Food as Metaphor in Kafka's "The Metamorphosis"

Introduction: Food and Transformation

Over the course of Franz Kafka's short story "The Metamorphosis," the central protagonist Gregor Samsa slowly surrenders all of the characteristics a reader might consider human — his job, his ability to walk upright, and his customary appetite for his favorite foods — after he suddenly finds himself transformed into a gigantic insect. The story begins with its famous opening line: "One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that in bed he had been changed into a monstrous verminous bug." One of the most symbolically important aspects of this sudden abnegation of human characteristics is found in Gregor's changed relationship with food. Food provides a metaphor for Gregor's relationship with his body, his environment, and, most importantly, his emotional and social relationship with his family.

At first, after his transformation, when Gregor is attempting to hold onto some sense of normalcy and trying to get ready for work, he feels hungry in a way that seems normal, even healthy. "Gregor in fact felt quite well and even had a really strong appetite… he wanted to stand up quietly and undisturbed, get dressed, above all have breakfast." This strength of appetite, Kafka ominously implies, might actually be an unaccustomed, animal-like hunger. Then, Gregor forgets his strong sense of hunger for a time. He worries that his supervisor at work will fire him if he cannot arrive with his customary punctuality, and he is concerned he will not be able to support his family because he cannot arise from his bed. As the reader learns later in the story, his father has grown fat on the fruits of Gregor's labor, since Gregor alone engages in paid work in the Samsa household.

Hunger, Labor, and Family Dynamics

Gregor's manager is cruelly indifferent to his new condition; if Gregor does not come in on time, the manager cares nothing for his employee's health — only for his value to the office. Gregor's parents care only that their son arrives at work punctually, because no one else in the Samsa home besides Gregor performs paid labor. Gregor has, in effect, been treated like a beast of burden by his loved ones for a long period of time.

The daily rituals and rhythms of Gregor's life, pleasant and unpleasant alike, are stripped away by his physical transformation. Even his closest family members can no longer understand his words, and his movements are severely inhibited; he is reduced to scuttling around his room. His ability to survive in a basic, physical way is limited, including his ability to find food. Only his sister, who feeds him, is able to understand him on some level, through his acceptance and rejection of what she provides.

Grete's Feeding and Brotherly Communication

"But he never could have guessed what his sister, out of the goodness of her heart, in fact did. She brought him, to test his taste, an entire selection, all spread out on an old newspaper. There were old half-rotten vegetables, bones from the evening meal covered with a white sauce which had almost solidified, some raisins and almonds, a cheese which Gregor had declared inedible two days earlier, a slice of dry bread, and a slice of salted bread smeared with butter. In addition to all this, she put down a bowl — probably designated once and for all as Gregor's — into which she had poured some water. And out of her delicacy of feeling, since she knew that Gregor would not eat in front of her, she went away very quickly and even turned the key in the lock, so that Gregor would now know that he could make himself as comfortable as he wished. Gregor's small limbs buzzed now that the time for eating had come."

Gregor's sister's generosity is shown by her willingness to accommodate his fear of frightening her with the way he eats, as well as her attempt to discover what his new favorite foods might be. This form of communication — through the giving and withholding of food — is the only communication Gregor can truly enjoy. As scholars of Kafka's novella have long noted, the story transforms everyday domestic rituals into vehicles for examining alienation and the failure of human connection.

But at least, before his transformation, Gregor had been able to take some delight in the domestic routines surrounding food and mealtimes. One of the first signs that this comfort is now lost appears in how the Samsa breakfast is disrupted. Upon first sight of her transformed son, Gregor's mother "sat down heavily on it [the table], as if absent-mindedly, and did not appear to notice at all that next to her coffee was pouring out onto the carpet in a full stream from the large overturned container." This carelessness reveals the woman's shock, but it also symbolizes how little regard has been shown for the son whose labor, after all, has made the food on that table possible.