Over the course of the metamorphosis, Gregor Samsa becomes increasingly insect-like.
This is partially due to the transformation of his human body into an
insect-like one, but also the treatment of Gregor by his family leads him to
develop more insect-like habits and to feel more and more like his internal
mind matches his external body.
We have significant evidence that the transformation of Gregor into a
bug is not just mental. For one, there is the obvious fact that physically he
has turned into an insect. He looks like an insect, his body moves like an
insect would, as we can draw from Gregor’s attempts to move his body out of bed
in a way that would be successful to get himself out of bed when the body he is
human, but when he is a bug he cannot even roll over onto his
side. As well, we see that Gregor develops a dislike for milk and for fresh
food, things that as a human he very much enjoyed. Gregor says that milk was
his favorite drink, but now he does not even want to go near the bowl of milk
that his sister sets in front of him. He does, however, enjoy the rotten and
old things that his sister brings to him. He is thankful that she has found
what he likes to eat now, and eats the rotten food. This shows that Gregor’s
transformation has gone more than skin-deep, his instincts on what he should
eat and what he should not are far different from what they were when he was
fully human.
But, there is evidence that Gregor’s transformation is at least
partially mental and environmental, his bug-like tendencies coming from the
fact that he is treated as a bug by his family. His isolation, for example, is something
that is bug-like but is also because no one in his family tries to see him and
their anger at him when he ever leaves his room. As well, his bug-like tendency
to hide under the couch whenever his sister enters the room does not come from
Gregor’s inherent liking of hiding under couches (unlike his newfound inherent
liking for rotten food) it is because he does not want his sister to have to
see him in his transformed bug body. So, because of his interactions with
others, he becomes more bug-like.
Yet, I think that Gregor’s enjoyment of climbing the walls comes from a
combination of these two. Bugs like climbing over the walls, so it would make
sense that because Gregor is now in this insect body he likes to climb the
walls too, but I also think that Gregor takes up this new hobby as a
wall-climber because he has been isolated and has nothing else to do. Here,
this new interest is a combination of physical, mental, and environmental factors.
What do you think? What parts of Gregor do you think come from Gregor’s
bug-body and which ones do you think come from the way he is being treated by
his family?
