Metamorphosis Essay

The world of literature is quite unique, the boundaries non-existent and the ideas limitless. Anyone who can dream of it can write of it. Authors like Poe and Hemmingway are perfect examples of authors who can really stretch the boundaries of literature, and Franz Kafka is no exception either. Kafka’s story “The Metamorphosis” seems almost like a bad nightmare; however, his writing is more than that. He wrote “The Metamorphosis” alongside a story he titled “The Judgment” and considered the latter to be better. Kafka didn’t even want “The Metamorphosis” to be read seemingly. However, it became apart of some of the most famous writing in the 20th century. Comparable to Hemmingway’s “Hills like White Elephants” Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” has

With no backstory or knowledge of previous events we are put right into the problem of the story. As stated in the first line of the story “Gregor Samsa awoke one morning out of restless dreams, he found himself in bed, transformed into a gargantuan pest” (Kafka 428). Immediately he noticed his hard back, brown stomach, and numerous legs. After trying to get out of bed, contemplating his life, and attempting to scratch himself with one of his many legs, which he is unsuccessful at, Gregor started to worry about his work. Surprisingly Gregor worried more about work than any of his other problems. Continuing to worry about his parent’s debt. Since he is late for work, which Gregor never was, his family began to worry about Gregor and they started to knock on his locked bedroom door. Gregor called back to them in a very unusual voice still attempting to crawl out of bed with his disobedient legs. Soon an attorney from Gregor’s work showed up, demanding that Gregor come out at once in threat of losing his job. Gregor successfully unlocked the door with the use of his teeth and showed himself to his present company. In shock the attorney flees the apartment and Gregor’s father scares him back into his room. Injured, Gregor falls asleep. After this event he begins to live in this room of his apartment, and his sister would bring him meals everyday. After spending much time in the room Gregor began to become quite comfortable with

If Gregor wouldn’t had been so consumed with his job, the money, and serving his family he could have prevented his metamorphosis. Hartman says “I do believe that there was a final chance for redmemtion, that to whatever extent the insect was or was not already real, the man inside could still have triumphed, burst out, and laughed” (Hartman 34). Hartman’s view of the metamorphosis even agrees somewhat with Sokel’s. As with Hartman, Sokel thinks Gregor’s metamorphosis is due to his alienation and his family. In the story the division between Gregor and his family is quite apparent, and lines up perfectly with how Hartman thinks. Just how we easily see the family growing apart, Hartman easily sees Gregor slowly transforming more and more into his insect-like