career it is that I ve chosen Gregor never lived for himself He never enjoyed his work or had personal dreams except for one small wish to send his sister Grete to a music school to learn violin His identity was tied completely to his job and his role as the provider The Change and Loss of Human Identity One morning when Gregor Samsa woke from troubled dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin When Gregor wakes up as an insect he still thinks like a human being He worries about missing the train losing his job and disappointing his family But physically he is no longer human Kafka uses this moment to show how Gregor s body and mind become separated He tries to speak but his words come out as insect noise His manager and family cannot understand him This loss of communication is the first step in his identity crisis Though Gregor feels the same from inside no one can recognize him anymore Alienation and Emotional Confusion As days pass Gregor s family locks him in his room His father attacks him his mother avoids him and his sister begins to lose sympathy Gregor realizes that he has become invisible to the people he once loved He tries to hold on to his human feelings For example he hides under the sofa when Grete enters because he does not want to frighten her Slowly Gregor starts to think like an insect he enjoys crawling on the walls and eating rotten food Kafka writes He was especially fond of hanging from the ceiling This change in behavior shows how he is losing his human identity day by day His mind and body start to match and he forgets the life he once had Death and the End of Identity Gregor s identity crisis ends with his quiet death When his sister Grete tells her parents that they must get rid of it Gregor realizes that he no longer belongs to the human world She says It ll be the death of both of you I can see it coming She no longer sees Gregor as her brother but as a burden She refers to him as it Heartbroken Gregor accepts his worthlessness and gives up on life His death is not only the death of a body but also the death of his self After his death the family feels relief instead of sadness They even go out to enjoy the sunshine together They plan a better future without him This shows how Gregor s identity existed only as long as he was useful to them Once he could not work he lost all meaning in their eyes and in his own In The Metamorphosis Kafka presents Gregor Samsa s transformation as a symbol of a deep identity crisis Gregor s life before the change was already full of emptiness and after becoming an insect he completely loses his sense of self His struggle to remain human his loss of connection with others and his final acceptance of death all show a man whose identity is crushed by society and family expectations