The Metamorphosis

No matter how intensely or how closely a story is read and analyzed, there will always linger some minds that remain perplexed. Although never easy to delineate, fables such as The Metamorphosis, tell a morality story, one especially with animals as characters. The fable, The Metamorphosis, speaks of the tragic and absurd tale of a working-class man who is transformed into a bug and the overall isolation and rejection he receives from his family and the rest of humanity.

The supernatural elements in the story are obvious like they should be in a fable. Beginning from the very first few lines of the story, a bizarre and absurd mood is quickly set: "As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect." This leaves the reader instantly puzzled, for it is not often that humans are turned into insects. And although as unrealistic as the story first seems to the reader, the realistic elements in this story include about everything else. The reaction to the metamorphosis by Gregor's family is probably the most realistic.

Whether Kafka meant for there to be a moral or not, there is remarkable evidence inside the story that leads the reader to hypothesize his or her own message. Through Gregor's metamorphosis into an insect, he shows that just like Gregor, mankind seems to live a meaningless existence. He shows the reader that all too often people end up living bug-like lives, crawling like insects and isolated from each other and themselves. This isolation resembles the familiar form of the separation in a man. Gregor notices changes in his family similar to how modern man notices changes in society, but feels left out. The family evolves and become busy with their new lives and jobs, almost forgetting completely about Gregor. He becomes an actual bug and lives as one as the world outside his cluttered room grows, leaving behind Gregor, dark and isolated.

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