Metamorphosis By Franz Kafka Essay

The Metamorphosis: A Glimpse of Franz Kafka “His mother caught site of the gigantic brown blotch on the flowered wallpaper, and before it really dawned on her that what she saw was Gregor, cried in a hoarse, bawling voice: ‘Oh, God, oh, God!’” (34) Franz Kafka’s, The Metamorphosis, is a story about Gregor Samsa who wakes up one random morning transformed into what is called a “monstrous vermin.” (1) The Metamorphosis is a story that not only describes his new life, but also shows how the modern world is not a very understanding place in times of need. This novella reflects the negative -both mental and physical- conditions of Franz Kafka’s personal life. Both Gregor Samsa and Franz Kafka lived under the dominant power of their fathers. The
In The Metamorphosis, Gregor lives with only his parents and sister, being the oldest sibling. His family seems to be isolated group that doesn’t make a lot of contact with the outside world. The book shows Mr. Samsa almost as a burden to the family, but then becomes a more dominant and abusive figure. The mother is focused only on making the father happy and basically being his slave. Grete, Samsa’s sister, is a young girl that progresses and becomes a mature young adult. “[…] it occurred almost simultaneously to Mr. and Mrs. Samsa, as they watched their daughter getting livelier and livelier, that lately, in spite of all the troubles which had turned her cheeks pale, she had blossomed into a good-looking, shapely girl.” (55) Kafka’s family could almost be described as the perfect match. Kafka felt the responsibilities of becoming the eldest after his two brothers died while still in adolescence; he had a dictatorial father who eventually became abusive and sometimes led to violence towards Kafka; his mother is extremely dependent on her husband, much like Mrs. Samsa. One difference in their lives is that Kafka had three younger sisters, but the similarity is he was only close to one of them, who can be tied closely to the role of Grete in Samsa’s life. The personal lives of Samsa and Kafka are eerily similar, but maybe that’s no
The change that Samsa undergoes (turning into a bug) can be easily compared to a chronic illness in a human; once it’s started, it can’t be stopped and you just have to deal with it. As Samsa’s bug life continued, he slowly started to deteriorate internally. He starts to lose his eyesight, “For, in fact, from day to day he saw things even a short distance away less and less distinctly; the hospital opposite, while used to curse because he saw so much of it, was now completely beyond his range of vision […]” (28) He began to lose his appetite and becomes starved, “[…] he didn’t like the milk at all, even though it used to be his favorite drink, and that certainly his sister had put in the room; in fact, he turned away from the bowl almost with repulsion and crawled back to the middle of the room.” (20-21) Kafka became disease-filled and they were the source of his death. Some of the diseases included insomnia, recurring sweats, and other similar sicknesses. The common presence behind all these illnesses is tuberculosis, a chronic illness. When Kafka was alive, tuberculosis was not diagnosable so it was classified as bronchitis by the doctor, but clearly it was not accurate in the report. The problems Samsa had while a bug portray the diseases the Kafka was dealing