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Natali Cabrera

Professor Beadle

English 115

October 27, 2019

What Society Criticized In The Metamorphosis

How do you feel about society? Have you ever felt isolated? There are so many social

issues in today’s society such as; racial profiling, gender issues, immigration and agism. After

all, these are just some of the problems we have in society. Very similar to the novel “The

Metamorphosis” society is portraying a similar scenario in the novel. In the short story, “The

Metamorphosis,'' Gregor, the main character, faces a horrific transformation of a bug. His change

of body reveals that society alienated him because of the way he looked. Everyone was scared of

Gregor, nobody could help him and his family disowned him because of his new body. I assume

Gregor’s body is one of the outcomes for the problem of dehumanization. Before the drastic

change in Gregor’s body, his family supported him and encouraged him to grow in opportunities

because he was the main person bringing money into the family. The way his family and others

treated him before his transformation was nothing compared to the way they treated him after.

Society will always judge people by how others look. There is this stereotypical norm

of how a person’s body needs to be. How are people who aren’t thin or don’t have the idealistic

body supposed to feel when they see that their body is nothing compared to a “normal body

shape”. “The Metamorphosis” provides a good example because Gregor is being judged by the

way his body looks. In a study called “A Study of Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis” by
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Hamedreza Kohzadi , Fatemeh Azizmohammadi, and Mahboubeh Nouri is a scholarly essay

where it analyzes “The Metamorphosis”. In this study they mentioned, “One such dominant idea

in existentialism is alienation. In this story, Kafka speaks about the near total alienation of the

creature called the writer from other human beings.”(1601). In other words, the authors are going

further in depth into the story and Gregor’s feelings of isolation through the writer, Franz Kafka.

Thinking about the century this story was written, It really says a lot about how society is.

Society can be cruel and mean and it clarifies that everyone tries to hold on to the standards that

society has. As mentioned in the study, alienation is a strong way to dehumanize someone.

Everyone has a place in society whether you're a teacher, mother, employer or a

student student. Society uses classification which is a way to categorize people into certain

specific groups. In “The Metamorphosis,'' Gregor was the main man bringing money into the

family and he was a working man. However, when he woke up that day with a body of a beetle

he found himself unable to do normal things including work or eat. In the article, ​“​Text to Text |

‘The Metamorphosis’ and ‘How Social Isolation Is Killing Us’” by ​Ann Kowal Smith and The

Learning Network”​ compares and contrasts the time era of “The Metamorphosis” and society

today. Ann Kowal states, ​“Unable to communicate, Gregor finds his sense of self — and his

family and work relationships — in deep crisis. Through his story, Kafka forces us to consider

how much we define our humanity by the work we do and the company we keep.”(3)​ To put it in

another way, in society, people need to have relations and be able to communicate and also in a

way it’s contributing to the definition of society. We define society by the way we work and do

every day activities. Gregor was placed out of society by the way his body was. This makes me

think about how many people who don’t have a “normal body” feel?
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Throughout history there have been many major events. For example, The Holocaust

during World War II, Jews were dehumanized and put through hell. Adolf Hitler the main leader

during the time wanted to kill all the Jewish community and wipe them out the radar this was

known as genocide. Society contributed to this event by discriminating against the Jewish

community. In the story “The Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka, his parents disowned him and

wanted him dead, similar Adolf Hitler, they humiliated Gregor and put him in difficult

conditions. Looking at the story, after Gregor’s death, his father said, “ “Well” said Mr. Samsa,

“now we can thank God!”.He crossed himself and the three women followed his example”(48).

Having just argued that, society contributed to the holocaust, let’s us now turn our attention to

how Gregor’s family portrayed similar behavior towards Gregor during the story. After Gregor’s

death, his father did not feel remorse towards his own son. He even says ,“ now we can thank

God” meaning he wanted him gone for the longest and was just useless to the family. Glancing at

the last part of the quote, “He crossed himself and the three women followed his example”,

comparing the “three women” to society can help understand how Gregor was isolated because

they also contributed to the actions that lead to the dehumanization of Gregor. There were many

ways that his family did to humiliate him but also his family did care about Gregor but his body

was too much for them to take care of. Not only that, but they didn’t have enough money to

maintain him alive. This still doesn’t justify the fact that they didn’t understand what Gregor was

going through physically and mentally.

