In The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka creates a parallel between the Samsas’ changes in family conditions to society’s shift in social structure. Kafka adeptly uses Gregor’s metamorphosis to expose society’s response to a transition from a class system to collectivism. Kafka marks the shift by illustrating Gregor’s hardships as a member of the working-class, the turmoil that ensues when he is unable to work, and his family’s static mentality about social structure. Kafka shows that a collectivist society can be achieved when all members of that society are forced to work for the benefit of the whole, but that this society cannot be sustained for each human instinctively finds what s/he can gain from society rather than what s/he can contribute.     
    Kafka develops two crucial metaphors in his novella that illustrate the parallels between the Samsas and society. First, the Samsa family must be thought of as the people in society, in which Gregor is the working poor and the rest of the family is the ruling class. Second, their apartment represents the structure of their society. The rooms in their apartment mark defined places where each person belongs.
     In order for any society to exist it must have both people and a structure for those people to fit into. Historically, there is always a fundamental separation between the haves and the have-nots in bourgeois society. In the Metamorphosis, Gregor earns money that is not his to keep. “They had just gotten used to it . . . the money was received with thanks and given with pleasure but no special feeling of warmth went with it any more” (Kafka 20).  He pays taxes to his family, but no other relationship ensues. Gregor’s possessions are only in his room, which further shows his separation from the rest the apartment. As in society, the have-nots are connected with the haves, yet they are completely separated.
    Kafka shows readers that the separation takes place on a shallow level. Gregor’s boss’s cane is not used as necessity but rather a prop to show authority. The manager forgot his “cane, which had been left behind on a chair” (14), which shows that the cane is useless. Afraid of Gregor, the manager forgets his cane, and authority, and runs away. Gregor’s inferiority is illustrated by his appearance as a bug; his physical body alienates the family. But both classes are fundamentally the same. Kafka is questioning what really separates the powerful from the powerless. For the manager, it’s only a cane. What is similar about both parties is that Gregor wishes he didn’t have to work just as much as the bourgeois don’t want to work. “‘What a grueling job I’ve picked! Day in, day out . . . on the road . . . to devil with it all’” (3).  Gregor’s outward contempt for his job mirror’s his father’s subtle distaste for work. The fact that Gregor’s father never takes off his uniform shows that he is imposed upon by his job. He doesn’t keep it clean which shows a lack of caring. “This garment, covered with stains” (30). All people, Kafka is saying, don’t like to work.
     Kafka begins his book by immediately slamming his readers with the image of what life is like for the working class in a bourgeois society. Although Gregor holds what is widely considered a white-collar job, his fear of the management and his lack of autonomy place him in a slave-laborer position. When Gregor wakes up as a bug, his concern isn’t that he is inflicted with a serious physical malady but rather that he won’t make it to work on time. Gregor thinks to himself, “He was a tool of the boss, without brains or backbone” (Kafka 5). What’s ironic is that before his transformation, Gregor was living a bug-like existence. His appearance is the only thing that changed. Gregor’s status as a subordinate is expressed in his fear of his boss, and “The health-insurance doctor, for whom the world consisted of people who were completely healthy but afraid to work” (Kafka 5). Gregor cannot even get sick; he can only work.  
    Kafka uses a family structure as a metaphor for the people of a particular society knowing that a family is the most important institution to which an individual belongs. Across all cultures, family members not only share common beliefs, and traditions but also depend on one another to survive. Societies, too, function by their common goals. Kafka is creating a social commentary by expressing that one’s family and one’s country are no different. Most individuals would not take advantage of their brother or son as the Samsa family does. Why then, Kafka urges readers to ask, is it acceptable for a society to oppress its own members. Kafka is seeking a reaction of horror and despair from his readers when the Samsa family is happy about Gregor’s death. It is outrageous for family members to actually celebrate the death of one of their kin. Readers are exposed to the grim reality of systematic oppression from higher classes. Ultimately, a society cannot survive with such intense circumstances between countrymen, or as Kafka shows in the Metamorphosis, between family members. Gregor’s life was unfortunately pathetic. His life was base around producing for ungrateful family members and he only brings happiness through his death. However, Gregor’s death is not something to feel sad about because it shows that the bourgeois are able to produce for themselves.
    The Samsa parents exist in a faux-aristocracy. To their son, they are the king and queen.     Gregor’s infatuation with his family is similar to the commoner’s vision of the crown. Ordinary people are fascinated with their king and queen, and are satisfied with paying for royalty’s’ lavish lifestyles. “They were so preoccupied with their immediate troubles that they had lost all consideration for the future” (13). Like royalty, the Samsas can’t sustain themselves if their workers stop paying their taxes. Which is why in a time of desperation they must revert back to their actual class and take up jobs. Anytime there is societal change there will always be struggle, alienation, and sacrifice. Gregor sacrificed himself for the betterment of his family. His metamorphosis as a bug is metaphor for the grave disruptions that come with a changing society. He is grotesque, and the family is injured by his condition, as he can’t work and the roomers get free room and board once they see him. It turns out his metamorphosis is actually a blessing.
