The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

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The Metamorphosis
Metamorphosis refers to the biological transformation of an organism (like insects) from one stage of life to another. The term also entails complete structural changes in physical appearance. During metamorphosis, insects change in their physical structures and characteristics. Biology also explains that even the behavior changes as organism modify. As a body changes, it increases its ability and structural composition. It encompasses growth and development. It also entails an increase in functions, ability, and physical events. This title definitely referred to Grete and not Gregor because; unlike Grete, Gregor life was more of stagnation. This study explores the life of Gregor and Grete with the title of the story. This study views changes that occur in the characters life to qualify the title of the book. This study also justifies that Gregor’ life was stagnation and therefore the reverse of the title.
Transformations in Grete Samsa
Grete is Gregor’s younger sister to in the narrative. She stands by Gregor and even offers to take care of him when the first housemaid quit babysitting Gregor. Grete ensures that her brother has food to eat she even brings variety to know what Gregor would like to eat in his new transformed body. At the beginning of the narrative, Grete stood by the brother even when the employee meant to do the job flees. However, Grete is the only character who metamorphosed. Physical size, feelings, beliefs, economic status, and marital status are transformations in Grete’s life, which reflects on the title of the story.

Feelings and beliefs
At the beginning of the story, Grete empathizes with Gregor and takes care of him. “Grete would probably be the only one who would dare enter a room dominated by Gregor crawling about the bare walls by himself” (Kafka, 15). Not even her mother could stop her from being helpful to Gregor. She cleans Gregor’s room, positions his chair next to the window and makes sure he feeds. At the beginning of the story, it is more like Grete was paying Gregor the favors of supporting them financially. However, after a while, Grete changes, and the sympathy she had for Gregor diminishes. She woke up from the imagination that the bug and his brother were the same she says “I don’t want to call this monster my brother, all I can say is: we have to try and get rid of it” (22). In other words, Grete’s feeling transformed and was no longer emotional about Gregor. Unlike Grete, Gregor, even in his condition as a bug, he was still worried about the family economic status and not his condition. Grete however, moves on from the tragedy of Gregor’s misfortune and has no problem killing Gregor. This behavior shows the pessimistic nature of Grete which never existed in the beginning. She sees no hope in keeping up with Gregor.
Economic Transformation
Grete’s job was more of babysitting her brother while she was a small girl. Grete eventually transforms into a grown woman and gets the job to support the family financially. Her concerns and responsibilities for Gregor changed and got involved in a busy work schedule. Unlike Gregor, Grete moves from jobless to employ. It is a notable achievement in human life that people stop being financially dependent as part of growth and development which also means to metamorphose.
Freedom
Metamorphosis reflects on maturity and growth. As individuals or organisms transform, they become free birds capable of making personal choices. Grete has also grown and to some extent, she has achieved the financial freedom. Even though Greg was employed, he was not a free man economically. Most of his income was for the family; his choice of job was a result of the duress of life. Certainly, Gregor was worried about his father’s debt. Grete’s life was not limited to family worries she worries less of the father’s debt. She also grew and instead of being supported, she was supporting the family financially. Furthermore, Grete has the freedom to choose what hse can call a brother. She is not stifled by emotions to speak her mind concerning what the family should do with Gregor who has turned into a bag. As she grows up the parents realizes that Grete had become of age to marry. She was independent and free to enter into a marriage contract. Getting married would also mean being free from her parent’s control. This freedom is a transformation, which Gregor never experienced. He had the ability the capacity to marry, but he allowed the circumstances to fringe on his liberty.
Body size
Grete transforms from a little girl to a woman (Kafka, 25). At the beginning of the story, she is the innocent young lady who could easily cry while asking Gregor to open the door (p3). However, towards the end of the story, Grete becomes an adult who goes to job and gets busy on her job. The parents are astonished on how fast she must have grown. She even acquired the title woman from her mother’s lips.
Transformation in social status
