Boarders without Borders: Exercising Authority Wherever They Go Amanda Perez 12th Grade

When hard times hit, families must often take desperate actions in order to ensure financial stability in their household, and the Samsas in Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis are no different. After Gregor, the main breadwinner of the family, wakes up one morning as a bug, the Samsas must take in three gentlemen as boarders in order to bring in money. However, what they end up bringing in proves to be far worse than just three men. The three boarders are more than characters who make the Samsas their servants. Rather, they are representative of a more sinister foe. The three boarders are a representation of the harsh world outside of Gregor’s apartment, where uselessness is not tolerated and where the people with power need to suppress the weak in order to establish authority.

From the instant the three boarders are introduced, it is made clear that “unnecessary clutter was something they could not tolerate, especially if it was dirty” (35). For this reason, the Samsas move all the trash and objects that have no place in the house into Gregor’s room. Trash and unnecessary items serve no purpose but to take up space. Much like Gregor as a bug, these items are useless. The trash piled up in Gregor’s room is symbolic of the people...