We chose to represent Gregor’s deterioration outwardly and inwardly through our two collages.

The first collage is a representation of his physical deterioration in his room through the the images of food and cleaning objects. The reality of him dying slowly is also mirrored by his inner turmoil as shown in the second collage. We chose to use the color pink to represent his love for his family despite their disgust towards him and the reversal of his role in the family with Grete.

(Joy L., Alessandria G., Erisha B., Julia M., Katerina H., and Kiara C.)

Right from the start of the second part of Metamorphosis, Gregor is awakened from a deep sleep after having suffered irreparable injuries. Gregor’s mentality of providing for his family is still very much intact despite his life altering transformation and the rejection of his family members. This makes him oblivious to the impact the metamorphosis will have on his life, which is a parallel to his belief that he can survive with the maltreatment and indifference of his family members so long as he provides for them. Thus, this ‘awakening’ is a subtle reference to Gregor’s doomed fate as revealed at the end of the novella. Gregor dies because he is no longer needed; his family members deem him better off dead as they are certain that he has been nothing but a burden on their lives. In retrospect, if one looks back from the ending to the beginning of section two, the confusion surrounding Gregor’s identity is highlighted by his individual struggle to preserve his thoughts and emotions (all the things that make him human) with his new inhuman body. Although Gregor continues to morph more into his metamorphosis throughout section two, his love for his family never changes in his mind. Even to the end, he feels that he is free to die since his family does not have a need for him anymore. An irony as tragic as this one suggests that Gregor’s fate was prolonged by his strong conviction that there was still humanity within him. One can also come to the conclusion that as Gregor has no understanding of how he has arrived at his transformation, his futile attempt at adjusting to the transformation serves as a reflection of how Kafka's writing drew upon his personal experiences and perception of a merciless world where acceptance was crucial for survival.