How can one react with a calm facial expression after reading The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka? Initially, I thought, this is weird. Beyond weird. More like bizarre? And in fact, I thought it was quite pointless. So, my facial expression looked a little like this…

But after analyzing the story and realizing Kafka’s true message, I felt more interested.

What truly shocked me and caused that strange array of faces was the fact that Gregor was so calm throughout the entire story. He didn’t even freak out after realizing that he has transformed into a bug. To me, this really shows how disinterested and remote he was with people and society. If I had to imagine what he sounds like in my head, he would sound a little like Ben Stein in all of the clear eyes commercials (gloomy and monotonous) (see link below)

Ben Stein in Clear Eyes Commercial

When I was reading Gregor’s struggle to get out of bed, all I could imagine was he struggling out like my dog struggling to get something off of her. It goes a little like this..

As the story progressed, I realized that although we don’t all literally wake up as bugs, we all figuratively do. Situations of people who are overworked and over stressed always at some point in their life wake up and realize that they’ve had too much. In my opinion, I believe Kafka’s message was to show that we may all look like we are okay, (Gregor looked as if he could handle taking care of his whole family and providing for them their whole lives) but really, we aren’t and just want to lay in bed like a cockroach and “not move”.  Essentially, looks can be deceiving, so to show this message, he uses symbolism of the cockroach.

My further reactions also grew more intense when I read about how the family reacted. It made me feel sympathetic for Gregor. Even though he was this hideous, disgusting creature, he was still the same Gregor, and his family failed to see the real him. Gregor was still the same character trying to find any possible way to get to work so that he could continue providing for help his family. I imagine their reaction to look like this: (particularly, the mother)

They tried to understand, but they couldn’t look past appearances. This made me feel upset because it shows much looks matter in the world. I found this great image to truly depict my mind throughout the whole story (despite my drastic differences in emotions)

By the end of the story, I saw my day to day routine in a new light. I realized that sometimes, I do feel like Gregor, where I must do my work and get everything done, but, I am physically impaired because I just want to lie in bed all day (like a bug!). I also realized that I did quite enjoy the story because there was a deep, hidden message to life. So my final reaction was more of…