In Franz Kafka’s the Metamorphosis, the author conveys the consequences of the Industrial Revolution on the working class of society as they became increasingly dehumanized through Gregor Samsa’s transformation into a bug as he slowly loses his human characteristics and privileges as a human.
The novella is set in the early 1800’s, which is during the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution marked a period of technological advancement. As technology advancement increased, work at factories became popular. Workers began to abandon their craft and moved to urban areas to find jobs. Also, fewer workers were needed because machines began to replace their craft. Workers who lost their jobs due to the machines felt dehumanized because their craft was deteriorating. Furthermore, human connections also decreased as a result of the factory work scene.
Workers felt useless as machines took their place, which can be seen through Gregor’s transformation into a bug. Gregor Samsa is a salesman who sells cloth. His family is dependent on him because he works to pay off his parents’ debt. When his transformation into a bug occurs, he slowly loses each of his human characteristics. Gregor, who is highly depended on, becomes useless as he transforms into a bug, which is similar to how workers felt useless, when machines took over their jobs. Workers felt useless as their craft was required anymore.
Even after realizing his bug-like characteristic, Gregor is more worried about his job rather than being a bug:
What a strenuous occupation I’ve chosen! Always on the road, day out, day in. The rigors of the job are much greater than if I were working locally, and furthermore, the nuisances of traveling are always imposed upon me-the worries ...
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...nk pile” (57). This demonstrates the struggles of workers who lost their jobs to machines. After being victims of mechanization during the Industrial Revolution, they struggled to become a part of society. They felt stripped of their privileges, which is similar to Gregor’s transformation into a useless animal. Gregor found to be junk conveys workers feeling dehumanized. Workers were not contributing to society anymore as machines took over; hence it made them feel worthless.
Kafka’s response to the Industrial Revolution is touching as he represents the consequences on the working class society through the figurative transformation of Gregor Samsa into a bug. While Gregor is deprived of his human characteristics, such as his senses, he is also deprived of his connection with the world; Kafka’s conveys the feelings of the working society as they were dehumanized.
Gregor’s father demotes societal views of himself by his actions. Gregor’s father depends on Gregor for the income for the family. When Gregor morphs into a bug, Mr. Samsa reluctantly becomes the sole provider for his family. Getting a ...
The story The Metamorphosis revolves around Gregor Samsa, a devoted son and brother who works tirelessly to provide for his family, waking up finding out that he has been transformed into a larger than life insect. Franz Kafka enlightens the readers to how being dependent on one person can lead a family to being weak when that support system is ripped away from them. The situations that Gregor is put into knocks him down from the head of the family into nothingness while at the same time boosts his family from that nothingness into being a strong support system for each other. Gregor 's transformation, his dependency on his sister for food, his injury, the family choosing strangers over him, and ultimately his death are all things that lead to this downfall, or metamorphosis.
When comparing Franz Kafka and his personal life to The Metamorphosis it is obvious in more ways than one that he was writing a twisted story of his life. The emotional and physical abuse Gregor goes through are similar to what Kafka went through in real life. They were both abused and neglected by their fathers when they were disappointed with them. Kafka uses Gregor transforming into a bug as a way of exaggerating himself, trying to express his feelings and point of view. When writing, Kafka felt as if he was trapped in his room which he referred to as "the noise headquarters of the apartment". Gregor was an exaggeration of this because he could not leave the house to escape the noises and abuse.
One morning, Gregor awakens to find himself with the body of a beetle. Although it never explains how Gregor morphed into a beetle, or shows that Gregor gives much thought to having the body of an insect, Kafka gives the strong impression that Gregor is extremely devoted to his work and is the sole support for his family, none of whom work themselves. Gregor devoted himself to a life of work and self sacrifice, following ...
His sister, who took a job as a salesgirl to help the family. also learns French in the evening so she might get a better position in the future of the world. Mr. Samsa, Gregor's father, takes a job as a messenger for banking institutions and the public. Turning into a bug, Gregor causes a lack of harmony. among the family members.
Before the transformation, Gregor was a human form of nonchalant reclusiveness. It’s almost as if it was crucial for him to go through the conversion so he could become more emotionally aware despite the irony of him not even being human but a bug. For someone who has been human for about 20 years with absolutely no experience of being an insect, then suddenly become more humane as a creature is odd and outlandish. Gregor’s care for his family increases and begins to worry about their loss of financial and emotional security. He fears that what “if all the peace, the comfort, the contentment were to come to a horrible end?” Gregor’s attitude towards his transformation is hopelessly mundane: he does not question why he has been transformed into a cockroach. Significantly, he fails to find the horror and the absurdity in the situation. Right before his death, Gregor feels all kinds of warm and fuzzy feelings about his family members. Despite his pathetic condition, he seems more humane than the rest of the characters. In a way, Gregor’s transformation and all of the events after that day illustrates both the rewards and sacrifices of defying social convention and living the extraordinary
Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis is a novella that follows the story of Gregor Samsa who, one day, wakes up as an insect. On the surface, it’s just a story about a man who’s transformed into a bug; but, when deeper analyzed, you come to understand that it’s a about a man who was always a bug conflicted by his identity in a class struggle between what is known as the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. Kafka’s work was written in a time in history when the struggles between the classes were becoming more defined due to the rise of industrialization and other changing social structures. This story can best be interpreted though a Marxist lens. In Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, his Marxist ideology comes through in the way the characters represent the struggle between the proletariat and bourgeoisie classes during the turn of the century.