     The Samsa apartment is an apt representation of the structural forces that bind a society together. Before his metamorphosis, Gregor alienates his family by always locking himself in his room. “Gregor had absolutely no intention of opening the door and complimented himself instead on the precaution he had adopted from his business trips, of locking all the doors during the night even at home” (5). While still physically being a part of the house, Gregor’s room is very much it’s own entity. This imitates social classes in that individuals remain in their own segment of society while still being a member of the society as a whole. Alienated from the rest of the house, Gregor’s attachment to the larger society is seen through the furnishings of his room. “He could not do without the beneficial influence of the furniture on his state of mind” (25). The framed picture in particular connects him to the human race, and he adamantly protects it by covering it with his body. “He really didn’t know what to salvage first, the he saw…the picture of the lady dressed in furs, hurriedly crawled up on it and pressed himself against the glass” (26). Paradoxically, Gregor uses his dreadful appearance to save his humanity.
    The fact that Gregor dies in his room further illustrates his stationary status in society. “‘Once I’ve gotten the money together to pay off my parents’ debt to him . . . I’m going to do it without fail. Then, I’m going to make the big break’” (4). He never achieved paying off his parents’ debts and climbing out of poverty. By ridding themselves of Gregor without sentiment, the rest of the Samsa family is freed from the bonds that tied them from their own structure of life. Each family member takes up a job, and the family leaves the apartment. The Samsa family is never seen outside the home until Gregor dies, which shows that people are not free from aristocracy until equality is achieved.
    After they leave the apartment the family decides to move to a more economical apartment, where they don’t need a maid. It seems as though the Samsa family has come out of their crisis better than they were before. As if they learned the difference between what they need and what they want. What is sad about the Samsa family is that their motivation hasn’t changed. Even though they want a more reasonable apartment is doesn’t appear as though they’ll be satisfied with it in the long run. They are happier once they’ve become self-sufficient but instead of continuing to live with a new social structure, where everybody contributes, the Samsa’s look toward Grete to marry and provide for them so they no longer have to work. Change is fleeting, and the bourgeois are willing to ignore their newfound autonomy for dependence on another person for sustainment. “It was a confirmation of their new dreams and good intentions when at the end of the ride their daughter got up first and stretched her young body” (42). The cause of the Samsas’ crisis stemmed from placing their well being in the hands of one worker, but they are willing to do it again.
    The Samsa family is static. They are forever living in a mindset in which they believe they shouldn’t have to work. When the crisis of Gregor’s metamorphosis affects them, they prolong changing their lifestyle for as long as possible. Gregor’s father taps into his savings before going back to work. Once they are forced to take up jobs, the Samsa family prolongs their ability to stay within their social structure as seen in that they don’t leave their apartment. They take up roomers to stay in their apartment, bringing in more persons into their social structure before calling it quits. It would seem that the Samsa family has changed for the better with the Gregor dead. They finally leave the apartment, something they haven’t done in a long time. But they characters have not be changed. They believe they will move up in their jobs and get Grete married. Then they will be able to take up their own life styles.
    Karl Marx is quoted as saying, “Social progress can be measured by the social position of the female sex.”  How true this is, for it is not until Grete’s attitude toward Gregor changes that any change actually comes about. Grete’s extravagant outburst at Gregor after the roomers leave shows a shift in her attitude toward Gregor. Where before she was the one who claimed taking care of Gregor as her responsibility she finds that Gregor is in fact the cause for her family’s misery. She exclaims, “If it were Gregor, he would have realized long ago that it isn’t possible for human beings to live with such a creature, and he would have gone away of his own free will” (38). This scene suggests the bourgeois increased contempt for persons who are not producing for their benefit. Grete expects that Gregor would have sacrificed himself for the betterment of the family; she believes that his status as working-class makes it his role to sacrifice his wellbeing for hers. This marks a dramatic shift in the story, for the very next day Gregor is found dead. Grete causes him to die. Just as the disabled person cannot survive when social benefits are cut, Gregor cannot survive without Grete’s support.
    While the title implies drastic changes, the Metamorphosis is more a story of indolence. The Samsa’s family is able to get jobs and work collectively to support themselves, but their contemptuous attitude towards work hasn’t changed. Kafka illustrates the parallels between family structure and societal structure to convey his belief that collectivism can be created but not sustained.