What if You Turned Into an Insect?

In "The Metamorphosis," Franz Kafka writes of a man, Gregor Samsa, who wakes up one morning transformed into an insect. Shocked of his transformation, Gregor goes back to sleep thinking he will wake up and everything will be back to normal. Instead, he wakes up late for work and still an insect. Worried about Gregor, his family calls for him to get out of bed. Gregor's response sounds far from human, causing them to call for a doctor. When his family finally sees him, they don't know how to react. His mother looks away, and his father aggressively pushes Gregor back into his room. Grete, Gregor's sister, was the only one who even attempted to help. She brought him food and water twice a day, while their parents stayed away.

Since Gregor was the only one in the family that had a job before his "metamorphosis," his father had to get a job for the first time in five years. His parents went on in life as if Gregor had died. Two weeks after his change, his mother finally gets the courage to enter Gregor's room to help Grete move his furniture. Once she sees him, she faints. When his father comes home, and hears about what has happened, he immediately goes after Gregor while throwing apples at him. After finally injuring Gregor with an apple, his mother begged his father to spare his life.

Gregor's parents kept him in his room so no one would know that he'd been transformed. When their cook quit, she promised not to tell anyone of the situation. The uniqueness of their situation kept them from asking for help. Grete and her mother felt sympathy for Gregor, trying to make him feel as comfortable as possible by moving his furniture so he could crawl around until he turned back into a human. However, his father felt that Gregor's transformation meant trouble and that he should be destroyed. They did not question why the transformation happened, or how. They acted as if it never happened and went on with life without him.

Gregor turned into an insect because his life was like an insect's. Not only did he only live to work, he had no social life with anyone in his family. Both his mother and sister showed some affection for Gregor after his metamorphosis, but his father showed absolutely none. Gregor actually talked to his sister before his metamorphosis and had dreams of her becoming a violinist. His mother obviously had the motherly instinct of loving and protecting her son, or what used to be her son. Gregor's relationship with his father never had any love or affection. His father only saw Gregor as money, not as a son.