Gregor’s sudden transformation into an insect in Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis shows how materialistic concerns dehumanize the lower middle class. The main character of the novella, Gregor, is a young man who works at an office where he is treated horribly by his boss who at one point sends a man to Gregor’s house to scold his parents because he is one hour late for work. Despite this, Gregor is seemingly unaware of his plight until after he has been turned into an insect. Ironically, as an insect he becomes more in tune with his environment and in some ways more human than he was previously.
The novella begins with Gregor being turned into an insect. Surprisingly, Gregor meets this metamorphosis with neither shock, panic, nor disgust. Indeed, taking his insect body for granted, he” saw his vaulted brown belly, sectioned by arch-shaped ribs, to whose dome the cover…could barely cling”. It is only after a few paragraphs that the reader is fully informed about the transformation that has taken place. The calm passive manner in which Gregor accepts his physical dehumanization reflects the calm and passive manner in which he allowed his parents to convince him to take on a job he loathes to support the family, thus dehumanizing himself mentally.
Minutes after his transformation, Gregor begins worrying about the fact that he is late for work. Although his transformation into an insect does not cause him distress, he finds himself bursting into a frenzy of desperate apologies when a coworker comes to his house. He is so worried about the idea of losing his job which he does not even enjoy that he fails to realize the full horror of his real dilemma – the fact that he has just been turned into an insect. The contrast between Gregor’s worries and his actual dilemma shows how Gregory’s work is so dehumanizing that he deigns to value his ability to earn a salary more than this humanity.
As Gregor remains trapped in insect form away from his office, he seems to grow mentally more human in some ways. This trend can be seen in the way that Gregor eventually begins to experience a longing for human form that he did not feel initially. By the time his sister decides to remove all furniture except the couch from Gregor’s room, Gregor is so attached to these last remaining symbols of humanity that he tries to stop her. Conversely, when Gregor was first turned into an insect, he felt no distress at his condition (despite the fact that he knew he would no longer be able to make money). When the coworker comes to Gregor’s house, Gregor’s father tells the office worker that Gregor thinks about nothing but his work. This comment shows that before his metamorphosis, Gregor spent so much time trying to feed and clothe his family that his life was for the most part void of normal human concerns such as human friendship and familial emotion. However, after the metamorphosis, Gregor begins thinking more often about his sister and his parents. He comments on his mother’s perpetual exhaustion and his sister’s disgust. After his door is opened he eventually spends hours watching his family in the room beside him. Thus, by composing a story about a man who gains mental humanity by being turned into an insect, Kafka shows the dehumanizing influence that work and wage concerns can have on individuals.
