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Philip Lawal
April 6, 2019
2nd hour
Major Assignment #5: Literary Analysis

In today’s world we as humans are classified into five social classes, which are upper

class, upper middle class, lower middle class, the working class, and the poor. In Franz Kafka

novella The Metamorphosis he writes about a man named Gregor Samsa. Who is the money

maker for his family then suddenly one day wakes up as an insect. When reading the novella

through the Marxist Criticism theory it reveals a great deal of relevance in our society. Karl

Marx classifies people in our social class differently. He used the words bourgeoisie meaning

that you are in a high capitalist class and proletarians meaning that you are apart of the lower

class, which Gregor and his family are apart of.

From the Marxist view, the process of the metamorphosis symbolizes the class struggle

of the proletariat to break out of a life of being exploited. Such representation is displayed in the

similarity between the causes, natures, and endings of Gregor’s transformation and those of

proletarian struggles. Realistically, it is impossible for a men to turn into a bug, Gregor’s

metamorphosis has some concrete meaning beyond simple transformation. Applying Marxist

theories, the process of the metamorphosis represents the struggle proletarians raise against the

controlling bourgeoisie class.

Throughout Franz Kafka’s novella he creates a classist society, in which the bourgeoisie

benefits from the injuries and alienation of the proletariat from his work and fellow workers.

Through the Marxist criticism theory reading in this novella the motivation of each character’s

actions lies in their desire to make money. Gregor Samsa’s boss represents a nameless

bourgeoisie who exploits Gregor. Gregor boss has a one single goal, and that is to make Gregor

work for him while paying him very little.

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In Metamorphosis it show how Gregor despise his job. Gregor is a travel salesmen who

feels that is job is tedious, unfilling and controlled by his boss. Everyday Gregor wakes up to go

to a job he hates, so that he can make money to support his undeserving family. In the novella

Gregor states that if he didn’t have to bear the burden of his father debt he would quit his job in a

heartbeat. For Gregor work is synonymous with a job and a job is synonymous for working for

money. Gregor does not work for pleasure, he only work for the money he needs to support his

family. Therefore making Gregor alienated from his work, the alienation of Gregor from his

work as a travel salesman can be contrasted to pride and attachment he feels from the wooden

picture frame he carved. You can even say that the frames he carved represent the only time in

the book that Gregor's labor was self-controlled and self- beneficial. You might even ask for a

man that hates his job so much why doesn't he just quit to let go of his misery.

Well it’s not that easy for Gregor. Franz Kafka created a society in which consists of

Gregor’s boss, Gregor's family, and Gregor himself. Gregor needs the money he is earning from

his job to support his family, and also pay off his father’s massive debt. By Gregor miss work his

boss tells him that he causing his family serious and unnecessary worry. Gregor’s boss also goes

on by saying that he is neglecting his duties to the firm and that he is shocked by the way Gregor

his behaving. Although to be fair, None of them had known what was going on with him. They

all thought that he was coming down with a cold. But as soon as Gregor’s family and his boss

saw what has really happened to him his value to them quickly diminished.

After seeing what Grogor has turned into one by one Gregor family and his boss started

to turn on him. With him being fired from his job Gregor was useless and no longer able to make

money to support his family. His relationship with his family suffered dramatically. Gregor's

father, with whom he had little emotional attachment, was the harshest in dealing with Gregor.
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He never offers to help his son in any way after the transformation. Upon first seeing his

transformed son, he clenched his fists, as if to drive Gregor back into his room . Then, one day

when his son is trapped outside of his room, he attacks him by throwing fruit which left Gregor

with a serious injury. It is ironic that after years of working a job he hated to pay off his father's

debts, Gregor’s father disowns him as soon as his son can no longer earn money. The complete

breakdown of the relationship following the removal of financial support shows that the

relationship between Gregor and his family was based solely on money.

Although Gregor's mother and sister were accepting of Gregor’s appearance at first. They

would eventually disown Gregor to. Grete, his sister, is particularly nice to Gregor directly

following the metamorphosis. Gregor's sister was the only visitor of Gregor. She brought him

food and cleaned his room for him everyday despite being made very uncomfortable by his

frightening appearance. Eventually, his mother visited his room as well, to help Grete move the

furniture out into the hall. In addition to this, she begged for Gregor's life when his father was

assaulting him with apples. But, as time dragged on without any financial support coming from

Gregor, the affection of his mother and sister gradually withered down to non-existence.

Finally, Grete says to her father, "It has to go," referring to Gregor. She has become so

indifferent to her brother that she calls him an "it." Then, she says that if the bug was really

Gregor, he would have "realized long ago that it isn't possible for human beings to live with such

a creature, and he would have gone away of his own free will". Her belief that the bug is not

really her brother is obviously explainable by the fact that he is an insect. But, in respect to the

metaphor of the story, Gregor ceased to exist as a person when he became unable to work.

Because the family's relation was based solely on shared wages, the removal of those wages also
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removed the relationship. She states that the human thing for the non-working Gregor to do

would be to leave the family so that he would not be a financial burden.

The eventual result of Gregor's metamorphosis, and his corresponding inability to labor,

was his death. Gregor's fate was dependent on the charity of his family, which eventually became

enough for him to handle. What stuck most was Gregor’s family response to his death. They

seemed happy to be freed of the economic burden of supporting Gregor. Gregor family didn’t

mourn of him they just didn’t care. You can even classify Gregor’s family as gold diggers. Once

Gregor couldn’t be the money maker for them they abolished him. They led Gregor into a place

where he was lonely, and all he wanted was the love and support from his family. Gregor

became worthless to the family and would not be missed by them. No matter how much they

may have loved him while he was an asset, they could not love him while he was a liability.

Economics superseded any emotional attachment in the family. As the parents sat on the trolley

with their daughter, thinking about her upcoming marriage, they were certainly thinking about

the economic benefits that her future husband would bring them. And, although it remains

unsaid, we can assume that even though the whole family was sitting so happily on the trolley

that afternoon, Grete would be abandoned by her parents, just as Gregor was, if circumstances

came up that made her a financial burden instead of an asset.

Although in Franz Kafka's novella The Metamorphosis could not occur outside the realm

of fantasy, it represents the very real scenario of a worker being abandoned by his employer and

family after becoming unable to work and support them financially. By looking at the novella

from a Marxist perspective, we can see the underlying theme of the story is a conflict between

proletariat and bourgeoisie. Because economics supercede everything else in capitalistic society,
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a citizen who is unable to labor and earn wages is quickly abandoned, and the result of this

abandonment is often death.

Works Cited

Kafka, Franz. Metamorphosis. Arcturus Publishing LTD, 2018.

Purdue Writing Lab. “Marxist Criticism // Purdue Writing Lab.” Purdue Writing Lab,

owl.purdue.edu/owl/subject_specific_writing/writing_in_literature/literary_theory_and_s

chools_of_criticism/marxist_criticism.html.
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