In today’s society there are many resources for issues like discrimination or

bulliying. For example, immigration is a huge issue going on right now. There are organizations

such as ​The ​Black Alliance for Just Immigration​ educates and strives for African Americans to
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organize and advocate for racial, social, and economic justice. Organizations like these are

created to help people face these injustices. Just like these resources, Gregor had help from his

sister, Grete. ​Grete, was the only one that tried to help him despite the way he looked. She fed

and took care of him. When Gregor died, out of all the family Grete was the only one who felt

guilty and had feelings of grief because she cared about him. No matter the way his body had the

shape of a beetle she still considered him family. In the story by Franz Kafka, mentioned, “

Grete, who never took her eyes off the corpse, said, “Just look how thin he was. Of course he

didn’t eat anything for such a long time”. Given this information about her remorsement and care

for her brother, Gregor, we can now begin to investigate the dispute in more detail. Grete knew

that his family had mistretreated him and dehumanized him. However, Grete didn’t do nothing to

stop the abuse from his family. If anything she was the one that lead to this event. In the book is

mentioned how she got exasperated of her brothers situation. I can see that being the only

daughter had lead up to this hate towards Gregor because she just wanted to help.

Nonetheless, his family still disowned him and wanted Gregor out of their life. His

parents and sister did so many baggage to destroy his only sense of humanity left. They made

Gregor feel worthless, they made him feel fearful for his own life and not only that but

dismantled the only place he had felt safe in, which was his bedroom. Not only did his family

made him feel that way but society as well because everyone was scared of him and people

isolated him for his appearance. In the story, his family had visitors and kept Gregor a secret

because they felt embarrassed of having a son with the body of a beetle. In a New York Times

article,​“​Text to Text | ‘The Metamorphosis’ and ‘How Social Isolation Is Killing Us’” by ​Ann

Kowal Smith and The Learning Network,​ mentions “No one knows or suspects what he himself
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“is” and what the other person “is”. Gregor Samsa’s parents, for instance, never had any inkling

of this conflict, of the ‘sacrifice’ that he was making for their sake; “His parents did not

understand this too well; in the course of the years they had formed the conviction that Gregor

was set for life in this firm.” This explains how Gregor’s parents started to lose hope for him.

They started to accept that fact that he was going to stay in the body of a beetle for life. Even his

sister, Grete, could not take care of him because the work was too much. To the point where

Grete started to hate him and did not see him as family no more but a monster.

Society alienated Gregor because of his body of a beetle. Everyone was scared of

Gregor and nobody could help him with his new body. Society plays a huge part on the story by

showing Gregors’s struggles and his desire to implement himself in society. He really wanted to

be normal despite the way his body was. Gregor’s family expressed feelings of resentment and

hate towards him because of his body not allowing him to do everyday things such as working to

provide financial stability for them. Looking at the bigger picture of this issue of alienation and

isolation throughout the book has brought concerns to society overall. Think about how many

people in society feel alienated or isolated? In society today, even immigrants fall in this

category of alienation and dehumanization because of all the hate they get for coming to the

United States. This issue connects with “The Metamorphosis” by Gregor’s transformation

revealing that society alienated him because of the way he woke up with a body of a beetle. The

characters in “The Metamorphosis” constructed the fear, hatred and isolation towards Gregor. In

both these cases the minorities felt isolated. Therefore, everyone was scared of Gregor and

nobody could help him with his new body. Ultimately, this leads up to the conclusion that

everyone in the story was affected by his looks and his disability to not perform everyday things.
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Work Cited Page

1. Hamedreza Kohzadi , Fatemeh Azizmohammadi, and Mahboubeh Nouri. “A Study

of Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis”. TextRoad Publication, 2012,

2. Ann Kowal Smith. “​Text to Text | ‘The Metamorphosis’ and ‘How Social Isolation

Is Killing Us’”. ​The Learning Network.​ The New York Times, October 18, 2018

3. Franz Kafka. “The Metamorphosis”. Kurt Wolff​ Verlag, ​Leipzig, 1915