From the beginning of “The Metamorphosis,” I was instantly reminded of the movie The Fly (1958). The Fly is of the science fiction genre – a universal literature that began in the early 1800’s, as a reaction to the growing ambivalence to science and technology which deals with how these elements have changed people, for better or worse.
In The Fly, the victim Andre Delambre mutates to a human fly with matter transmitter (Mr. Delambre’s own invention). His “metamorphosis” was due to a fly accidentally going into his machine and mixes their atoms. Though it is unknown how Gregor Samsa underwent his metamorphosis, there are still similarities and differences between the two characters that don’t include both being turned into bugs.
For example, Kafka states that Gregor had started to behave more like a cockroach in that “it appeared his words were no longer comprehensible” (216) and becoming less sensitive to pain. For Mr. Delambre, since the beginning of his mutation, he couldn’t speak; however, major behavioral changes occurred a few days after his mutation. In Mr. Delambre’s case, he had a fly’s head and arm, but still had the brain of a human which was slowly becoming the brain of a fly. Gregor’s behavioral change happened quicker than Mr. Delambre’s considering that Gregor was a full cockroach whereas Mr. Delambre was half fly, half human.
Mr. Delambre’s humanity is slowly but surely slipping away whereas Gregor still has humanity intact through his thoughts and emotions. Gregor still feels proud that he was able to financially help his family in the past and is embarrassed that he can’t help them now thus showing that Gregor still considers himself as part of the family. On the other hand, Mr. Delambre’s mind is slowly deteriorating. At one point, he couldn’t differentiate the fly’s mind from his and went on a spiral, destroying/erasing all of his work.
Because of each man’s metamorphosis, they lost something they loved. Gregor did his best to adjust to his new bug life; however, his family does not accept him. His mother cannot look at him without fainting and his father is just angry at Gregor. Mr. Delambre does not have the same situation considering his wife, Mrs. Helene Delambre, tries her best to find the fly that went into the machine to reverse the mutation. However, the fly is never found and Mr. Delambre convinces his wife to kill him (he would rather be dead than an insane hybrid). Both men are killed by a loved one, but Gregor’s death isn’t by choice. His father kills Gregor because he misunderstands Grete (Gregor’s sister) and thinks Gregor attacked the mother.
