Short Story and Society

GREGOR SAMSA'S TRANSFORMATION Franz Kafka's "The Metamorphosis" revolves around the central figure of Gregor Samsa who is a commercial traveler by profession and finds himself transformed into a huge vermin one day. Not only does Gregor turn into a huge insect; he also starts behaving like one as the story progresses. While this may appear to be slightly funny, we must understand that there is no element of humor in this short story. In fact it is a dark depressing tale highlighting human struggling and insignificance of man's existence.

While reading the story the one question that pops up in our minds repeatedly is why did Gregor turn into an insect and what was writer trying to signify through this metamorphosis? To answer these questions, we need to delve deeper into the meaning of the term metamorphosis as used by the writer in this story.

The title warns us in advance that some kind of 'change' and 'transformation' is what this story revolves around- but why human transformation, and that too a despicable and rather degrading one? Why would the writer want a human to attain form of a crawling vermin that everyone despises and wants to get rid of? These are the questions, which can help us understand the reason why Gregor turned into a roach and also helps us get an insight into the mind of the author.

Gregor is a normal human being who is excessively worried about his work and his duties but he fails to get much respect from people at work who are all concerned about their own lives and jobs. Gregor feels like a misfit in this materialistic society and this is exactly the reason why he is shown turning into a vermin. The transformation signifies many things including Samsa's inability to get accustomed to the materialistic impersonal and cold society in which he dwelt.

The novel is interspersed with instances of irony and pure sarcasm and cynicism and there is hardly a light moment in this entire story. There are various ways in which the transformation can be interpreted. But Samsa being a misfit dominates all other interpretations. Samsa lacks a much-needed sense of belonging, which is one reason, why he is unable to develop positive healthy relationships with people around him.

His attitude drives him away from people whom he views as materialistic and unloving, "casual acquaintances that are always new and never become intimate friends" (Kafka, 120). It is very important to understand that there are two ways in which this transformation can be viewed i.e. from the standpoint of the 'OTHERS' or from the perspective of the central character. In either case, we would notice that the main reason why Gregor has changed forms was because of his inability to dwell among fellow.