The story Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka is a story about a young business man named Gregor, which spent his time supporting his family doing a job he didn't like, then magically getting transformed into a bug. When this happened the reaction of his family is very unusual to what the reaction of a real family would be like. They were frightened at first, which any member of a family would be, but as the story went on they started to care less about Gregor and saw him more as a burden than a family member.
When Gregor first noticed that he had turned into a large bug, his first reaction really wasn't oh my gosh what just happened to me, it was more like how am I going to get to work now, and what will they think of me? “God in Heaven! He thought. It was half past six and the hands were quietly moving forwards, it was even later than half past, more like quarter to seven.” Even after everything that just happened to Gregor, he still can only think about him not being able to get to work in time, which is bizarre because any normal person would be freaking out trying to get find a way to get back to being an actual human again.
Not only was Gregor's reaction uncanny, but the reaction of his father was weird to. The father not knowing what to do grabs a broom and starts whacking his own son with it to get him back into his room to shut the door. Any parent would be freaked out, but to deliberately hit your son a bunch of times causing him to bleed is a little crazy. That's not the only time the father was abusive in this situation. Closer to the middle of the story he starts throwing apples at Gregor, puncturing his outer shell, which leads to his death. “He filled his pockets with fruit from the bowl on the sideboard and now, without even taking the time for careful aim, threw one apple after another.” Some of the apples miss him, but one shot hits him hard, and cuts him with an apple chunk protruding out his back.
The reaction of Grete, Gregor's sister, was the most similar to a reaction from a real family member. At first she was the only one that could actually connect with Gregor. She would go and get Gregor food when he was hungry, cleans his room all the time, and took all the furniture out of his room because he wanted more space to crawl around. “Very soon his sister noticed Gregor's new way of entertaining himself – he had, after all, left traces of the adhesive from his feet as he crawled about – and got it into her head to make it as easy as possible for him by removing the furniture that got in his way, especially the chest of drawers, and the desk.” Grete was very loving and caring in the beginning to her brother, but as the story went on she slowly started caring less and less about Gregor. She got exhausted from work everyday and just saw Gregor as more work. She started not cleaning his room, leaving it as a mess and not going in his room as much to see him. This is odd because no matter how tired someone would get, there family member would always have time to check up on another, if they were in desperate help. Also, with the apple in the back, she or someone else in the family should have walked up to Gregor and took it out so he wouldn't be in as much pain.
Metamorphosis was an interesting book that taught no lessons though. The way the family reacts is not the way a real family would react to something like that happening. They were mean and cruel to Gregor. If anything they should have been especially nice if they wanted him to at least have a chance to change back and start working for the family again, instead of them working themselves. To hurt another family member and neglect them is something that no other family would do, unless you're extreme.