This story begins with a man who awakes
as a dung beetle. Now imagine yourself one. If you have not, the
story will help you through its wonderful description. Inside his
mind we learn that he works as a traveling salesman because his
parents and sister are too lazy to support themselves. They treat him
as if he was some kind of creature only worthy of trudging through
the muck of the world. His boss does not treat him much gentler than
his family.
His family does little to help him
recover and he only slips further into his metamorphosis. He is fed
rotting food for some time by his sister every morning. His father
does not seem to care and his mother is too afraid to visit him for
some time. Later his sister and mother move out all his furniture,
which is all he has left. He slowly slips into death.
The family is seeking wages and takes
on boarders. They hide him from the world, as if he is a stain on
their pants. They wish to push him out of their lives. The boarders
accidentally see him and leave. This is a great disaster to the
family. They are more mad that the son has over stepped his bounds
and caused this problem.
In the end, they no longer need him at
all and wish to move away. But he stand in their way. They have all
found jobs. And he has wasted away into a decaying dung beetle, only
to die eventually. They are glad to be rid of their burden, never
thinking of what he did for them.