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Young Kim

Professor Beadle

English 114A

31 October 2018

Tragedy of Transformation

When people think about transformation, they will probably imagine butterflies or cars

that transforms into robots. They don’t really think about the deeper meaning of transformation

and they tend to neglect the fact they transformed in some way because they don’t notice their

change or maybe because they can’t accept their change​. A famous author named Franz Kafka

wrote the book “The Metamorphosis,” which is about a transformation of a man who turned into

an insect. The main protagonist, Gregor Samsa ​woke up in the morning and ​he realized that he

became a giant insect. Ignoring the fact that he became a monster, Gregor ​worried about his job

and his family. His family ​freaked out about Gregor’s transformation. Initially in his

transformation, he ​lost his ability to function as a human and ​he also got fired ​because he

couldn’t communicate with his boss. Gregor ​transformed more and more like an insect, while his

family became more careless and crueller to Gregor. ​He started to eat rotten foods instead of

fresh milk and bread, which was ​used to be his favorite. ​Gregor’s Father ​went back to the

position of the household and ​treated Gregor ​like a cockroach running around the house. Grete

Samsa, Gregor’s sister was the only one that was caring about Gregor. She was the only one that

gave Gregor food and tried to make him more comfortable by moving furniture out. Gregor’s

mind was also changing like an insect’s mind because of the separation from his family or maybe

because of his change in daily life. His family changed from relying on Gregor to people who
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take responsibilities of the house. ​They also began to neglect Gregor even though they knew the

huge insect was one of their family member. Kafka’s ​addressed Gregor’s alienation as one of ​the

strongest ​impact to his transformation because Gregor’s family was getting separating him

because of his physical change and internal change, ultimately ​leading him to his death. I believe

Kafka’s message of the book is about disabled people or people who can not function as a useful

person in the society are seen as a hideous thing and a burden that will eventually become

alienated and neglected by those who were even showing support. ​Overall the alienation between

Gregor and his family brought the tragic end to Gregor’s life; Gregor himself wanted to conceal

his repulsiveness to the family and decided to avoid his family. The whole family changed

quickly after Gregor’s transformation because they lost their economic source, which they had to

care more about their social activities than Gregor.

Usually when people think about the word “Father​,​” I believe they will think about the

household and the supporter of the the whole family. In the book “Metamorphosis,” Gregor’s

Father failed his business and ​relied to his son Gregor with all the economic problem running in

his house. However, Gregor’s Father became aggressive and harsh to Gregor after his

transformation. Gregor’s hideous appearance made his Father to hiss at ​Gregor, which made him

go back to his room: “Pitilessly his ​Father came on, hissing like a wild man”(Kafka 18). This

shows how his Father doesn’t treat Gregor as a human anymore, but more like something

possible to get rid of by force. Really sad to ​know​, but there was no more the kind and

comfortable ​Father anymore to Gregor. Father’s voice to Gregor was fearful and dangerous that

made ​Gregor go back to his room (Kafka 19). His Father ​looked better after he took the new job

in bank. In his uniform, his Father felt more like the household, which means he didn’t feel good
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after Gregor took responsibility of the house. ​Since Gregor turned into a bug, his Father took

over his position. ​He looked like he felt inferior than his son​, Gregor. ​He also envied Gregor’s

responsibility as a man, but was hiding it inside until Gregor became disabled to take worthy

works. ​Gregor’s Father threw apples at him to put him back in his room. (Kafka 37). Eventually,

Gregor ​died because of the wound on his back by the apple. The apples resemble the apples in

the bible, which made Adam and Eve feel guilty and ultimately made them sinful. ​It was

unnecessary to throw apples at Gregor. He was already afraid of his own Father and it was

possible to use different ways to scare away Gregor. Gregor’s father knew the hideous monster

was Gregor and he still treated him as a dangerous enemy or something threatening to his family.

His​ Father​ was the main character that showed alienation with Gregor, ​after his initial change.

Grete Samsa was really close to Gregor than anyone else in the family member. Gregor

wanted to pay ​for Grete’s violin education payment, so she can ​become a violinist. He loved

listening to her violin performance and was always showing devotion. Grete Samsa relied on

Gregor before he turned into an insec​t. However, she had to take care of Gregor after his

transformation. She was still grossed out of Gregor’s ​repulsive appearance. ​Grete frequently

brough​t fresh foods to him. Gregor ​realized that his body dislikes fresh foods, even though the

foods are most likely to be his favorites. ​This explains how Gregor’s mind became to follow his

instinct more his human mind. Grete ​delivered foods to Gregor without letting the other family

members notice. Gregor ​felt guilty that his family must work, and he can not help them because

of his body. Gregor ​believed the only thing that he can do is to hide away from Grete, so she can

take out the plates and leftover food without getting scared. She also ​put away some furniture in

Gregor’s room, so he can crawl more comfortable. Gregor ​had fun crawling around the walls and
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floors. ​He slowly got more apart from a human’s life and also from other humans because of his

transformation.