...ally becomes so meager he starves to death. Upon hearing the news of Gregor's death, the family does not show sadness, but instead, relief. "Well... now we can thank God!" (Kafka 55). Gregor's father felt relief from the economic burden of supporting his son. Even though the exact story told in Kafka's The Metamorphosis could not occur outside the domain of fantasy, it represents the real course of events of a worker being abandoned by his employer and family, after becoming unable to work and support them financially. Examining the novella from a Marxist perspective, the underlying theme of the story shows a conflict between proletariat and bourgeoisie. Economics replace everything else in a capitalistic society, a citizen who is unable to labor and earn wages is quickly abandoned. The result of this abandonment is often, as it was in Gregor Samsa's case, death.
Franz Kafka uses various themes throughout his work in The Metamorphosis. Two that stood out to me were the themes of alienation and social status. I feel as though Kafka uses Gregor’s transformation into a giant vermin as a metaphor to pique the reader 's interest and tell a frame narrative about society and class. Kafka uses his work to show his readers the alienation that Gregor feels in his life and the expectations his family, society and work have placed on him. The Metamorphosis shows us the effect money and material things have on people and how it ultimately caused Gregor to end his life.
Gregor’s profession contains bad travel, unhealthy meals, and the lack of the connection between people. Gregor dislikes his job very much, but he sees it as his only option, as a way to provide for his family. That is why he hasn’t missed a day of work in five years. When Gregor does miss his first day, his boss comes looking for him.
In The Metamorphosis Kafka illustrates a grotesque story of a working salesman, Gregor Samsa, waking up one day to discover that his body resembles a bug. Through jarring, almost unrealistic narration, Kafka opens up the readers to a view of Gregor’s futile and disappointing life as a human bug. By captivating the reader with this imaginary world Kafka is able to introduce the idea that Gregor’s bug body resembles his human life. From the use of improbable symbolism Kafka provokes the reader to believe that Gregor turning into a bug is realistic and more authentic compared to his unauthentic life as a human.
In final consideration the character Gregor was not a narcissistic man as we mostly assumed from his attitude in The Metamorphosis. He accepted his fate of becoming one of the misted hated and annoying insects known to man. As supported by scholarly journals, academic websites, and books I have verified my belief that the story The Metamorphosis was a true autobiographical piece of writing, and parts of the story reflected Kafka's own life. The protagonist of the story The Metamorphosis is a mirrored reflection of the author Franz Kafka's life experiences and encounters. Secondly the analysis of the story is addressed to all general population.
We as readers will never know the true reason behind Kafka’s Metamorphosis, but it is a masterpiece. It relates surprisingly well to today’s society, even though it was written between 1912 and 1915. The topic of metamorphosis is really universal, we as humans are constantly changing, growing and evolving. Works Cited Aldiss, Brian W. “Franz Kafka: Overview.” St. James Guide to Science Fiction Writers.
Using symbols, Kafka illustrates the story which is not just about Gregor’s transformation but it is more than that. The entire Metamorphosis is an allegory about Gregor changing into a vermin, symbolize that he wanted to free himself from his family obligation. “As Gregor Samsa awoke from unsettling dreams one morning, he found himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous vermin” (Kafka 7). He thought his transformation was a dream but he soon realizes that it was reality. Gregor was the source of the income for his family and was employed in a job he did not like. “What a grueling profession I picked! Traveling day in, day out” (Kafka 7). This is ironic because Gregor was forced by his father to choose the alienated career. Mr. Samsa was indebted to his boss; working as a traveling salesman he would have pay off his father debt. Working as traveling salesman made Gregor alienated socially and mentally. The word transformation does not only app...
On the surface, Franz Kafka's 1916 novella, The Metamorphosis, seems to be just a tale of a man who woke up one morning to find himself transformed into an insect. But, a closer reading with Marx and Engel's economic theories in mind reveals an overarching metaphor that gives the improbable story a great deal of relevance to the structure of society. Gregor Samsa, the protagonist, signifies the proletariat, or the working class, and his unnamed manager represents the bourgeoisie. The conflict that arises between the two after Gregor's metamorphosis renders him unable to work represents the impersonal and dehumanizing structure of class relations. The metaphor of the story can be divided into three main parts (although they overlap within the story.) First, Kafka establishes the characters and the economic classes which they represent. Then, he details Gregor's metamorphosis and the way in which it impedes his labor. Finally, he describes the final results of the worker's inability to work: abandonment by his family and death. Although a man cannot literally be transformed into an insect, he can, for one reason or another, become unable to work. Kafka's novella, therefore, is a fantastic portrayal of a realistic scenario and provides us with a valuable insight into the struggles between economic classes.