y a cockroach. Kafka's physical transformation of his protagonist is meant to be symbolic of the state of alienation in which Samsa has probably existed for a long time, but which now, it would seem, he can no longer ignore or deny because it has reached a point of such extremity. Samsa's discovery of his cockroach state might be expected to bring immediate horror to a normal man, but Samsa is a man so accustomed to isolation--from his work, himself, his family, his life--that turning into a bug is simply one more form of isolation, however extreme, to which he simply needs to adjust and adapt.
Samsa's transformation, then, has to do with his predicament as a bug, but even more importantly with his efforts to adapt to a new realm of isolation. He tries to go back to sleep but he cannot. Instead of utterly panicking as he might be expected to do, Samsa begins to consider his life, or, rather, the complete isolation which comprises his life:
Oh, God, he thought, what an exhausting job I've picked on! Traveling about day in, day out. . . . And on top of that there's the trouble of . . . worrying about
. . . casual acquaintances that are always new and never become intimate friends. The devil take it all! (Kafka 9).
Gregor has reached such a point of despair in his life, and is so hopeless about changing his life, that when he turns into a bug he immediately begins to try to figure out how he might adapt to it. He is isolated from his work, from the bureaucracy of which he is a part, and also from his own family. In fact, he suffers cruel and inhumane exploitation at his family's hands. The only reason he is included in the family at all, it seems, is his ability to make money. He is seen by the other members of his family as a money-making thing, not as a human being. Kafka has established that isolation as such an essential part of his life from the beginning of the story, and then underscores that isolation with such a d...