive and over baring characteristics. Kafka was a very smart child and excelled in school being at the top of his class in fact (Biography.com Editors). After high school, he began study at Charles Ferdinand University in his home city of Prague at which he was intending to study chemistry; however, he changed his major to law after only two weeks. Kafka strove to be the best employee that he could be and poured himself into his writing. Kafka completed the Metamorphosis in 1912 and published it in 1915 leading to a life of published works where Kafka explored the human struggle (Biography.com Editors). Kafka died on June 3, 1924, at the time of his death his works were not widely recognized; however, as the 1960s came around his work became better known as people were …show more content…
The change in Gregor physically, also shifted to and emotional change between him and his family as well as humanity in general (Silhol, Robert). This causes him to refer to his transformation as a prison in which his old self is trapped, unable to connect with his family whom he had provided for over several years (Kafka, 332). At most his sister who he was closer to than the rest of his family would spend a few minutes with him, and even at that Gregor spent the entire time hiding under the couch in the room to avoid allowing her to see him like that (Kafka, 329). Additionally. He is unable to speak in order to communicate with others in any meaningful way literally separating himself from the human race, basically falling into complete isolation as he is no longer a part of the human