Emelin Trujillo

Professor Beadle

English 115

6 November 2019

The Metamorphosis; Societies Criticisms

In The Metamorphosis there is a family of 4 Gregor, his sister Grete and his parents.

Gregor is a traveling salesman who sees his job as a requirement because of the dependency his

family has on him. Gregor has a change of character he goes from being human into a bug. He is

different to everyone else, he is no longer human, although the only thing that has changed his

physical features. He goes from human attributes such as 2 hands and 2 feet to a slim body

Gregor’s transformation into a bug changes his looks and abilities which causes people to treat

him as if he is useless and the more, they treat him that way the more he is dehumanized. This

criticizes the way society categorizes people based on their looks and abilities.

This critique is clear when the manager shows up to Gregor and makes it clear that

Gregor is no longer useful to him he doesn’t meet the requirements needed. The manager doesn’t

find no use in Gregor because he will not represent him as he needs. His looks were what

changed him when Gregor’s manager realized that he had not shown up to work he came

searching for him. The manager was not expecting anything close to what had happened to

Gregor. “But Gregor had no time now for his parents; the manager was already on the stairs;

with his chin on the banister, he was taking a last look back” (The Metamorphos, 18). The

managers' reactions say it all he is categorizing or creating an image of judgment towards

Gregor. The manager with his expression and action is referring to Gregor as being useless

because of his looks different, so he won’t be needed at work anymore. This shows that

regardless of what Gregor was before his physical feature now label him as something different.

Gregor isn’t just getting looks like these by the manager but by his family who should be

supportive in any circumstances. In the book “The Absurdity of Human Existence: ‘The

Metamorphosis’ and ‘The Fly’” the Metamorphosis and a movie called The Fly is being

compared finding similar traits on the fly or the bug which they both searching for meaning in

the world or notice the lack of freedom as a whole. always feels as if he needs the approval of the

manager, he has to be seen as a human to be treated like one or to work for someone. Society

judges through looks to make sure your capable of doing what “human’ are meant to do.

Society itself criticizes and creates the insecurity that people build upon their self-based

of other beliefs. He became self-conscious once he felt as he became a burden due to the

treatment he was given. This is what makes Gregor feel the way he feels as if he is just an

obligation to the family. The relationship he has with different family members makes it difficult

for him to want to have life. “Gregor was always hearing one of them pleading in vain with one

of the other…” (Kafka 26). Gregor didn’t feel good hearing them complain this is why he felt as

though his presence bugged everyone around because so inhumane because of his ability to do

nothing and his looks that made it seem as he wasn’t useful. Society criticizing him and hoping

he didn't understand because he was inhuman and there they were dehumanizing him.

Kafka mentions society criticizing based on abilities by proving his point when Gregor couldn’t

speak or do as he wanted when family members spoke or did things to him. The way his family
was treating him as if he didn’t have no human senses such as feelings, common sense or even

just knowledge. In the beginning of the story, the mother and sisters were the only ones who

cared for him, he had a better relationship with them rather than with the father. The dad

throughout the books tries to overpower Gregor because of his abilities he shows it in a couple of

ways. As Gregor is transformed into a bug, we notice that he doesn’t have the same abilities as

he used to have.

He is seen as an opposition because of the lack of communication about his feelings or

thoughts so it’s just assumed by the family. Gregor’s room becomes a very important place for

him where he feels secure and in his world, although his family seems to believe it’s just a

spacious place for him to be in. They begin to remove stuff such as desk, his bed and try to

remove a picture frame that he protects the most just because it’s the only way he can feel in

place and express himself. Gregor’s father is the only one that doesn’t accept him in any way

always trying to be more than Gregor. In the article “A Study of Franz Kafka’s The

Metamorphosis” they mention “This arbitrary confusion is a metaphor for Gregor’s life and life

in general where our ability to bring order into everyday situations only masks our inability to

control the big picture” (A Study of Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis). When an ability is

spoken about in society it doesn’t just mean the potential of doing something but the control you

have over something. Kafka wants the reader to make sure that judgment should not be based off

the ability because Gregor is still the same and can express his feelings in a different way such as

when he protects the frame with the picture that has no connection to him but yet meant so much

to it because that’s all he could protect. Kafka tries to make Gregor do certain things so that
those the manager, the father, the mother and sister Grete catch on that he hasn't changed much

he's just not human so he can't do everything that humans do but that doesn't mean he doesn’t he

can’t acknowledge what's going on. We see how he decides not to eat anymore because he felt as

he was just a burden, the sister nor the mother caught onto that. The criticism is usually based on

the difference seen between people but what is not understood that one can have more abilities

than others or there could be different abilities.

Many believe that there is no judgment created based off of looks or abilities because that

isn’t what matters. The idea of everyone being different is already made so there is no reason to

assume that their looks will define a person or even their abilities. But that isn’t true us as

humans always seem to focus on the differences in people to point out in such a way that we are

better whether it is by our looks or potential of what we could offer in return. In the book, we

notice that Gregor worked extremely hard and did anything possible to support his family

because no other had that responsibility. But as soon as Gregor was transformed he relied on his

family to feed him and to help him out just as he had done for a long time. His sister Grete was

the most helpful in the beginning but then stopped doing things for Gregor. She expected

something in return from him although he couldn’t not because he didn’t want to but because he

wasn’t allowed to he was now limited because he was a bug now. The bug has different

characteristics from a human as we see in the book. Gregor couldn’t communicate with his

family, there was no way for him to tell them the way he felt, what he wanted and even then was

afraid because of the power that humans have. His father especially he always seemed like he

was better than him or that he could do as he pleased because of the difference in size or just
because he was responsible for anything anymore. It is important to understand that society

criticizes in every way possible to make sure that differences are states and most of the time it’s

on physical features and that there are capable of doing.

Gregor’s looks and abilities changed when he was transformed into a bug he was no

longer human to the human eyes. Since Gregor was not able to do what he did before they no

longer needed him at work the manager stated that with the looks given to Gregor he could no

longer make money for the company. Gregor began to feel as if he was a burden to the family, he

was used to being the provider of the family is not the one that would depend on them. We can

see this is an expression of disapproval by society judging and labeling them into certain groups

of whether they’re positive or negative qualities. Kafka wanted the reader to understand what

judgement the way the actual person being judged and those who were judging. Society

categorizing humans on what all humans should be able to do and how they should look or else

they were no longer human. Did it make those treating Gregor the way they were treating him

less human because of the way they were acting. I believe Gregor could have been useful in

many ways they just didn’t think of it that way, they were just focused on how different how he

was and what he wasn’t capable of doing.

 Works cited

“A Study of Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis”. TextRoad Publication, 2012,

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

Accessed 28 October 2019.

DEVLIN, WILLIAM J., and ANGEL M. COOPER. “The Absurdity of Human Existence: ‘The

Metamorphosis’ and The Fly.” Metamorphosis: Kafka and the Moving Image, edited by

Shai Biderman and Ido Lewit, Columbia University Press, 2016, pp. 236–257. JSTOR,

www.jstor.org/stable/10.7312/bide17644.17.Accessed 28 October 2019.

Kafka Franz. The Metamorphosis. Bantam Literature. Edited by Stanley Corngold. 1972.

Accessed 28 October 2019.