Two subjects, one characteristic; both realize that there is a transformation relating to the body and changes away from human ability to "a monstrous insect," or to a life-less body (Kafka 319). From Nina Straus we are given a reason to believe that she too believes in "the change of Gregor's male body into a subhuman form," and also realizes that "an insect cannot be expected to pay off debts" (Straus 655). The meaning in saying the change to "subhuman form" is similar to one that is a change from being human to losing the ability to function as a human, basically losing it all. She acknowledges that there is a lack of human features and a loss of the ability to function correctly. Although John Shea discusses old age, he also shows that there is no other meaning besides one that has to do with "the denial of human dignityand [the] loss of evidence of cognitive ability of a person at any age and especially in the aged," showing that there is a transformation away from a human life. He shows the reader that when Gregor essentially transforms into a large beetle-like creature he is losing the ability to function like a human being, also without human characteristics. From what the reader is shown, his topic revolves around the characteristic of the transformation from being human-like to something worse, a body with no human characteristics, like "a person who has lost cognitive ability," they are "already dead" (Shea 1). It seems as though the mutual characteristic and theme of both subjects, and also the meaning of Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis, revolves around transformation and the transformation of one who is close to death, seeming as though life has no meaning anymore for them they are not recognized to have human dignity.
On a different note, though there is a similar topic involved in both arguments, the two do not develop the same overall meaning, and are overall very different.
