Was he really a bug?

Probably the question that everybody ever wonders whenever they read "The Metamorphosis" is, "Was Gregor Samsa really a huge cockroach"? Even though Kafka wants the reader to believe that he is a bug, the reader really has to wonder if Kafka is not making some incredible symbol out of Gregor Samsa.

There are many instances of Gregor Samsa actually being a gigantic bug. The first would have to be the famous first line of the story, "When Gregor Samsa awoke from troubled dreams one morning, he found that he had been transformed in his bed into an enormous bug" (11). Kafka straight up tells the reader that Gregor Samsa is in fact a bug. And yet, Samsa's mind and the way he thinks through things are nothing like a bug. Throughout the story, even though Samsa's actions continually become more and more bug-like, his thoughts still grasp on to a human-like thought process. It was very interesting whenever Gregor Samsa went so far as to hold on to something from his human life.

It was also interesting the way his family reacted to having a bug in the household. What I found really interesting was whenever his mother and sister were debating about whether moving Gregor’s things out of the room. His sister was actually willing to accept Gregor’s new self, while his mother still held on to the hope that the Gregor, her son would return. She says, “I think it would be best if we tried to keep the room in exactly the same condition as before, so that when Gregor comes back to us again, he’ll find everything unchanged and it will be easier for him to forget what happened in between” (33). In the end, the real question of this story is, would Gregor’s father, mother, and sister accept Gregor and still love him. Unfortunately, the answer to that is a “no”.

Probably my favorite line in the entire story comes at the end of the story. Gregor’s family has pretty much moved on without Gregor and even started a new life. Gregor is left to listen at the door to his family quietly talking. One night, whenever Grete, Gregor’s sister, takes out her violin to play for the lodgers and her parents, Gregor becomes overwhelmed with the music. He asks himself, “Was he an animal if music stirred him that way” (45)? This is the point in the story whenever Gregor makes one last attempt to reconnect with his family and human-life. I believe that music is very powerful and its affect on Gregor proves to be one of the most beautiful and sad parts of the entire story.