This is my second time reading The Metamorphosis, but I had never considered the influence that the war might have had on it. The part of the story that I thought resembled our previous readings the most was the how Gregor  dealt with his situation with unsettling rationality. The completely calm  way that he responded to finding himself a vermin reminded me of Brittain and her experiences as a nurse. They both dealt with their situations-- violent war wounds in Brittain's case and transformation for Gregor-- with numbness and attempts to maintain a sense of normality. While Brittain coped with the unreality by  with mindless work that made her too tired to fully process her situation, Gregor responded by trying to sort out how he's going to get to work and explain the situation to his superiors. Neither of them react  with any sort of intense feeling to their situations which would normally be considered extremely emotionally upsetting.