دوستان. از کافکا دو کتاب از نشر ماهی منتشر می‌شه که هر دو یکی هستند در واقع. با این تفاوت که یکی مسلماً کم‌حجم‌تره چون فقط پنج تا از داستان‌های اون یکی رو در بر داره.
اینو گفتم که اگه کسی کتاب ‌داستان‌های کوتاه کافکا رو تهیه می‌کنه، بدونه که دیگه هیچ لزومی نداره ‌مسخ و داستان‌های دیگر رو هم داشته باشه.

ولی به‌نظرم اگه تابه‌حال از کافکا چیزی نخوندید و مایلید بخونید، بهترین انتخاب، همین کتابه که فقط داستان‌های "مسخ"، "لانه"، "هنرمند گرسنگی"، "گزارش به فرهنگستان" و "در سرزمین محکومان" رو شامل می‌شه.

خودم بیشتر از همه "هنرمند گرسنگی" رو دوست دارم و همیشه هم خوندنش رو به دوستانم گوشزد کرده‌م.

در ضمن، از همین تریبون به علاقمندان "تونل" ساباتو پیشنهاد می‌کنم "لانه‌"ی کافکا رو بخونن تا عمیقاً متوجه بشن
Who's the Boss?

So, he woke up and found himself transformed into a big insect. That is something you don't read about everyday.
I loved this novella. Kafka's well known for creating absurd and claustrophobic universes that a lot of us can relate to. The Metamorphosis is no exception. It has a lot of meanings, symbolism everywhere; a deep, philosophical twist that I love.

There's this guy, who is not quite excited about his job, his boss in particular (weird, huh?). And then, out of the blue, he becomes an insect. He realizes that he's now a burden to his family. He is alone in his own house. He once was a relevant part of the family, a provider. But now, being an insect and all, he can't support them anymore; he is useless. An alienated and depressed burden with a lot of skinny legs. That can be such a familiar feeling (except for the transformation into an actual insect, of course). And Kafka describes it disgustingly beautiful.

I read it in high school, and loved it. I read it again and loved it more. There's not a lot of warm and fuzzy feelings in a Kafkaesque universe; they can be cold, confusing, honest... real. But with a touch of humor that prevents you from wanting to jump off your balcony.


* Also on my blog.

¿Cómo interpretar este libro?

La metamorfosis es uno de esos libros que tenemos en casa porque nos obligaron a leerlo cuando estudiábamos en secundaria, pero que después de usarlo para entregar el trabajo correspondiente fue olvidado en el rincón más oscuro de nuestro hogar. Quizás no es el caso de ustedes, pero el mío sí. Hace unas semanas cuando limpiaba mi casa, encontré este libro por casualidad e inmediatamente al mirarlo, me percaté de que nunca lo había leído a pesar de su fama mundial y de ser un clásico de la literatura. Recordé, que mis hermanos tuvieron que leerlo en el colegio, pero que a mí nunca me pidieron hacerlo, por lo que simplemente lo había ignorado y ni siquiera había mirado su sinopsis; en ese momento la leí, me llamó la atención y cuando reaccioné ya había leído este texto en menos de una hora.

La historia trata de un joven comerciante llamado Gregorio Samsa, quien un día sin razón alguna despierta convertido en insecto. A partir de ahí, acompañaremos a Gregorio en su experiencia, y conoceremos las consecuencias anímicas y económicas que está transformación trae en su vida y en la de toda su familia. En este libro, no se nos explicará la razón por la que Gregorio sufrió la metamorfosis, pero si encontraremos un texto que nos hará reflexionar gracias a su historia triste y desesperanzadora. Esa reflexión, dependerá exclusivamente de la interpretación del lector, por lo que el mensaje que Kafka quería transmitir originalmente, puede ser distinto con referencia al que hallaremos en nuestra época, así como en los próximos siglos. Esta característica, es lo que hace que este libro se consideré como un clásico de la literatura.

Personalmente cuando finalicé esta lectura, lo primero que sentí fue desconcierto por lo que acababa de leer. Si bien disfruté de la excelente prosa de Kafka, la simpleza de la historia me dejó algo inconforme, porque la ausencia de intrigas, de un buen final, de un mayor desarrollo e incluso de un nudo en la historia me llevó a pensar que la sinopsis no era un incentivo para leer esta obra, sino que realmente era el resumen del libro. Ante estos eventos, me interesé en investigar sobre Kafka para entender el motivo por el cual hizo este libro. Después de investigar, he llegado a la conclusión de que La Metamorfosis y otros textos del autor, existen simplemente por la necesidad de expresar la tristeza que reinaba en el corazón de Kafka. Es muy probable que él no haya pensado en hacer críticas al capitalismo o a la sociedad, sino simplemente plasmar sus sentimientos con historias desalentadoras que lo ayudarán a desahogarse de sus problemas personales. Solo era un individuo más, que se sentía atrapado en el sistema en el que vivimos desde el momento de nacer.

