Why a vermit??

[kparra]

Personally i think that he turned into a vermin b/c the cockroach is one of the most repulsive animal and he got turned into it b/c since he was trying to escape his normal life he turned into a cockroach he felt liberated in some ways but still trapped in other ways

[Camille Cooper]

Nice insight.

[kelby_lake]

I'd say a vermin (well, basically a sort of hideous beetle) because it is a pest. The natural reaction to a pest seems to be to crush it or dispose of it. Perhaps also because of the limited movement a beetle has, or because beetles are a bit like workers.

[hypatia_]

I think that Kafka made Gregor a vermin because he wrote this as an autobiography for himself and the vermin is a symbol of what he thought or what his family thought of him like a pest

i think so too. from what i have read about kafka (very little, admittedly), he was very self-conscious about his appearance, and was very at ends with his father. if someone with more knowledge could elaborate that would be greatly appreciated

i also feel a lot of the choosing of the vermin had to do with the language it allowed him to use. he wanted gregor to be able to slither and crawl, in an effort to contrast between him and his family after the transformation. but part of me thinks kafka still considered gregor a slitherer and crawler even before the metamorphosis occurred?