This shocking premise—presented as mundane fact without explanation—establishes Kafka's unique literary method. The fantastic intrudes into ordinary life and is accepted with bureaucratic practicality. Gregor's family worries not about why this happened but how to manage the situation.
The story can be read multiple ways: as allegory of dehumanizing modern work (Gregor is a traveling salesman supporting his family), as exploration of family dynamics (their true feelings emerge when he can't provide), as expression of profound alienation (Gregor was already isolated; transformation merely manifests it visibly).
Kafka captures the absurdity of existence—the gulf between inner experience and external perception, the impossibility of truly communicating one's condition, the arbitrary cruelty of fate. Gregor remains conscious and human inside his insect body, but his humanity becomes invisible to others and increasingly questionable to himself.
The story influenced existentialist literature and remains disturbingly relevant, speaking to anyone who has felt reduced to their function, unable to communicate their true self, or transformed into something unrecognizable while consciousness persists.
Source
The Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka