The Metamorphosis

For my second AMD assignment I read The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. Gregor, a travelling salesman supporting his parents and sister, awakes one morning to find that he has been transformed (verwandelt) into a giant insect. (The original word is Ungeziefer, which in Middle German literally means "unclean animal not suitable for sacrifice.") Further descriptions imply a sort of beetle. The short story follows the family's changing opinion of Gregor's humanity and growth of their disdain and repulsion, as well as Gregor's internal struggle between human and insect desires. By the end, the family has transformed into three self-sufficient individuals. Gregor's sister specifically undergoes a transformation into womanhood, and at the end "sprang to her feet first and stretched her young body," connoting a metamorphosis.