As we read about in Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis,” poor Gregor Samsa, a young, overworked
man who is trying to support his ungrateful family, awakens one morning to find that he has
turned into a giant beetle-like insect. Gregor’s family and employer are not, to put it lightly,
very sympathetic to his plight.
Imagine you awake on a typical school/work/etc day. You stretch, yawn, then slowly
begin to notice . . . you have transformed into a GIANT BEETLE OVERNIGHT!!!
Your task is to write a first-person narrative, beginning with the time you awake to find
you have changed into a you-sized beetle. Please respond to the following in your
response:
▪ Do you get up and find a way to get to school and class? To work? How and why?
Alternatively, do you give up trying to perform your normal human tasks? Why?
▪ What other tasks do you manage to do, if any? How do people react to your new
appearance?
▪ Go into detail about your day as an oversized insect, even if you just decide to stay in bed
or run away into the forest.
▪ What happens to you in the long term? Compare how Gregor’s family and employers
react to his transformation against how, over time, you anticipate the people around you
would react to the “new you.” Would you ultimately remain with your family and
participate in society (as much is as possible) as you become more and more “beetle-
like”? Would you plot to gather your fellow beetles and take over
the world?