the metamorphosis
...e when there is no one to listen to his true feelings, dreams and hopes which indirectly suggests his solitary confinement in society. The narrator starts off with a brief description of Gregor’s body “he was lying on his hard, as it were armor-plated, back and when he lifted his head a little he could see his dome-like brown belly divided into stiff arched segments on top of which the bed quilt could hardly keep in position and was about to slide off completely” (346). This paints a clear picture of Gregor’s hideous transformation to a hard shell insect. As the narrator had suggested, Gregor led an exhausting life “oh god, he thought, what an exhausting job I’ve picked on! Traveling about day in, day out” (346). Gregor works as a traveling salesman, thus he has to travel all over the country. The hard shell body symbolizes his strong physique and endurance capabilities of the harsh lifestyle of a commercial traveler. Gregor is a man with dreams and hopes. However his life revolves around traveling for work, and all these just to pay off his family’s debt. He hates his job “I’d be sacked on the spot … if I didn’t have to hold my hand because of my parents I’d have given the notice long ago, I’d have gone to the chief and told him exactly what I think of him” (346) and the only reason he stays at the job he loathes would be because of his parents’ debt. Gregor has difficulty getting out of bed due to his physique. He was exceptionally broad, “he would have needed arms and hands to hoist himself up; instead he had only the numerous little legs which never stopped waving in all directions and which he could not control in the least”(348). He has difficulties in hoisting himself as he is in his career. Gregor is unable to push himself into the next level in his career, and the act of hoisting himself up symbolizes his effort towards his dreams and hope. However the numerous little legs symbolize his many attempts at it but with little effort or no effort at all. Ever since his metamorphosis, Gregor could no longer eat regular human food. He disgust the fresh milk prepared for him. “He had reached the door before he discovered what had really drawn him to it: the smell of food… He could almost have laughed with joy, since he was still hungrier than in the morning” (356) however, even though he was hungry, Gregor could not enjoy the milk. He did not like the milk and bread, “he did not like the milk either, although milk had been his favorite drink” (358). The milk represents his dreams and hopes because it has always been his favorite drink. However, he has been living in his state of depression and self pity for so long that he described it as “palpitating collaboration of his whole body” (358). To find out his new diet, Gregor’s sister, Grete, had brought him a whole selection of food, ...