Holguin 1 Amaris Holguin Mr. Nelson English 12 6 November 2015

In the novella, The Metamorphosis, a traveling salesman by the name Gregor Samsa ​ ​ wakes up one morning to the realization that he is a large insect. After Gregor's physical transformation his family disowns him and locks him in a room alone until he eventually dies of starvation and neglect. As the story continues it’s apparent that Gregor’s neglect initially started before his physical transformation. Gregor's situation in the story essentially symbolizes the life of the author, Franz Kafka. Kafka had a difficult relationship with his parents, specifically his father who was quite temperamental and had little appreciation for Kafka’s creativity. Like

Gregor, Kafka was a traveling agent. He was employed at the Workers’ Accident Insurance

Institute for the Kingdom of Bohemia and worked long strenuous hours until his fight with tuberculosis forced him to take a sick leave and retire. For quite a while before ever getting tuberculosis Kafka struggled with migraines, boils, depression, anxiety, and insomnia. His illnesses made it difficult for him to keep stable relationships with people. The Metamorphosis, is ​ ​ a story based off of the life of Franz Kafka and demonstrates how Kafka's health and failure to maintain healthy relationships with others resulted in alienation and isolation in an indifferent world.

In the story the relationship between Gregor and his boss lead to Gregor's alienation because he's seen as an accessory and not a person. On the day of Gregor's physical change, for the first time in his five years of service, he didn’t show up to work. As a result of this his manager showed up at his house without notice. After a period of Gregor not giving an explanation for his absence his boss says:

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I am amazed..I thought I knew you as a calm, reasonable person, and now you appear suddenly to want to start parading around in weird moods. The Chief indicated to me earlier this very day a possible explanation for your neglect..but in truth I almost gave him my word of honour that this explanation could not be correct. I see here your unimaginable pig headedness, and I am totally losing any desire to speak up for you in the slightest. And your position is not at all the most secure. (Kafka 17)

In saying this Gregor’s boss is reinforcing the idea that Gregor is merely at the company's disposal and is not valued as a person. Gregor was an outstanding employee and never missed a day of work and for being late one day is suddenly is expressed by his boss as being

“pig­headed” and inconsiderate. This relates to Kafka's life because when he started to show symptoms of tuberculosis he was unable to work as much as he used to. When he started to miss work because of his illness his boss may have been disappointed and not understanding of

Kafka’s predicament. He may have simply believed that Kafka could return to work like nothing was wrong as if he was a machine. Kafka’s on­going struggle with work started prior to the setting of the book and his illness which caused tension between him and his family and is expressed through the physical transformation in Gregor’s life.

Prior to his physical change, Gregor started to work heavily at which point his parents began to see him as their main provider rather than their son. This sparks the beginning of his alienation.

And so at that point he’d started to work with a special intensity and from an assistant had become, almost overnight, a traveling salesman, who naturally had entirely different possibilities for earning money and whose successes at work at once were converted into the form of cash commissions, which could be set out on the table at home in front of his astonished and delighted family. Those had been beautiful days, and they had never come back afterwards... (Kafka 43)

Gregor only has one sibling, his sister Greta, and, because he is older, takes the responsibility of getting a job to help his parents, who don’t have jobs of their own, provide for the family. What seems to go unnoticed by Gregor is that his family is taking advantage of him instead of taking the initiative to get jobs and work as a family to support each other. At the beginning of his

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career it was clear that his family was very grateful of his hard work and praised him for stepping up to help the family but at some point they stopped showing their appreciation. When he stopped receiving admiration from his family he felt as though he was only used for money making purposes. Prior to his transformation his family, specifically his father, did nothing but sit in a chair all day. Additionally, a while after Gregor’s transformation, his father got a job to make up for the money that Gregor would have made if not ill. During this time Gregor notices how his father is capable of working. ​ Was that the same man who had lain exhausted and buried in bed in earlier days when Gregor was setting out on a business trip, who had received him on the evenings of his return in a sleeping gown and arm chair, totally incapable of standing up, who had only lifted his arm as a sign of happiness...But now he was standing up really straight, dressed in a tight fitting blue uniform with gold buttons, like the ones servants wear in a banking company. (Kafka 61­62)

In relation to Gregor, Kafka was a very hard working man who spent most of his life working to support his family. Kafka’s father has been described as a selfish and overbearing businessman, and Kafka, like Gregor, being the oldest felt that even though his parents worked it was his responsibility to take care of the family. When Kafka had to stop working because of his illness he realized that his family was capable of providing for themselves and felt used for all of the years he spent working until the point of exhaustion. During this time, his communication and relationship with his family was deteriorating and, because of his illness, struggled to support himself alone.

Once Gregor lost literal communication with his family the alienation and isolation started to settle in completely.

‘If he only understood us,’ repeated the father and by shutting his eyes he absorbed the sister’s conviction of the impossibility of this point, ‘then perhaps some compromise would be possible with him. But as it is...’‘It must be gotten rid of,’ cried the sister; ‘That is the only way, father. You must try to get rid of the idea that this is Gregor.' (Kafka 86)

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Gregor’s incapability to speak or communicate with his family in any way makes the family believe that that insect it no longer him. At which point they try to come up with how to get rid of it/him because he is a burden to their everyday lives. When Kafka’s tuberculosis began to take over his body he no longer felt of value to his family. Gregor’s emotional and physical pain emulate that of Kafka who felt as if his illness, which made it almost impossible to work, had made him a burden to his family. Because he could no longer function properly he felt and became alienated and isolated from his family just like Gregor when he overheard his family discussing their options of getting rid of him. Gregor’s death in the story also symbolizes the death of Kafka’s overall feeling of humanity.

It’s evident that, The Metamorphosis, is a novella that signifies the life of the author, ​ ​ Franz Kafka, and illustrates how his health and failure to maintain healthy relationships with others resulted in his alienation and isolation. In the story, Gregor’s difficult and unhealthy relationship with his boss leads to his alienation because his boss only sees him as an accessory and not a person. In relation to Kafka, this exemplifies his problematic work life after his signs of tuberculosis began to show and he was no longer able to work to the point he once had. Also, similarly to Kafka, after Gregor began working a lot his parents no longer saw him as their son but as their main provider. Once Gregor, like Kafka, was unable to work due to his illness, his family had to further take up the responsibility of supporting the family someone they were completely capable of doing on their own. Finally, once Gregor lost literal communication with his family his alienation and isolation sank in entirely. This and the entire book symbolizes

Kafka’s deteriorating feeling of his humanity when he was unable to function properly due to his battle with symptoms of tuberculosis.

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Works Cited

Batson1, Robbie. "Kafka~Samsa. Reality Through Symbolism." The Kafka Project. 1 Aug. ​ ​ 2011. Web. 26 Oct. 2015. "Franz Kafka Biography." The Biography.com. A&E Television Networks. Web. 26 Oct. 2015. ​ ​ Kafka, Franz. “The Metamorphosis.”1915. History­world.org. Planet PDF, 2007. Web. ​ ​ 7 Oct. 2015.