Change, Alienation, and Isolation in "The Metamorphosis" by Franz Kafka Essay

The Metamorphosis tells the story of Gregor Samsa, a traveling salesman who lives with his family, which he maintains with his salary, that one fine day dawns into a monstrous insect. Samsa remains in her room elaborating conjectures, observing her family, while developing a monologue, not through the emission of words but of thoughts. This is the story of a person who sees himself as despicable as an insect and unable to tell others what happens to him. Gregor's family has always defined him by his ability to work and providing for the family. When he supported them financially, they treated him deferentially, respected him and gave him the big room that was at the center of the apartment. However, as soon as he turns into an insect and is unable to provide for them, he becomes a burden, and they long to be rid of him.

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The novel begins with Gregor waking up in his bed and already turned into an insect. At first, Gregory is not aware of the metamorphosis. In spite of the change, for him, the most important thing is to be able to continue doing his normal life. The idea of work and family appears above all things (he is the one who brings the money home). The novel begins with the following words: "When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning, after an uneasy sleep, he found himself in his bed turned into a monstrous creature. He lay on his back, hard as a shell, and when he raised his head a little he saw his bulging brown belly, segmented by bow-shaped indurations, on whose prominence, the bedspread, about to slide completely, could scarcely be sustained. His numerous legs, of deplorable thinness in comparison with the normal thickness, trembled helplessly before his eyes. "What happened to me?" He thought (Kafka, 2018).

The character realizes that it is not a dream, but a real transformation. His room is the same as always, and there are all the known objects, used by that traveling salesman that he had been until the day before. A kind of psycho-cosmic parallelism is established between that gray and rainy morning and the melancholy that invades the protagonist. In any case, Gregor refuses to accept what reality is showing him, he does not want to be defeated and he pretends to act as if he were the same person from the previous night (Minar & Sutandio, 2017). We see him reflect, in his inner monologue, on his existence. He is a lonely man, absorbed by a job he does not like and by a boss who has to endure, which he would not do if he were not the only support of his family.

The painful story that follows, produces in the reader feelings of anguish, despair, and discouragement. After the initial surprise at the change experienced, what worried Gregor Samsa was not his new situation as a strange animal, but the more prosaic problem of how to fulfill his usual work as a commercial traveler. The appalling transformation he had suffered was secondary to the imperative need to attend the work on which his elderly father, indebted and unemployed, his mother with asthma, and his sister, the young violin student for whom he professed immense love (Minar & Sutandio, 2017). In that family, he has not only fulfilled the role of son and brother, but also that of the father; That is why he worries so much about the future of his people, seeing that he is not in the conditions necessary to undertake the tasks that were daily (Kafka, 2018). But he resists reality, wants to continue with his job duties as if nothing had happened and even feels guilty for the delay of that day. The metamorphosis of Gregor will not be the only one in that house, there is a mutation, not aesthetic, but psychological, in all the members of the family. And there is an evolution in behavior, which will go from resigned acceptance to the most terrible rejection

An official of the company in which he was employed arrives at the home of the Samsa family to inquire about the reasons for his absence from work. Gregor immediately thinks of the unusual fact that a minimal absence from his work awoke in the other "the most tragic surprises." The official, irritated with him, says with displeasure through the door: "Mr. Samsa: You have entrenched yourself in your room. You are gravely and unfairly upsetting your parents and, in addition, you are missing your obligation in the warehouse in a truly unprecedented way ... At first, I had the intention of telling you all this alone, but since you are wasting my time in vain, I do not see the reason why your parents do not know. Its performance in recent times has been very unsatisfactory; It is true that it is not the time of year to do great business, I admit it, but there are no times of the year when they are not done, Mr. Samsa, they should not exist" (Kafka, 2018).

Family members are initially concerned about Gregor's strange behavior; they do not understand why he has not got up to go to work because "in his head he has nothing but the warehouse", and the words that he hears are not intelligible to his people's ears, that for their selfishness, they are only interested in their own welfare. Gregor makes huge efforts to handle his immense beetle body that he still has not gotten used to, and manages to open the lock and push the door with his strong beetle jaws. When seeing it, the mother faints. The father shows his clenched fist with a fierce expression as if he wanted to push him into the room with a punch; and then, looking hesitantly towards the room, "he covered his eyes with his hands and wept until the sobs shook his enormous chest".

