Candidate Number.

Chloe Botsford, 1
Chloe Botsford
IB English Literature
RS for IO#1 The Metamorphosis
1 October 2014
How was your understanding of cultural and contextual considerations of the work
developed through the interactive oral discussion?
After being involved in the interactive oral on the ideas behind Kafkas novella The
Metamorphosis, my ideas behind the book have been strengthened, and it opened my eyes to
new interpretations of cultural and contextual ideas throughout the book. One aspect I did not
consider about while reading the novella, was Sigmund Freuds belief of the conscious and
unconscious mind. Humans tend to push their unpleasant and dark feelings deep inside into
their unconscious. This is related to Kafka because he pushed all of his negative feelings about
his fathers disapproval, which caused guilt and low self-confidence, to his unconscious mind,
which is then expressed as the bug, Gregor. When Gregor wakes up one morning to discover
that he is a bug, he is actually engaging his unconscious mind, or a world of dream.
I also discovered that Kafka made a point of placing his father as some figure of
authority in each of his pieces of literature. Each of these characters were made to destroy
anothers self-worth with his overbearing power. His fathers overbearing power affected his
mental state by giving him insomnia and migraines. His writing was his outlet to escape from his
overbearing father, acting as his mental therapy. In a letter to his father, Kafka specifically states
that he mentioned him in each of his writings; however, his father never received them.
Another point that was mentioned about Sigmund Freud in the discussion was the
psychic apparatus, or the Id, Ego, and Superego. This related to The Metamorphosis results in
Gregors father as the Superego, since he enforces moral standards; Grete as the Id, because
she helps Gregor survive; and Gregors mother is the ego, because she satisfies the demands
of Grete but in a safe and socially acceptable way. Even though these are all separate
characters, they are all really describing the author, Kafka and all of the different parts of his
personality.

Word Count: 318

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Part I: Works in Translation Written Assignment

Gregors Bedroom as His Source of Isolation and Transformation in Franz Kafkas The
Metamorphosis

By

Chloe Botsford
Bay Port High School
IB Candidate Number
14 January 2015

Word Count: 1368

Written Assignment
Chloe Botsford
IB Candidate Number

Candidate Number. Chloe Botsford, 3

Gregors Bedroom as His Source of Isolation and Transformation in Franz Kafkas The
Metamorphosis
The careful forming of ones bedroom, the decorating and redecorating, is often thought
of as a difficult craft to master. Our rooms are where we spend most of our alone time; simply us
and our room. Because of this, it makes sense that our rooms have as much of an effect on us
as we do on them. In Franz Kafkas unique novella The Metamorphosis, the principal setting
throughout is Gregors bedroom. During the book, other settings, such as the Samsas living
room, are introduced; however, they are not as clearly described, and the time in which the story
takes place within them is limited. Kafka uses this emphasis on one setting in order to show
Gregors change through a different lens. By using Gregors bedroom as the central setting in
the novella, Kafka creates Gregors sense of isolation, which advances Gregors transformation
into something less than human.
At the start of the novella, when Gregor is initially discovering his new physical state, he
goes from believing that his isolation is beneficial to him, to realizing its ominous effects on his
human state of mind and body. When he wakes up and realizes the extent of pandemonium
surrounding him outside of his room, Gregor [compliments] himself for locking all the doors
during the night (Kafka 5). By complimenting himself for isolating himself, Gregor is welcoming
his sense of desolation, because he believes it is for the good of the family. Later, after
discovering more about his condition, Kafka begins to change how he describes Gregors
isolation by calling it a barricade instead of simply doors as he did previously (Kafka 9).
Through this change in word choice, Gregor becomes aware of how he needs to be with other
people and save his human form. At this same time, Gregor begins to realize that he can no
longer speak easily and has to struggle to pronounce his words to his concerned family, until he
is no longer able to speak intelligibly at all. Finally, Gregor resents his isolation within his own
room and attempts to break out, only to be locked back in his room for further transformation. By
having the premise of the book engulfed by the idea of Gregors solitude within his room, Kafka
is using the idea of how isolation can drastically change someone.
As Gregor learns more about his new life as a vermin, he is left completely alone in his
bedroom, with the exception of sparse interruptions by Grete; with no connection to the human
world, Gregors mental state also begins to transform into subhuman thoughts. He is able to
overhear the events occurring in the house around him during his isolation and would
immediately run to the door concerned and press his whole body against it in order to attempt
to feel the slightest bit of involvement with his familys daily occurrences (Kafka 19). Overheard
conversations are the only human thing Gregor holds onto as his isolation within his room
continues. These overheard conversations prompt thoughts from Gregor as to how he would fix
their current situation, but he describes these thoughts as completely useless in his present
state (Kafka 20). By describing his thoughts as useless, Kafka is emphasizing Gregors
isolation and insignificance to his family, that then juxtaposes with his old crucial role within his
family. Gregors abandonment within his room provokes Gregor to attempt to take part in the
familys agenda, but is unsuccessful.
Furthermore, Gregors bedroom begins to change, and Gregors transformation from
human to vermin occurs simultaneously. As Gregors self-imposed caretaker, Grete comes up

