Symbolism In The Metamorphosis By Franz Kafka

In The Metamorphosis, written by Franz Kafka, takes us through the life of a man who works unconditionally for his family and genuinely cares for them. He is shown to be the forefront of the household as he works hard to support them even though it shows that the family do little to nothing for themselves and Gregor. However, when Gregor turns into “some sort of monstrous insect” he can no longer work and is alienated from his family and the world around him.

Kafka shows us that although we work for a living and sometimes for others as well we have to put ourselves first than others. Which is why The Metamorphosis speaks to me; the use of symbolism and how the family develops their characterization throughout the story is a reminder to always put our wellbeing first than others desires.

Gregor has been working throughout his adulthood in order to pay his family’s debt and bills of the household.

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In which he feels “limited” of his own personal desires and is limited to an “attractive gilt frame” . I can relate to this because I have felt that I have not pursued some of my personal dreams due to putting my family first than me. With the image of the magazine above Gregor we can imply that he too had a dream of his own maybe to find a romance, since the magazine was of a woman or to pursue a dream of a salesman thus the lady holding out a “heavy fur muff” in her hands.

I am grateful for my family and everything they have done for me but when it always came to myself and making decisions that would impact me for the better I always thought of my family before myself. I would worry about them and what would happen to them.

When I got my college acceptances I thought of them rather than myself , my dad was just recently laid off form work and my mother was ill. I declined all my offers from other colleges that were out of the area and also my dream school, UC Berkeley and began working two jobs. During that time everything to me felt rather Kafkaesque; things weren’t going as planned. Even though I have two brothers who could have done the same thing they weren’t obliged to do so from our parents but I was. Till this day I still have my UC Berkeley banner hung up along side with the letter of acceptance. This symbol of the gilt frame also appears again but this time it is resembled as an internal conflict between Gregor and the outside world.When Grete, Gregor’s sister, wants to do “better” for him by removing all of the furniture from Gregor’s room because she see’s how Gregor likes to crawl around his room, he has this internal conflict whether to let Grete cut out all of his contact with the outside world or to still keep that connection. While Grete and her mother were cleaning out his room he decides to keep a connection and protects his frame even though Grete wants to remove it. “ … He really didn’t know what to save first… eyes lit on the picture of the lady clad all in furs… and quickly he made his way up to it and pressed himself against the glass… certain not to be taken away from him”. I believe what this passage is saying, that relates to me in a way, is that there will always be a time where one will find it difficult to them to make a choice even if its the best for themselves.

Gregor enjoyed crawling around and having space to himself but he also didn’t want to cut off from his sense of humanity. “ … he would not endure this much longer. They were clearing out his room; taking from him all that was dear to him…. This scene shows how he didn’t mind the furniture taken away at first until he realized what was really getting taken away from him and he, at last minute, sprang to save what was dear to him. This literary work is still significant today. I believe that this story has been around for so long and still matters because Kafka he has written this from personal experience.

According to Franz Kafka Online, Kafka often referred his job of an insurance officer as a “bread job”. In which he just saw it as a job to be done only because of the bills. Many people today are in a job they perhaps don’t despise and are hardworking but are only doing it because they may have a family to take care of and bills that have to be paid, such as Gregor who liked his job as salesmen but probably didn’t like it as much because he wasn’t doing it for himself but for his family and getting them out of the debt they owed.