Gregor lies in bed, giving little interest to his new body. .
His thoughts are on his work, worrying about his inevitable tardiness due to his insect body. Work is important for Gregor because he is the sole provider for his mother, father, and younger sister, none of whom have jobs of their own. Though he hates his job as a traveling salesman, he endures the monotony of work life for the good of his family. Through his thoughts, the reader is clued in to his contempt for his job:.
"Oh God," he thought, "what a grueling job I've picked! Day in, day out- on the road. 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! (433).".
Gregor tells of the outrageous demands his dull job has put on him and the vigor in which he puts into it. While usually waking up at four in the morning, his transformation has made him late: "Heavenly Father! He thought. It was half-past six o" clock and the hands were quietly moving on- Gregor contemplates whether to fake sick but "during his five years" employment he had not been ill once." .
In this scene one can also noticed the emphasis Gregor places on time. Time is crucial when a slave to work. Society is placed on tight schedule that demands punctuality. This is quite a contrast to later in the story when Gregor loses all sense of time. Locked up in his room, the man-turned-bug has no use for time. Time was crucial to his old life as a worker drone, not as an insect.
Gregor is characterized as a workaholic and Kafka shows this when the chief clerk visits the Samsa apartment, trying to get answers for Gregor's tardiness. When he arrives his mother is quick to stick up for her son, whose job is supporting her: "Believe me, sir, there's something the matter with him.
This in context of the entire book is the actual opening line of Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis. ... Franz Kafka's theme of isolation is very thick in this novel. ... There are additionally some themes of materialism in Metamorphosis. ... Kafka's tone in this novel is decidedly calm. ... Metamorphosis contains quite a few interesting literary devices. ...
And one of his best-known books was The Metamorphosis. The Metamorphosis is a short story that was first published in 1915. ... In the story The Metamorphosis, Kafka describes the dull, gloomy and humid environment that foreshadows the decay and deterioration of Gregory's life. ... In The Metamorphosis Franz Kafka reflects upon many negative aspects. ... When you compare Kafka's life to The Metamorphosis is it very clear that in many ways he was writing about his distressed life. ...
Kafka's classic, The Metamorphosis, offers insight into the lives of assimilated Jews living in Prague during the late 19th and early 20th Century. ... The Metamorphosis reflects the apprehension that pervaded the mind of assimilated Jews in Prague. ... In Metamorphosis, parallels between Gregor and the Jewish people in Prague at this time can be drawn. ... "Dirt streaks stretched all along the walls; here and there lay balls of dust and flith" (Kafka, 54). ... Throughout Metamorphosis, Gregor's family is portrayed as the Germans and Czechs during Kafka's time period. ...
In my opinion, "The Metamorphosis" is autobiographical of Franz Kafka's life. ... Throughout many of his stories, especially "The Metamorphosis," we see how Franz Kafka portrays his own father into the personality of his characters. Franz Kafka's shows in "The Metamorphosis," through the character of Gregor Samsa, how his very own father extremely wounded him. "The Metamorphosis" is mainly about a man's feeling of inferiority and loneliness. ... It seems as though the father in "The Metamorphosis" is Franz Kafka's very own father. ...
(Kafka 87) In his letter to his father, Franz dealt with many issues referred to indirectly in The Metamorphosis. ... Many believe that these life story facts inspired Kafka to write The Metamorphosis. ... Kafka shows not only a metamorphosis in Gregor, but also in his mother, father, and sister as well. ... In The Metamorphosis, Kafka's character comments on how his family should have encouraged him as he tried to open the door to his room, a difficult task for a beetle. ... Kafka referred to the picture twice in The Metamorphosis, showing this first clue to its significance. ...
The author, Franz Kafka's purpose of "The Metamorphosis" is to make people understand more about human condition. ... The Metamorphosis World Literature, Revised Edition 1998. ... "The Metamorphosis." ... Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis. 21 Feb 1998. 22 February 2002...
The short story, "Hills Like White Elephants" by Ernest Hemingway, and the novella, "The Metamorphosis" by Franz Kafka, both contain covert alternate meanings that emanate from the authors' literary style preferences. ... Additionally, Kafka's writing in "The Metamorphosis" was translated from German into English and many have speculated, including the translator, in the 2014 edition, Susan Bernofsky, that the translation impacts the story because of a lack of English terminology to directly covey Kafka's ideas (Kafka 122). ... The notion of leavi...
Fantasy in Kafka Kafka's "Metamorphosis" is a story of despair and futility in the life of Gregor Samsa. ... Having never lived for himself and always for others suggests that Kafka rejects the Christian tradition and ideal that insists upon being dead to self and having contempt for worldly things. Kafka's disassociated tone in this story (as well as his others) increases the horror and the isolated feeling. Perhaps it is this tone that places Kafka's works among the fantastic, along with the reversal of motivation and resolution so prevalent in his tales. Kafk...
Though it is difficult to see a meaning that does not revolve around the aspects of old age, "Transforming Franz Kafka's "Metamorphosis" by Nina Pelikan Straus, shows the reader that there might be another meaning besides John B. Shea's "Kafka Saw The Future," talking about a specific topic relating to old age. ... It seems as though the mutual characteristic and theme of both subjects, and also the meaning of Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis, revolves around transformation and the transformation of one who is close to death, seeming as though life has no meaning a...
