Reflective Paper over Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis - Essay Example

Reflective Paper on Kafka’s Metamorphosis Roll No: 16th December 2008 Reflective Paper on Kafka’s MetamorphosisKafka’s Metamorphosis is a very thought provoking story and is also very famous for its consideration of various aspects of life in a very different format. The writer, Kafka, takes the concept of alienation and implements it on the protagonist of the story by physical means. Alienation is not felt by Gregor Samsa only conceptually but physically because of his transformation into a huge insect that is gruesome to the viewers.

Gregor Samsa is the character that goes through metamorphosis and eventually receives death at the end. Gregor Samsa works as a salesman and sells textile products. He is very unhappy with his job and always narrates adverse effects of his job. He is made to do that job because of being responsible for his whole family. His room has three doors and also his family has three members, his father, his mother and his sister. Gregor Samsa is really unhappy with his life because of his overly responsibilities and his disdainful job.

He comes back from his job and shuts himself in his room. The doors in his room are also to inform him about his responsibilities that he has in relation to his family members.Gregor Samsa himself likes to alienate himself from his family members because they are attached to him not as a source of attachment but with their own motives. Gregor wakes up one morning and sees him transformed into a big insect that is disdainful. Because of his transformation into an insect, he suffers through the problem of alienation physically.

He is not only alienated from his family only but from the whole world because of his existence as an alien that is frightful. Initially his sister Grete shows some sympathy with him but with the passage of time, she also draws away from him. After his transformation, all his family members started their own jobs. Gregor Samsa is alienated from his family because of his gruesome existence. Anyone who sees him is at once frightened because of his transformed structure. He is also left alone to die and he dies in isolation after which, he is thrown out by his housemaid.

His family becomes relieved at his death because they are not required to face people in relation to their son. They consider the existence of Gregor Samsa as a burden on them.Gregor is alienated because he has attachments not based on love and care but based on responsibilities. His parents and his sister look towards him as a source of income that is there to fulfill their wishes. After his transformation, he is of no use for the family but becomes a burden for them. Alienation is a problem that is faced by the whole society and there are no more emotions involved in people’s attachment to one another.

Gregor Samsa initially wishes for alienation as he shuts himself in his room after reaching home but after being transformed in a giant insect, he is more alienated because of his alienated existence and his family that regards him as an alien.