Being a Dung Beedle: It's Actually Pretty Horrible.

 During the first portion of Metamorphosis, I was struck by the imaginative narrative created by Kafka. He does an excellent job of bringing to life a thought that many of us have had in our lives, most likely as imaginative children- what if I woke up tomorrow and I had changed in my sleep? During the novella, Gregor experiences a complete change of physical form from being a normal human being to suddenly becoming an insect in just one night. He has metamorphosized into a far weaker and more frail being compared to a human. Kafka describes the new body of Gregor within the first paragraph, saying “His many legs, pitifully thin compared to the rest of him, waved helplessly before his eyes”(Kafka 159). This quote was striking to me because of how helpless Gregor now seems. I couldn’t help but feel bad for him, that now he is stuck in a weak and incapable body, yet he is still the same person within. The fact that he has to observe his body unexpectedly become useless to him, yet he is trapped within and forced to observe is truly horrifying to imagine.

The simple fact is that he no longer has an opportunity to become someone- he and his body provide no use for anyone, especially not his family, who desperately needed him to pay off their debt. His change was not a gift, but a cruel curse stripping him of the life that he once had, and furthermore, the person that he once was. This new being simply cannot fit into his family, as his family no longer views Gregor as the same. This is shown through the fact that his family acts in radical and oppositional ways once they discover the new state of Gregor. This change in how his family views Gregor is demonstrated by how Gregor’s father resorted to violence against Gregor when he saw his new state. Kafka describes a scene where “his father administered a powerful shove from behind, a genuinely liberating thrust that sent him flying, bleeding profusely, into the far reaches of his room”(Kafka 169). This quote shows how Gregor’s father is not at all concerned with the well-being of Gregor. An understanding father of the situation that Gregor is in would not resort to shoving him and hurting him. The sad reality is that with no use, no means of communicating, and a horrifying and disgusting body, Gregor can’t fit in anywhere. Not his workplace, not his society, and evidently, not even in his own home. Overall, Gregor has metamorisized into living a horrific reality of living as a prisoner within a useless body that has ostracized himself from his family, and has ruined his life.