"When he lifted his head a little, he saw his vaulted brown belly, sectioned by arch-shaped ribs, to whose dome the cover, about to slide off completely, could barely cling. His many legs, pitifully thin compared with the size of the rest of him, were waving helplessly before his eyes." Gregor Samsa has gone through a metamorphosis. .
This change has turned Gregor into a "monstrous vermin". The anxieties, inner terrors, and cynicism, which fill Gregor's life, are expressed by Kafka throughout the novel, metamorphosis. Franz Kafka uses these feelings as an element of Expressionism to convey Gregor's attitudes towards his life and society. Examples depicting this element of Expressionism used in the novel are Gregor's feelings towards his job, the effect his job has on his family, and the cruelty that his family displays. The novel opens with Gregor in his monstrous state, late for work. .
He infers that his job as a traveling salesman is very consequential, yet he is growing tired and frustrated, "The upset of doing business is much worse than the actual business in the home office, and, besides, I've got the torture of traveling, worrying about changing trains, eating miserable food at all hours, constantly seeing new faces, no relationships that last or get more intimate. To the devil with it all!" Gregor has a great amount of fury towards his job, which eventually led to his anger towards society as a whole. .
The fact that his office manager showed up at Gregor's house plays an immense role in creating trepidation and anxieties in Gregor's mind. Gregor feels strangled by his job and is too weak to tolerate the pressure. In addition to the pressure created by his office manager and society, the Samsa's, especially Gregor's father, take advantage of him. Gregor earns the basic income to support his family. "But of course he actually could have paid off more of his father's debt to the boss with this extra money, and the clay on which he could have gotten rid of his job would have been much closer, but now things were undoubtedly better, the way his father had arranged them.
When comparing Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse and The Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka, both novels display protagonists who embark on a journey in search of themselves, displayed through the significant names of the characters. The Metamorphasis contains the name Gregor Samsa, which not only relates t...
Metamorphosis Metamorphosis is a story that is easily related to this ever so cruel world and the life each of us live today. Each of us experience alienation just as Gregor did in the story. We experience from friends and even worse family. When changes arrive that we can't cope with, we sometimes except them grudgingly, or we simply run away from that change. What we fail to realize is the fact that the change (trial or problem) will still be there to deal with upon returning. ...