After few month Gregor turned into a bug and ​when he was not able to help the family

economically; the family took roomers into their house. The roomers are people from the outside

that are conform with the society rules and has the mind of ​disregarding useless people. Grete

performed a violin show in front of the roomers. Gregor ​listened to the sound and he misses his

family because he was alienated for too long. He ​walked out and ​showed his hideous body to all

the roomers and ​ruined Grete’s violin show. Grete said “I won’t pronounce the name of my

brother in front of this monster, and so all I say is: we have to try get rid of it”(Kafka 48). A

strong quote of her announcing to all her family that she will not consider Gregor as her family

anymore​. She locked him up in his room and ​neglected him until he died. She just gave up on

Gregor and abandoned him. ​It is understandable how she was really helping him out, but it

became too much for her to handle. Their family was mixed up with conformity because of the

roomers and Grete had to put away Gregor to ​avoid​ society’s ​harsh and strict​ perspective.

Although some people ​might say that Kafka just made a fantasy book of a man ​who

turned into an insect and ​got abandoned by his family; I believe that Kafka was trying to send a

message that disabled people are alienated from the society and their family. There are many

supports for people who have a disability in the world, but back then in Kafka’s age, there were

not a lot of ​privilege for people who can not work ​because of their disability. The whole world

was stroke by the World War I, there were many wounded soldiers and citizens generally in all

the countries (Bernofsky). Those people who can not help ​their family and ​needed to be took

care by other family member might be a burden and ​they got neglected by their family. ​Kafka
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was criticizing those people who abandoned their family member because of their disability or

transformation. the Other people may ​also say that Gregor himself is the one who alienated his

family and he was the one who felt the family was a burden, so he gave up on his family. This

claim looks understandable, but Gregor became a monster regardless of his will. ​This means that

Gregor himself didn’t choose to abandon his family, but he was forced to. Also the fact that his

Father was the one that threw apples and ​hissed him away to put him back into his room can be

seen as why Gregor was forced to become alienated by his family​. ​This is resembling the bible

where God found out Adam and Eve were guilty by ​consuming the apple; which made God

abandon Adam and Eve (Kohzadi 2).

Gregor’s body changed to an insect, furthermore his mind ​started to become like an

insect because of alienation from his family. ​One of the quote from Kohzadi claims: “Whatever

the causes, Gregor’s feeling is rooted in the collapse of his nature between impersonal self

(outside) and I (inner self)” (Kohzadi 4). This means that his physical appearance is rupturing his

inner mind as well. The German word “​Ungeheueres Ungeziefer” i​ s in the first page of the book

“The Metamorphosis” in German version and it means a “Sacrifice Animal” or a “Monstrous

Insect” ​(Bernofsky). ​This source is credible because Kafka was an German author. ​Kafka chose

this unclear word because he didn’t want to show specificity in Gregor’s condition (Bernofsky).

He himself told his publisher not to use an bug image: ​“In Kafka’s correspondence with his

publisher, he was adamant that the “insect” not be depicted on the jacket of the book”

(Bernofsky). ​This is because Kafka didn’t really want the readers to have a specific image of

Gregor​’s transformation​, so they won’t know the ​main reason why his family was neglecting

him. Indeed I believe this is why we can imagine Gregor as a disabled person in the family, ​even
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he was described as a giant insect​. The way how Gregor, the main protagonist woke up and

realized that he became a monster shows the reader that nobody knows what happened during his

sleep (Kohzadi 7). Therefore the readers can freely imagine and think about what actually

happened to Gregor. His process of alienation started with his initial physical change. He was

apart of his body and soon he realized that his mind was being apart from his humanity. Finally

when he lost all his control of his body and crawled out of his room in instinct to see Grete

playing violin made him alienated to his whole family. ​We can see that Gregor fully transformed

into an insect, but he still had some of the mind that was caring about the family. However, his

family had no mercy and killed Gregor without doubt.

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Work Cited

Kafka, Franz.​ "The Metamorphosis."​ Bantam Classics, translated and edited by Stanley

Corngold, Bantam Dell A Division of Random House, Inc. New York, 1986.

Bernofsky, Susan. “On Translating Kafka's ‘The Metamorphosis.’” The New Yorker,

The New Yorker, 18 June 2017,

www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/on-translating-kafkas-the-metamorphosis​.

Kohzadi, Hamedreza. “A Study of Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis” Textroad books.

TextRoad Publication, 2012.

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/c6ae/f7ea2f821780fc72a401a01cc9bbcfed1776.pdf