The economic problem of a bourgeois family like that of Samsa begins to become evident and serious when presenting the inescapable need to face the reality and cover the expenses of every day. They dismiss the cook and the employee who leave scared assuring the mother that they will not talk to anyone about the events they have witnessed. Gregor, meanwhile, "did not recoil from the great effort of pushing an armchair to the window, then climbing on the windowsill and leaning against it, reclining against the glass, evidently moved by the memory of a certain sense of freedom that he had felt before. look out through the glass"(Kafka, 2018). His vision, however, had diminished so much that he could not see clearly even the other side of the street. The family decides to keep Gregor isolated in his room, away from society. Only his sister Grete is the one who enters the room. It is who is responsible for providing food to Gregor and maintains the toilet, but then this aspect leaves it aside.

The family does not want the sickly Mrs. Samsa to enter the room to avoid strong impressions, while the father keeps away from Gregor and increasingly hates him. The family concern begins to revolve around money; They can no longer count on who until yesterday was the provider since the father had to leave his business (Minar & Sutandio, 2017). They have no alternative but to put themselves to work and they do so; meanwhile, Gregory's habits are changing and are more and more similar to those of an insect. Very soon after, the attitude of Gregor's father changes. It is no longer the person who always welcomed him, dressed in his robe and sunk in his chair, content to raise his arms as a sign of joy; the man who, on the rare Sunday strolls, walked slowly, leaning on his mahogany cane with copper ornaments; the one who stopped his step at every moment forcing the others to form a huddle around him. Is it really his father who sees now in the fullness of his power, "firm and straight, with a stern blue uniform with golden buttons like the one who dreams of using the ordinances of the Banks?"

The father turns sullenly towards Gregor and begins to chase him around the room bombing him with apples, the only projectiles he finds at hand, one of which literally entered Gregor's back causing him to bleed. The wound that took more than a month to heal seemed to remind everyone, including the father, that Gregor, despite the repulsiveness of his appearance, was a member of the family who deserved respect, and that the fundamental duty of all was to overcome disgust and resign.

The tension between the father and the son nevertheless reaches the maximum limit, the fatal end of the elimination, as if the lives of the two were mutually exclusive. The mother reappears at the scene, and "with her hands around her neck, she begs the father to spare his son's life" (Kafka, 2018). The sister meanwhile, becomes a frank antagonist of Gregor whom he had wanted at another time, but who now looks with displeasure and irritation, and shows with his attitudes that he wants to get rid of him. The mother seems to still feel a slight love for Gregor, a dubiously authentic affection, but she is also willing to abandon him.

The disintegration of the Samsa family begins to become palpable. The father laments a situation that does not give him the well-deserved rest in his last years. They have run out of service, sold some of the few jewels they owned and are forced to accept tenants to help defray the costs of daily living. The changes made in the house make them move again a good part of the furniture, belongings, and odds and ends to Gregor's room, which very soon becomes a cramped warehouse. At one point, Grete looks at her parents and with a decided gesture she says: "I do not want to pronounce my brother's name in the presence of this bug; All I want to say is that we should try to get rid of it. Otherwise, it will end up killing us ... You must leave; It's not about Gregor. The fact that we have believed this for so long is the cause of all our ills. How can this beetle be truly Gregor? If it were Gregor, he would have realized long ago that human beings cannot live with similar bugs, and he himself would have left on his own initiative. We would have lost the brother but we could have continued living and honoring his memory. This animal harasses us, drives away our guests and tries to conquer the entire floor for him, letting us sleep in the stream" (Kafka, 2018).

Conclusion

The fact of having ceased to exist as a human and of being forced to disappear now as a beetle is a final blow for Gregor. He thought of his family with tenderness and affection, convinced, more firmly than his sister, that he should disappear. "And in that state of absorbed and peaceful meditation, it remained until the chimes of the church clock struck three in the morning. He could still live the first clarities of the outside world; then, his head came down by itself to the ground and last breath of breath came from his nose. " The family, although suffering a slight commotion, receives the news as a true relief, as a true liberation. They rejoice at the fact of being able to start a new life and resolve to dedicate that day to take a walk. The Samsa men seem to forget about the loss of that son who at one time was the breadwinner of the family and hope for the daughter they have left, who on the other hand is becoming a graceful young woman whom they will soon be able to marry.

References

Kafka, F. (2018). The Metamorphosis. Retrieved December 21, 2018, from http://www.kafka-online.info/the-metamorphosis-page1-42.html

Minar, K. S., & Sutandio, A. (2017). Shame and Alienation in Kafka's The Metamorphosis. Journal POETIKA, 5(2), 123. doi:10.22146/poetika.27100