“The father relentlessly pressed forward pushing out sibilants, like a wild man. Now, Gregor had no practice at all in going backwards; it was really going very slowly. If Gregor only had been allowed to turn himself around, he would have been in his room right away, but he was afraid to make his father impatient by the time-consuming process of turning around, and each moment he faced the threat of a mortal blow on his back or his head from the cane in his father’s hand. Finally Gregor had no other option, for he noticed with horror that he did not understand yet how to maintain his direction going backwards. And so he began, amid constantly anxious sideways glances in his father’s direction, to turn himself around as quickly as possible (although in truth this was only very slowly).”
(The whole video)
This video discusses various themes present in the metamorphosis. I chose a video that analyzes the story rather than summarizes it because I felt like the storyline was a little strange so there must be something more to it than just its plot — and surely there was.
The video explains that the theme in this story relates to the author, Franz Kafka’s life in many ways. Being a Jewish man living at a time where anti-Semitism was extremely prevalent, it is safe to say that Kafka may have felt isolated and alone for a lot of his life. This corresponds with how Gregor was treated by his own family in the story. Gregor spent all of his time doing something he hated solely to ensure that his family was financially secured. However, when he turned into a bug all of a sudden, they turned on him and pushed him away because he was no longer useful to them, he was different, and seen as disgusting by the rest of society.
The way Gregor was treated by his family is a close reflection of the way Jews were treated in Kafka’s time; left isolated and treated like they were undeserving of normal human treatment. However, this is not the only situation to which the story may apply. The video says that the theme is timeless, and this is true. Even today, over a hundred years after the story was written, the theme remains relevant. We continue to group people and differentiate ourselves from them based on a multitude of qualities. We think that when people are different they don’t deserve the same rights as we do or the same treatment as we do. It’s a concept that when you look back you think ‘how did people act like that towards one another?’ without realizing that it still happens today.