Fun fact: Gregor Samson, who turns into a giant bug, was actually a traveling salesman
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Now that’s inspired—a metafictional mashup where Kafka’s The Metamorphosis and Miller’s Death of a Salesman begin to bleed into each other, with surreal and tragicomic results.
The Salesman: A Kafka-Miller Fusion
Opening line:
As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from unsettling dreams, he found himself transformed into a middle-aged traveling salesman named Willy Loman, surrounded by bills, brochures, and a fading sense of purpose.
At first, the cockroach is thrilled: finally respected, wearing a suit, shaking hands, getting on trains. But soon the salesman routine turns nightmarish—endless miles, closed doors, false smiles. He’s haunted by dreams of a giant insect locked in an upstairs bedroom. Is it his former self? Or his true self, trying to crawl back in?
His family doesn’t understand him. His boss doesn’t recognize him. His son Biff delivers cryptic speeches about authenticity, and Gregor/Willy wonders if he ever truly mattered—or if he was just an echo in a world that never listened.
By Act III, Kafka's surreal dread and Miller’s crushing realism collapse into one another:
"Attention, must be paid," says the father.
"To what?" says the insect.
"To what we used to be, before we sold ourselves piece by piece."
The story ends ambiguously, with Gregor/Willy lying on a subway bench, muttering about territory, dignity, and apple cores, as both cockroach legs and briefcase handles twitch in the dim light.
