Metamorphosis By Franz Kafk Literary Analysis

Metamorphosis, was written by Franz Kafka, and published in 1915. It is a story about a hardworking son(Gregor), who is trying to pay off his father’s debts and take care of his family, who one day wakes up to start a journey into becoming a cockroach, well, a beetle/human hybrid anyway. The story is a part of the expressionism movement, which focuses on the inner content of the protagonist. For expressionists, the inner reality, or the psychological world, is takes precedent over the external world (Jolly, Lecture). With the entire story, aside from the ending, being from the perspective of Gregor, and more importantly, being focused on his psychological experiences, Metamorphosis certainly fits within the expressionist’s ideals. The focus on his reality, and the struggle of what being is, coupled with the inner perspective previously mentioned, also put into the
44). You can see this idea in Metamorphosis, as Gregor continues to talk about his new existence. When his sister decides that Gregor’s furniture should be removed so that eh has more freedom to crawl around, Gregor mentions that at first the idea excites him, and how nowadays his wishes that his room was more like a cave, but that also scares him, because it means he is losing a part of his humanity. Despite his seemingly hopeless condition, he fears that by losing those human possessions, then and only then, does he cease being Gregor. In essence, his existence, is tied to his experience of his world. These same concepts also show the reader the psychological state of the narrator, who, even prior to his transformation, was at best, neurotic and obsessed, constantly working, with no days off, always focused on the goal of paying off his family’s debts and making a better life for them as well as