As a young girl, Grete was socially single. Though readers never saw her getting married, the writer mentions that she had become of age and the parents approved of her readiness to marry. The difference in Gregor’s life come out clear because even the parents recommend she has entered the marriage age and capacity. She was about to move from a single life to married status.
The life of Gregor in relation to Metamorphosis
The story begins as Gregor Samsa wakes up one morning and realizes that he has transformed into a big insect. It is likely for a person to argue that Gregor metamorphosed because ideally, he turned into another creature. The argument is not sound because metamorphosis is a progressive development and not a backward development. The body structure of a human being is more complex than that of an insect, therefore; changing to an insect is a backward development. Gregory’s life was coupled with backwardness and stagnation the following are the stagnant life cycle of Gregor which automatically qualifies this character as the primary reference to the book title.
Economic Activity
Gregor never loved his job as the story begin the narrator reveals that he was afraid of losing his job because his family depended on his income (Kafka, 6). The idea reflects that he was economically stagnant. The only reason Gregor could pursue his dream job was a family that turned against him when he became a bag. Perhaps he could have figured out that the people he worried about were not much concerned about his wellbeing. The writer intentionally used Gregor position to communicate individuals who are stagnant because of vanity sacrifices. Apparently, there was no reason for staying in his work. Gregor’s boss was rude and inhumane, According to Kafka, (3), Gregor was not permitted to be sick and in any case, he would be, his boss would accuse his parents of Gregor’s laziness. It was all in vain that Gregor stagnated economically even with all the abuse at work.
Locomotive stagnation
Gregor was also physically stagnant, after the weird transformation, he stayed in his room because the family was embarrassed by revealing the bug to the neighbors. Gregor could not walk upright as he used to because of his stature. He also realized that his fingers could not hold and open the door. Furthermore, his locomotive structures had dwindled, and Grete suggested that chairs could be moved to allow him to move freely.
Expressive transformation
The worst form of backward growth and stagnation on Gregor’s life was at the highest peak when he could not communicate. As the story begins and the author explains, that Gregor was a shy human being. He could not express himself. The situation gets worse when he lost his ability to talk completely. This kind of transformation is backward and stagnating; it does not reflect on growth and development, which is also metamorphosis. Gregor had to be studied like a baby because he could not express himself and say what he would like to eat. Grete had to bring in a variety of food. Since the narrative began with Gregor being, shy things ought to have changed to make him brave. Worse of all, the changes, he became shyer and hid from people because of his body structure.
The writer articulates the morale of the study through Grete. The author asserts on the importance of concentrating on personal affairs. Gregor was just the bad luck o life which the author of the story uses to illustrate what is likely to happen to characters who cling on minor concerns. The idea Kafka was communicating were the disadvantages of living people’s life (like Gregor) did instead of concentrating on personal growth (Metamorphosis). Kafka wishes to enlighten the readers that the people they worry about plausibly do not care much. Metamorphosis is a self-adjusting mechanism; the writer communicated that people should be left to grow as the forces of nature dictates. Kafka suggests that nature will determine its course in people’s lives. For example, when Gregor becomes economically incapacitated, the family gets another financial provision. Arguably, it is I vain that Gregor stifles his potential in the name of worrying for the family.
Metamorphosis is growth and development. It entails growth and development in character, behavior, beliefs, social status, economic situation and abilities. Metamorphosis works to the forward diction, which means a thing, develops and advance rather than back dropping and loosing relevance. From this perspective, the title “The Metamorphosis” was a reference to Grete and not Gregor. Between the two characters, Grete experienced real life growth and development. She grew physically emotionally and materially. It is accurate to argue that the title of the story reflected on Grete’s life rather than Gregor’s life. In fact, Grete had transformed quite rapidly. The faster growth rate in her life amazed her parents. Likely the author was suggesting that such growth was humanly impossible and the prompted could only be termed metamorphosis.

Work Cited
Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis. 10th ed. Gutenberg: Project Gutenberg eBook, 2002. Print.