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with the idea to clear Gregors room of all the furniture so he can have more room to crawl on
an altogether wider scale (Kafka 23). Kafka intends for the reader to realize this change in
Gregors living conditions as it reflects the changes within Gregor himself. Gregor at first thinks
that this redecorating will be a beneficial change to his living conditions, but then he becomes
worried that this change to his surroundings will extinguish his human qualities permanently. As
a result of this fear, Gregor broke out of his room to save one of his belongings from being
discarded (Kafka 26). By using this exact working, Kafka is implying that Gregors own room
acts as a prison that he needs to escape from in order to save his humanity. Kafka symbolizes
the change from human to a vermin state of mind occurring within Gregor by exchanging his
human furniture for outcast family junk from around the house that eventually finds itself in
Gregors room until finally his room is compared to the garbage can from the kitchen (Kafka
33). Comparing Gregors room to garbage symbolizes the way the family feels towards his
current physical and mental state, by showing how repulsed they are by him. By describing
Gregors room as a mundane garbage can, Kafka is effectively changing the way the reader
thinks of Gregor in his current state, and it is an emphatic sign of Gregors drastic
metamorphosis within his own room.
The final transformation of Gregors room from a dump for old things around the house
to a waste site occurs late in the novella when the family begins to forget about Gregors
existence, or simply refuses to think about it. At one point Grete exclaims out of exasperation
that everyone within the family is so utterly overworked that no one had any time to worry about
Gregor any more than absolutely necessary (Kafka 31). From this point on, Gregors bedroom
becomes the home for filth and dirt in which Gregor thrives and becomes more like a vermin
than any time previously. Gregor describes his room as having streaks of dirt along the walls,
fluffs of dust and filth lay here and there on the floor (Kafka 32). Kafka subtly includes Gregor
within the filth laying on the ground as to reflect the way the family thinks about his radical
change into a vermin. At this point, Gregor has had a complete mental and physical
transformation into a vermin state, in which his room indicates as well.
Finally, at the close of the novella, it comes to the familys attention that Gregor has
spent his whole life as a vermin in isolation within his room, which reflects on how he has spent
his whole human life in isolation as well. It is not until Gregor comes out of his isolation after his
death, when the cleaning lady decides to enter his room out of her own curiosity to find that he
was lying there completely flat and dry (Kafka 40). By using this description of Gregor, Kafka is
showing the rest of the family the effects of Gregors isolation from everyone, including his own
family. Gregor also pushes people out of his life by locking the doors at the beginning of the
novella (Kafka 5). Gregor believes that he is better off if he pushes everyone out from his space,
or his bedroom, when it is actually causing him more harm than good. Gregor describes himself
as empty when he is about to take his last breath (Kafka 39). At this moment, he is finally
realizing the harm that his surroundings have done to him, and how if he had unlocked the
doors to let people in, his fate may have ended differently. Gregors isolation within his bedroom
throughout both his human and insect life, is what ultimately ends up causing his demise.
Gregors room aids his own change and actually accelerates the transformation as his
family helps his room change around him. Kafka uses Gregors bedroom to show the reader
how easily surroundings can affect those within it, no matter how drastic the change. He also
shows how others can have an impact on ones surroundings, such as with Gregors family and

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Grete. Kafka shows how this change then impacts oneself to change to mirror ones new
surroundings subconsciously. Kafka is able to effectively relate his protagonist, Gregor, and the
crucial setting of Gregors room to the real life phenomenon of the effect of settings on people
throughout the world in order to open the readers eyes to the subconscious changes that we all
take part in without knowing.

Word Count: 1368

Candidate Number. Chloe Botsford, 6

Works Cited
Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis. Trans. Stanley Corngold. New York: W. W. Norton & Co.,
1996. Print.