The Reality of Change What is reality? Every person has his or her own reality or truth of their existence. For some it may be a dead-end job due to their lack of education while to others it may be the carefree life of a successful person. The true reality of any situation is that whatever direction is chosen in life a person brings the same inner self, motivational levels and attitudes. Unless they are willing to change the way they perceive and react to a situation they are forever trading one set of problems for another. As readers of literature we too seek to escape our reality and experience life through an authors imagination while gaining valuable knowledge about ourselves. In Franz Kafkas Metamorphosis, the nature of Gregor Samsas reality changes insignificantly in spite of his drastic physical changes. Gregors life before the metamorphosis was limited to working and caring for his family. As a travelling salesman, Gregor worked long, hard hours that left little time to experience life. He reflects on his so-called life acknowledging the plague of traveling: the anxieties of changing trains, the irregular, inferior meals, the ever changing faces, never to be seen again, people with whom one has no chance to be friendly (Kafka 13). Gregor, working to pay off his familys debt, has resigned himself to a life full of no pleasures only work. Kafka himself paralleled this sentiment in a quote taken from his diaries noting that no matter how hard you work that work still doesnt entitle you to loving concern for people. Instead, youre alone, a total stranger, a mere object of curiosity (Pawel 167). Gregor submerges himself in work and becomes a stranger to himself and to life. Any type of social contact beyond porters, waitresses or bartenders was non-existent. He had once met a cashier in a hat shop, whom he had pursued earnestly but too slowly (Kafka 76). There was no room in Gregors life for people oth...
