Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis uses a fantastic situation to create an allegory about the meaning of humanness and about the relationship of the individual to the world in which he lives. That relationship is involved here as the ties to that world are broken. Gregor Samsa awakens to find that he has been changed into a huge vermin. The only contact he has with the world in which he lived the night before is through the family members who can be heard moving around the house and who react to Gregor's change in various ways. Underlying this story is the sense that Gregor is being punished for some unstated crime and that the universe has taken this means of inflicting that punishment. As with certain other Kafka heroes, Gregor seems to have no idea what crime he committed and in many ways does not seem surprised that he is being punished in spite of that fact. Man's position in this world is always to be the transgressor against some higher power he or she never really knows or understands.
Gregor has gone from being human to being non-human. Gregor does not rail against his fate but rather seems to accept it as his due, perhaps also accepting the idea that punishment is his due simply because he was a human being. The regularity of Gregor's life to this moment is indicated by his thoughts concerning how he must be out of bed at a certain time in order to get to work as he has done every day of his life. As he lays in bed now, Gregor seems to sense a change not only in himself but in the way time passes as he ticks off every second, concerned about his inability to get out of bed and get to work. This concern also shows that the change in Gregor is more one of degree than kind. That is, he was always trapped in life in some sense, first in his job and his family relationships and now in the body of an insect. Perhaps this is why he accepts his fate with such equanimity--he has always thought of himself as being punished...