Franz Kafka was born in 1883 in Prague to an affluent Jewish middle-class family. Throughout his life, he tried to win his dad’s approval- he felt inadequate and guilty, but he did not openly rebel against his abusive father. This father-son relationship is explicitly shown throughout The Metamorphosis, especially with regard to father’s apathy toward Gregor’s situation and his sharp temper when he threw the apple at Gregor, thus crippling him. Kafka’s mother was the moral pillar of the family and Franz was very close with his sisters. He lived with his parents for most of his life, but felt alienated and desired solitude. These are illustrated through Gregor’s close relationship with Grete and his mother’s care for his life- she yells at father not to kill Gregor. Kafka had body image problems and often compared himself to an insect in disgust, which seems to have been the influence for The Metamorphosis.

Kafka was part of a literary circle with Franz Werfel, Martin Buber, and Max Brod. Brod encouraged Kafka to publish his literature, which was his “sole passion,” but before Kafka died of tuberculosis in 1924, Kafka ordered Brod to burn his manuscripts. Brod instead published them, and now his stories are some of the most well-known today. Kafka was an “obscure writer of short novels…, who didn’t appear to have had formative experiences; no extensive trips or associations with writers of equal stature… his life was almost empty of incident.” (Corngold) Kafka was a conscientious and responsible employee, but suffered from routine and stress at the office and felt that his job interfered with his writing, which mattered most to him. He felt “cursed” by his writings’ “power over him.” (Corngold)