Paper for Dissertation Class - A Comparison Between Franz Kafka's Own Life and His Fictive Character Gregory Samsa

In order to examine the contribution of the author's own life to the piece of writing via psychoanalytic literary criticism, let us take Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis as an example and look for the clues about Kafka's life.
"Als Gregor Samsa eines Morgens aus unruhigen Träumen erwachte, fand er sich in seinem Bett zu einem ungeheueren Ungeziefer verwandelt."
Reading the first sentence of the novella, the first thing we learn about the main character, Gregor Samsa, is that one day he wakes up from his uneasy dreams, to find himself in his bed, turned into an 'Ungeziefer'. There are several translations for the German word 'Ungeziefer' ; cockroach, dung beetle, beetle, bug. Except for dung beetle which feed on feces, all of these alternative animals live on plants. When we do a little reading about Kafka's biography, we will see that he was a vegeterian. If this little detail was the only one, it might sound quite interesting, yet irrelevant. But the more we look for parallels, the more we find them.
In German culture Ungeziefer means: an animal which is not clean and so is not appropriate for sacrifice. Kafka himself was a Chech born, jewish person with German origin, living in Chech but going to German schools and speaking German language. He and his jewish parents and siblings lived during the Nazi period. And all these elements, being quite incompatible with each other but still being parts of his life, caused him to be always excluded from the rest; he was not embraced by the Chech because he was studying at German schools and speaking German; he was not embraced by the German because he was jewish. One can say that Kafka led a life almost like that of a bug, that of an Ungeziefer and that of Gregor Samsa; not embraced, withdrawn, excluded, hiding in the dark, escaping to come to the light. If it was not for his best friend Max Brod, whom he met at the university, and the letters he wrote to several friends, he did not even want his stories coming to the light. In the publisher's note by Arthur H. Samuelson written for his The Castle Kafka's own words explain how he prefers to keep in his inn:"Dearest Max, my last request: Everything I leave behind me ... in the way of diaries, manuscripts, letters (my own and others'), sketches, and so on, [is] to be burned unread. . . . Yours, Franz Kafka"During the years Kafka's The Metamorphosis was published, the books generally included illustrations. However, Kafka is said to have denied drawing an illustration to the first page in order to show what Gregor Samsa looked like. Daniel Hornek, on his website on Kafka's biography, reports that, in the letter he wrote to his publisher, Kurt Wolff, Kafka is reported to have said: " Not that, anything but that! The insect itself cannot be depicted. It mustn’t even be shown from a distance." What makes Kafka more like his character Gregor Samsa is he did not like being taken photos of.
In terms of their jobs, there are some parallels which looks more than a simple coincidence. Gregor Samsa is working as a travelling salesman with his bag in his hand and in his suits. Kafka also had a job in several companies like Assicurizioni Generali Insurance Company and Workers' Accident Insurance Institute.(1998, viii- xii)(Kafka, 1946: 1)