The Metamorphosis...

When I read The Metamorphosis the first time, most of my attention was drawn to the feelings and actions of the family. I couldn't help but hate them for their grave mistreatment of their once son and brother. Upon reading through the short story another time, however, I was much more focused on certain details of story that I paid little attention to the first time around. In this second read, I found myself much more focused on Gregor's emotional transformation and how it perfectly matched up with Kafka's tone and word choice.
Right from the start, I noticed just how absurd it was that Gregor was truly not fazed by his transformation. His thoughts remained calm and uncaring, drifting back to his current obligations of work and his familial dependency on this job. Kafka's relaxed tone matched up to this beginnning, moving effortlessly from Gregor's condition to describing the monotonous details of the room and the melancholy rain, as if these were more significant aspects of Gregor's life. Continuing with this uncaring tone, Gregor never thought of his transformation into a bug in an alarming way. In fact, he was constantly downplaying his serious and life-changing situation, still thinking of his family's debt as his biggest problem. Gregor viewed his family as kind people, seeing their isolated and inconsiderate actions as some sort of respect for him and his needs. How clueless he is about what his life has become!
At one point in the story, however, I thought there was a major turning point where Gregor subconsciously realized what kind of people his parents and sister were. He became aware of their unknown and hidden strength in his confrontation with his father. As the father stomped into the room in his tight uniform, Gregor struggled to see any characteristics of his old, weak father. Kafka further emphasized this vigor by describing the father with dark eyes, tossing his hat confidently across the room, and with a morose expression. Through this skirmish, Gregor was badly injured and was ultimately removed from the power role that he once assumed in the family. From this point on, Gregor lost all hope for life and began to lose interest in the feelings of others. His indifference indicates a broken down man, trapped in the confines of a crowded room, surrounded by a family that never really thought of him as anything more than a spineless creature.