Franz Kafka's short story, The Metamorphosis, is a disturbing look at the absurdity of life - and constitutes literature's most disturbing and introspective. For much of his life, Kafka suffered from insecurity and inner torment. An excessive and aggressive father with highly unattainable expectations exacerbated Kafka's feelings of self-loathing and misery. In examining The Metamorphosis, much of the inspiration for the text itself seems to come from the dysfunctional relationship between Kafka and his father. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”?Get an original essayA preliminary and rather obvious parallel between Kafka and Gregor Samsa seems to lie in the very name of the protagonist. Indeed, much speculation has arisen regarding the possibility that Samsa is a crude cryptogram of the name Kafka. Each word is made up of five letters and the letters of both names occupy corresponding positions in both titles. Although Kafka denied that this congruence was intentional, and even went further to deny any connection between his experiences and those of Samsa, the text of The Metamorphosis has certain similarities too glaring to ignore. If The Metamorphosis is truly an allegory of Franz Kafka's life, then it is a deeply meditative journey into the author's distorted mind and experience. In a lengthy and revealing confession, since published as Letter to His Father, Kafka described his feelings regarding their separation. Kafka proclaimed himself timid, weak, hesitant, restless and a humiliating failure. On the other hand, he perceived his father as bold, impressive, and physically strong, and the contrast bothered him deeply. Kafka felt enormous guilt for the apparent disappointment he had caused his father. Herr Kafka, although not entirely responsible for Kafka's mental state, intensified his feelings of regret and shame. Kafka felt that “a feeling of nothingness dominated [him].” This state of shame and continual shame is evident in the character of Gregor Samsa. Trapped in a stagnant job as a traveling salesman, Gregor hates his job but feels bound by the inescapable duty to satisfy his father's expectations to keep the job. Gregor wakes up one morning to find himself transformed into a grotesque vermin, and immediately all of his self-doubt and feelings of inadequacy manifest in physical form. Such an obvious metamorphosis is indicative of the extreme trauma and self-loathing present in Gregor's psyche. If The Metamorphosis is a commentary on the author's life, then the idea of ​​self-hatred and alienation haunted Kafka in the same way that it haunts Samsa. Through the protagonist, Kafka conveyed his inner demons in physical form, as a weak, shoddy, self-proclaimed inadequate individual. As further evidence of his father's mistreatment, Kafka includes in Letter to His Father examples of instances where his father called him or his friends "vermin." This example of cruelty is so obvious and so similar to Gregor's condition that it hardly needs further discussion. Most notable is Kafka's use of the word "vermin" – so descriptive and so disturbing that the author denotes in a single word the demented and abused state of himself and Gregor. Kafka recalls similar instances where his father addresses him in a bestial and dehumanizing manner: he calls Kafka a "pig" and he speaks about Kafka to his wife as if his son were not present. In The Metamorphosis, there is a comparable conflict between father and son: Herr Samsa speaks to Gregor.