Themes Of

Themes of

Kafka's Metamorphosis

The purpose of my paper is to reveal to the

reader Kafka's view of society by analyzing and

explaining his short stories. One of his stories I

would be using is Gregor. I will show how he is

treated by the modern world and his family. The

three themes I will be analyzing is first the way

Gregor was treated by his family and the relation

to today's world. Secondly the way Gregor is not

really appreciated by his family or job. Thirdly

I will show how the struggles of greogor bring

about functionality to the Samsa family. These

elements reveal how each member in the family goes

through they own metamorphosis for the better of

themselves and family.

First themse that I will focus my attention on is

the treatment of gregor by his family. In reading

the story I have come to the conclusion that his

family is only concerned with what his change can

do for them. Sadly, after his transformation his

family only concern was still how he was going to

have an affect on they lives. Mostly they concern

was how the transformation was going to have an

affect on the house income. Gregor is a hard

working man who is attempting to support his

family the best way he can. Even though there is

evidence of pain brought about by the slightest

thought of his job "Oh God, what a grueling job

I've picked day in and day out on the road"

(2750). We can safely say that his attempts to

support his family involve pain, toture and he

even hated his job. Some mornings he would wake up

and wish he could just roll over and go back to

sleep "How about going back to sleep for a few

minutes and forgetting all this nonsense."

(2750).

After his transformation he is subject to many

mistreatments. In one instance his mom witnessing

his transformation for the first time backs away

madly and yells help, instead of going to him and

trying to help him. His mother is not the only one

guilty of mistreating him. His father is alos

guilty of mistreatment "In his fathers present

state of mind it did not even remotely occur to

him to open the door in order to give Gregor

enough room to get thropugh. He had only fixed

idea that Gregor must return to his room as

quickly as possible" (2760). This shows that his

father no longer saw him as his son and now as

just a creature.

Gregor also has to deal with his own family

secretly talking and meeting behind his back to

discuss his situation and actions as if he were

not in the house. In one occasion gregor can tell

his family is sneaking around the house to talk

about him " It was late at night when the light

finally went out in the living room, and now it

was easy for Gregor to tell his parents and sister

had stayed up so long, since as he could hear all

three were not retiring on tiptoe" (2760).

Another example of this can be seen when gregor

interprets comments made by his family to mean

something other intended " Gregor sometimes

caught a remark which was meant to be friendly or

could be interpreted as such.... He's left

everything again" (2763). Gregor was not allowed

to eat at the table with his family, he was fed in

his room by his sister, " gregor was fed each

day, once in the morning , when his parents and

the maid were still asleep, and a second time in

the afternoon after everyone had had dinner, for

then his parents took a short nap" (2763). This

is how he was treated on a daily basis by his

family since his transformation.

Like I mentioned earlier in my