Franz Kafka and The Metamorphosis

Franz Kafka 

(1883-1924)

Franz Kafka is considered to be one of the most important and influential writers of the 20th century. 


Franz Kafka in 1906


He wrote lot's of different things through his life, but his most popular and well known is 'The Metamorphosis'.

The Metamorphosis is about a man called Gregor who wakes up one morning to find that he's turned into a bug. At first he doesn't tell his family about this and ends up losing his job but when they find out they start to resent him. Not only did his appearance change but his voice and appetite starts to also change, his sister also moves the furniture out of his room because he started climbing the walls and she thought this would give him more space to do this. When his mother first see's him as a bug she faints and when her husband (his father) finds out this he starts to throw apples at Gregor and one gets stuck in his back and seriously hurts him nearly crippling him, but his mother asks his father to spare Gregor's life. Gregor's injury makes the family partly more accepting of him so they leave his bedroom door open so he can watch them, but they are always very quite and tired from there jobs they've all had to take on (because Gregor used to be the one that worked for everyone) this makes him feel like he's a buden on his family. The family feel like they want to move house but can't because of Gregor, he becomes angry and feels neglected and stops cleaning and hardly eats. When lodgers move in Gregors door is kept shut and loads of stuff is piled into his room so he can hardly move. When they find out about Gregor they move out straight away (Gregor also got teased by there charwoman). Grete his sister says that they need to get rid of Gregor and ask him to leave and live there lives in peace, Gregor heres this and realising that he loves them and they don't love him anymore understands his sister is right and he should disappear. He returns to his room, waits till sunrise, and dies. When Gregor's family find out this they are happy but also mourn him dying. They have the day off work and go out feeling relived.



I think this story is a very interesting one and could have lots of different meanings behind it. It fits into this brief by showing someone turning into something else that isn't natural.