The Metamorphosis Of The Mind 

It has been proven that sometimes imagination can be worse than reality. In the novella, The Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka, the main character, Gregor Samsa, experiences a metamorphosis, changing him from a human, to a giant insect. Working as a salesman before his transformation, led Gregor to have a very quiet life with his family, away from friends and in total isolation. As time goes on, he starts to lose parts of his human self and eventually lets himself die, due to his solitude and starvation. However, Gregor's metamorphosis was all in his head. His isolation led him to be extremely depressed and develop a different version of himself, in which there was a valid reason for no one to be around him. It is as the story develops that Gregor uses his isolation, his feelings of being unappreciated, and his stress as a way to let himself be fully consumed by his metaphorical metamorphosis.

As a way to pay off his father's debt, Gregor Samsa,the main character, worked as a traveling salesman. He devoted his life to serving his family and taking care of them even though it meant a non existent social life, and continuing to work in a place that he despised. Gregor had almost no friends, apart from his younger sister,Grete, and “a picture of a woman with a fur hat and a fur boa. She sat erect there, lifting up in the direction of the viewer a solid fur mu into which her entire forearm disappeared”( Kafka 3). Being that one of his only “friends” was a picture, it was his isolation that led him to start developing his new life as an insect. The picture of the girl symbolized everything that Gregor wanted in life. Gregor had no girlfriend and he craved human affection. Like an insect, Gregor found himself in a lonely place with no one there to help him. Although as each day went by he started to let himself go more and more into his imagination, when his mother and sister were taking away his human belongings, “ he saw hanging conspicuously on the wall, which was otherwise already empty, the picture of the woman dressed in nothing but fur. He quickly scurried up over it and pressed himself against the glass that held it in place” (kafka 46). This shows that even as a bug, Gregor still found himself so lonely that he found comfort in a picture of another person. After Gregor went through his metamorphosis, his whole family turned his back on him and only led him to feel even more in despair.

It was not only through Gregor's isolation that he began his metaphorical metamorphosis into an insect, but his feeling of being unappreciated by his family additionally led to his spiral. Before his metamorphosis, Gregor worked as a traveling salesman to let his father retire while he payed off his debts and support the family. Although he despised his job and his bosses, he knew that his father “ had lain exhausted and buried in bed in earlier days”(Kafka 49). The thought that his weak and fragile parents depended on him, gave him strength and courage. It wasn't until his transformation that gregor felt unappreciated because he realized that his parents were in fact, not weak in fragile, but instead very capable of living without him. His parents who once depended on him, now solely relied on themselves. Although Grete tried to show some sympathy for Gregor, his parents “could not bring themselves to visit him, and he often heard how they fully acknowledged his sister’s present work”(Kafka 40). Without a doubt, this feeling of losing purpose in his life led to the development of his bug life self. Little by little he let his imagination consume him, and in the end it was his fabrication of fantasies that led to his downfall.

It was not only through his isolation, and his family’s unappreciation towards Gregor that led him to “turn” into an insect, but it was also because of the stress of his everyday life that he was led further into his imagination. Even though he wakes up physically transformed, Gregor figures that “before it strikes a quarter past seven, whatever happens [he] must be completely out of bed” (Kafka 9). He realizes that if he has not caught the train, “someone from the office will arrive to inquire about [him]” (Kafka 9). Though Gregor’s family depends on him, it becomes clear that his work also depends on him. However, the fact that Gregor has been a loyal employee and always on time, does not seem to make a difference in his predicament. His manager demands “in all seriousness for an immediate and clear explanation” (Kafka 14). This shows that Gregor is not in charge of his own life, and that he is helpless. It reflects his transformation into something that is beneath human. He is not appreciated, and even if he were, he would be expected to be accountable in spite of sickness.

In the end, Gregor’s transformation is not a literal one, but a figurative one. His metamorphosis into a beetle depends on his isolation, his family’s lack of appreciation for him, as well as the stress from his everyday life. Gregor is a decent man. He works hard and provides an easy existence for the rest of his family. However, neither his family nor his work appreciate him, though they certainly should. Gregor’s transformation, though sad for his personal condition, encourages his family and his employer to look elsewhere when they can no longer depend on him. It is Gregor’s reduction into a beetle that symbolizes the life he has always live