Franz Kafka's story The Metamorphosis is a disturbing look at the absurdity of life and is literature at its most disturbing and introspective. For much of his life Kafka suffered from insecurity and internal torment. An arrogant, 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 actual text 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 Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essayA preliminary and rather obvious parallel between Kafka and Gregor Samsa seems to lie in the protagonist's very name. Indeed, much speculation has arisen regarding the possibility that Samsa is a crude cryptogram for the name Kafka. Each word is made up of five letters, and the letters of both names occupy corresponding positions in the two titles. Although Kafka denied that this congruence was intentional, and went further to deny any connection between his experiences and those of Samsa, the text of the Metamorphosis displays some similarities that are too obvious to ignore. If The Metamorphosis is indeed an allegory of Franz Kafka's life, it is therefore a deeply meditative journey into the author's distorted mind and experience. In a long and revealing confession, which has since been published under the title Letter to his Father, Kafka described his feelings about their estrangement. Kafka proclaimed himself shy, weak, hesitant, restless and humiliating. On the other hand, he perceived his father as bold, imposing, 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 his mental state, intensified his feelings of regret and shame. Kafka felt as if "a feeling of nothingness dominated him." This state of constant disgrace and shame is evident in the character of Gregor Samsa. Trapped in a stagnant job as a street vendor, Gregor detests his occupation but feels bound by the inescapable duty to live up to his father's expectations of keeping the job. Gregor wakes up one morning to find himself transformed into the form of a grotesque parasite, and immediately all his self-doubts and feelings of inadequacy have manifested themselves in physical form. Such a clear 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 is an idea that haunted Kafka in the same way it haunts Samsa. Through the protagonist, Kafka conveyed his inner demons as a physical form, as a weak, substandard, and self-proclaimed inadequate individual. As further evidence of his father's mistreatment, Kafka includes in Letter to his Father examples of instances in which his father addressed him or his friends as "vermin." This example of cruelty is so obvious and so similar to Gregor's condition that it almost needs no further discussion. Noteworthy is Kafka's use of the word "parasite" itself, so descriptive and so disturbing that the author denotes in a single word the demented and abused state of both himself and Gregor. Kafka recalls similar instances in which his father addresses him in bestial and dehumanizing ways: he calls Kafka "a pig" and talks about Kafka to his wife as if his son were not present. In the Metamorphosis there is a similar conflict between father and son: Mr. Samsa speaks to Gregor as if.