Edward Russulle
Metamorphosis Essay-transformation
Gregor Samsa’s transformation that takes place in the metamorphosis results from the rejection from everyone he knew in his life. Gregor, a business man with no life who works for his parents, lives with his parents and sister, wakes up one day to find himself transformed into a bug. Throughout the story, many characters around Gregor start to neglect him because of what he has become. As Gregor’s transformation occurs, society begins to reject him because he is different.
One rejection Gregor goes through in the story is him rejecting his body. His physical bug-like body slowly decays, ultimately ending his demise. Throughout the story, Gregor is slowly dying. He starts to find ways to adjust to his new body, such as climbing onto furniture or eating food, but his new body rejects the food because he can only eat junk food. Later, Gregor loses his will to live. At the end of his life, he does not fight to survive but rather gives up and accepts his “pains… throughout his whole body” as they say “(grow) fainter and fainter and… finally go away altogether” (Kafka 51). Gregor’s acceptance of life demonstrates that he has given up on life and therefore given up on himself.
Another rejection gregor faces is from the people outside his family. Gregor’s manager’s reaction to his transformation depicts the disgust that society would thrust at him. Upon coming to the house and discovering gregor’s new form, the manager is “repulsed by an invisible, unrelenting force (Kafka 14)”. He soon “(takes) his last step from the living room, (so that) one might have thought he had