Metamorphosis Reflection

I   The novel written by Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis, was basically written off his life. It shows the difficulties of living in a modern society and the struggle for acceptance of others when in a time of need. In this novel Kafka directly reflects upon many of the negative aspects of his personal life, both mentally and physically.  In the beginning, Gregor is transformed into a bug. I feel as though Kafka wrote this story to express that he felt as a bug in his fathers eyes. The relationship between Gregor and his father, I feel is similar to the relationship between Franz and his father Herman. "His numerous legs, pitifully thin in comparison to the rest of his circumference, flickered helplessly before his eyes." (Kafka, 1). During this movement of his legs, he is feeling help less and excluded. In Kafka's life, his parents were often distant and he only had his siblings. Before Gregor was a bug, they cared for him. Before Franz chose his writing oath, his parents were there somewhat, but still cared for him. After his decision, the tension relationship between him and his father grew. From the moment we meet Gregor Samsa’s father we are shown how short tempered he is. "The father relentlessly pushed his way forward, hissing like a wild man." (Kafka, 8). His father was very short tempered to see Gregor's new "transform" when Gregor first exited his room in his new state as a bug. Gregor’s father chased after him with a cane and newspaper making a hissing noise that annoyed Gregor. Just this passage here shows how alike Mr. Samsa and Herman Kafka are. Kafka was subjected to abuse and constant yelling from his father because he was a failure in his eyes. "Perhaps his father noticed his good intentions, for he did not disrupt Gregor in this motion, but with the tip of the cane from a distance he even directed Gregor’s rotating movement now and then. If only his father had not hissed so unbearably!" (Kafka, 8). Gregor hoped that his father saw his good intentions in letting himself be shown. I feel as though Franz became a writer in hoping that after his father saw what kind of author he was, he would see Franz's good intentions and support him. He may have went along with his father's intions of Franz's job if he hadn't been so abrupt and demanding of it. When Samsa sees what has happened to Gregor he is immediately outraged, either out of confusion or disappointment towards his son.

II   Kafka’s father viewed Franz as a failure and disapproved of his writing because he wanted Franz to become a business man like him. When Franz Kafka was a boy his father abused him. Whenever Franz Kafka disagreed with his father or told his father that he wanted to be a writer, not a shop owner, his father got very upset. In the book, Mr. Samsa displayed a violent temper from the very first encounter with the transformed Gregor. When he chased Gregor back to his room, he kicked him in the back as he reached the door. Another event in which Gregor encountered violence from his father was when Mr. Samsa threw an apple at him and it lodged in his back. "However, another thrown immediately after that one drove into Gregor’s back really hard. Gregor wanted to drag himself off, as if he could make the unexpected and incredible pain go away if he changed his position. But he felt as if he was nailed in place and lay stretched out completely confused in all his senses." (Kafka, 8). From this point on, the physical and mental condition of Gregor steadily decreased. The apple began to rot away and he felt weaker and he experienced more of the pain than usual. Gregor even lost his appetite, and ate nothing. The feelings of seclusion and not being wanted entered Gregor’s thoughts. He could tell that his sister did not care as much as she did when he first became a bug. These feelings could have been the same feelings of seclusion that Kafka felt in his own life after abuse from his father.

III   In The Metamorphosis there are many signs of slow deterioration for Gregor. He slowly starts to lose his eye sight when he notices that he can no longer see across the road to the hospital. " For, in fact, from day to day he perceived things with less and less clarity, even those only a short distance away. The hospital across the street, the all-too-frequent sight of which he had previously cursed, was not visible at all anymore..." (Kafka, 13). He has many injuries, some of which he cannot explain, like the pain in his side when he first woke up. He had an apple lodged in his back, by his father, which was left to rot. He was cut by a piece off glass from a shattering glass bottle, and was bleeding. And then when he tried to get into his room and got stuck in the door. All of these descriptions are painful, and the whole basis of the novel revolves around a human being who is dyeing a slow, painful death.Franz Kafka died on June 3, 1924 from tuberculosis of the larynx. The Metamorphosis could be one of Kafka’s imaginations of his own death that is carefully disguised and elaborated through literature. After awhile, Gregor's father refused Grete, his sister, go in Gregors room to clean it. "A huge bony cleaning woman with white hair flying all over her head came in the morning and evening to do the heaviest work. The mother took care of everything else, in addition to her considerable sewing work." (Kafka, 19). Because of their little amount of income, they let go of the servant girl and hired a cleaning woman who only cleaned Gregor's room. Almost as they were sending someone else to go and take care of their mess. "He was filled with sheer anger over the wretched care he was getting, even though he could not imagine anything which he might have an appetite for." (Kafka, 22). After all the things he has done for the family and the ways to keep it afloat, they treat him horribly. "  "'Well,' said Mr. Samsa, 'now we can give thanks to God.' He crossed himself, and the three women followed his example." (Kafka, 25). When Gregor eventually dies, his family is grateful. They did not want to have to take care of the menace he had become in their eyes. The way they act to his death, his almost like they did not know who he was and they did not care.