Could it really be that Gregor Samsa has transformed from a human being into a fly? This sounds like something out of the X-files, but somehow it happens in "The Metamorphosis," or at least that is what Kafka wants the reader to believe. To be able to read this story, the reader must think that Gregor really has transformed into a fly. In "The Metamorphosis" the author Franz Kafka gains the reader's "willing suspension of disbelief" through Gregor Samsa's and all the other characters' belief that he has become a fly overnight.
             The very first sentence in the story tells the reader that Gregor has been transformed into a fly overnight : "As Gregor Samson awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect" (794). Here Kafka leaves no room for debate by simply stating what has happened. By doing this he helps the reader believe that this has really happened, although one knows that people can not really be transformed into insects. The reader is willing to believe that Gregor has really changed into a fly because it makes the rest of the story easier to read.
             If the other characters besides Gregor did not believe that he was a fly then the reader would have a very difficult time imagining that he really had. The reader gets a very good sense of how horrid Gregor looks from the way his family, boss, and the three lodgers react to his new appearance. This passage (802) describes how his parents react when they first see Gregor as a fly: "His mother - in spite of the chief clerk's being there her hair was still undone and sticking up in all directions - first clasped her hands and looked at his father, then took two steps toward Gregor and fell on the floor among her outspread skirts, her face hidden on her breast. His father knotted his fist with a fierce expression on his face as if he meant to knock Gregor back into his room, then looked uncertainly round the living room...