The Metamorphosis

In Kafka's The Metamorphosis, Gregor and his whole family face adversity but, in the end, it has a totally different affect on Gregor than on his family. While they all must deal with his physical change throughout the story, Gregor dies in the face of this hardship while his family is able to eventually realize something that they would have never been able to before. In the time after Gregor's metamorphosis, before his death, he and his family must become used to this situation which none of them want to become accustomed to. Throughout the bulk of the story, they almost refuse to accept this as something that is permanent and simply brush him aside as a literal and a figurative pest. His metamorphosis is Gregor's true adversity, which he ultimately fails to overcome. However, for his family, his death allows them to beat this hardship because they finally have some freedom and actual sense of family (not just people who happen to live together) that they never allowed themselves to have when Gregor was alive.