Events
This is the insect Gregor transforms into.
What is a cockroach?
The three boarders symbolize society’s obsession with this.
What is money / status / appearances?
Kafka shows that society values people only for their economic role by making Gregor’s family turn against him once he loses this.
What is his ability to work / provide income?
This character shows the most compassion toward Gregor at first.
Who is Grete (his sister)?
Gregor’s insect body can symbolize this concept of dehumanization.
What is alienation / loss of humanity?
Gregor first realizes he is late for this.
What is work (his job as a traveling salesman)?
Gregor’s transformation most directly reflects this theme of the individual in modern society.
What is alienation?
When Grete says Gregor is “no longer really Gregor,” it reveals Kafka’s warning that identity can be erased by this.
What is the judgment of others / society?
This character is harshest toward Gregor, even injuring him.
Who is his father?
This object in Gregor’s room represents his lingering attachment to his humanity.
What is the picture of the woman in furs?
This family member faints when she first sees Gregor.
Who is Gregor’s mother?
The removal of Gregor’s furniture symbolizes this loss.
What is his human identity / connection to the past?
The Samsa family quickly finds jobs after Gregor’s transformation, revealing this truth about how society replaces the outcast.
What is people are replaceable / disposable?
These characters stay with the Samsa family and reacts with disgust upon discovering Gregor.
Who are the three lodgers?
Gregor’s death symbolizes how society often “solves” the problem of outsiders in this way.
What is by eliminating / erasing them?
In Chapter 2, Gregor’s sister begins doing this task daily.
What is bringing him food and cleaning his room?
Kafka suggests that family, like society, often values individuals only for this.
What is their usefulness / financial support?
Kafka uses Gregor’s isolation to show how outsiders are pushed to the margins of this.
What is society / family life?
This character plays the violin, temporarily stirring Gregor’s last bit of humanity.
Who is Grete?
Gregor clinging to the picture of the woman in furs symbolizes his attempt to hold on to this part of himself.
What is his human identity?
By Chapter 3, the Samsa family takes on this major change in employment.
What is all getting jobs (to support themselves)?
Kafka suggests that alienation leads to this tragic outcome.
What is self-erasure / death?
Kafka suggests through Gregor’s fate that when someone cannot “produce,” society views them as this.
What is a burden / worthless?
This character visits Gregor in their home, after realizing that he did not get on his train.
Who is the office manager?
By Chapter 3, Grete argues Gregor is no longer “really Gregor,” symbolizing this rejection.
What is rejecting his identity / humanity?