La historia pesimista de Gregorio, representa con precisión la forma como Kafka se sentía en la realidad; y por ello, la interpretación de La Metamorfosis se ha convertido en una fuerte crítica al capitalismo y a la forma como la sociedad desestima al individuo. Usar a los trabajadores como esclavos maltratándolos mentalmente, humillándolos, tratándolos como objetos desechables, aprovechándose de sus necesidades para explotarlos e ilusionarlos con sueños que dependerán de décadas de sacrificio y tortura diaria, se representan en la vida de estos personajes, que sentirán permanentemente desagrado, ansiedad, tensión y miedo por el porvenir.

Los acontecimientos de este libro, también se pueden interpretar como la historia que tiene que vivir una familia cuando tienen en su casa un enfermo terminal o en estado vegetativo, que requiere de cuidado, tiempo y dinero para poder sobrevivir. Gregorio, representaría a ese enfermo que sufre y se siente inútil, mientras su familia llena de infelicidad, adquiere muchas deudas y modifica su forma de vivir por la obligación a cuidarlo y soportarlo; aunque en el fondo, esperan que fallezca para liberarse de esas obligaciones y volver a tener paz, ya que realmente no se puede hacer nada para ayudarlo y en cambio, los está perjudicando en todos los aspectos de su vida.

Otra interpretación algo más rebuscada, es pensar que aquellos que no trabajan son vistos como “bichos raros” en esta sociedad. Baso esta afirmación, por el cambio de actitud tan radical que tiene la familia de Gregorio hacia él, antes y después de trabajar. A pesar de que parecen obvias las razones para el cambio de comportamiento, aún tengo dudas de si fue por la metamorfosis o por el impedimento de Gregorio para laborar; este hecho, causó que todos en su familia tuvieran que buscar formas de ganar dinero, por lo que el disgusto de cambiar sus rutinas al tener que trabajar es muy notorio en toda la familia Samsa.

A pesar de las reflexiones, de la lectura fluida y de su popularidad, he decidido calificar esta obra con 3.1 por la falta de elaboración de la trama y por no explicar las causas de la metamorfosis de Gregorio, esto último, un error grave. Sin importar que hubiera sido la picazón de un insecto, un virus o una maldición, creo que Kafka debió aclarar algo tan elemental. Omitiendo estos detalles, encontraremos un libro interesante que nos hará recordar que no todos los clásicos tienen una lectura densa y que incluso en los peores momentos de nuestra vida podemos crear grandes cosas.

Q:
One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that in bed he had been changed into a monstrous verminous bug. (c) I can't help thinking of Dave Cronenberg's 'The Fly', which gave me nightmares once. 'The Metamorphosis' is a close contender.

I admit the idea to put it all like this is fantastic! But, Lord! I am conflicted about this one, since I'm simultaneously hating this book with passion and feeling its cathartic potential.

Q:
‘... Gregor has broken loose.’ (c) And it goes really downhill from there.

I'm loving to hate Kafka.

Q:
So for diversion he acquired the habit of crawling back and forth across the walls and ceiling. He was especially fond of hanging from the ceiling. (c)

I do get the whole claptrap of crap ideas happening to be expressed in here but their delivery is plenty horrible. The allegories of clinical depression, debt, self-loathing, acceptance and mutual caring and betrayal and life and professional deformation and social/familial ties and their fragility, at best, and all the other wonder-crap we get introduced in here...

Frankly, I read it ages ago and loathed it. I reread it, because, duh, I've grown up and maybe I'm more prepared for this one... DUH! I'm hating it even more. I feel as if this book's contagious with depression, since, well, almost any kind of debilitating illness could have been portrayed in here, instead if the bug-ness. I feel sorry for the poor bugger and I don't want all this imagery in my head. Still... it's horrible enough to be incredible!

Rating: I start at +5 stars.
The author's genius gets to add +1000 stars.
My inner nightmare architect gets to subtract -1000 stars.
Result: 5 stars.
The book is wonderful and clever and grotesque and allegoristic and cool and I'm too squeamish for my own good.
It definitely could be cathartic for someone. Or not.
So, it's me, it's not the book. 5 stars it is.

Q:
‘This getting up early,’ he thought, ‘makes a man quite idiotic. A man must have his sleep. (c)
Q:
I cannot make you understand. I cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside me. I cannot even explain it to myself. (c)
Q:
Gregor was still here and wasn’t thinking at all about abandoning his family. At the moment he was lying right there on the carpet... (c)
Q:
But it was the very uncertainty which distressed the others and excused their behaviour. (c)
Q:
It seemed to Gregor that it might be far more reasonable to leave him in peace at the moment, instead of disturbing him with crying and conversation. (c)
Q:
I am amazed. I am amazed. I thought I knew you as a calm, reasonable person, and now you appear suddenly to want to start parading around in weird moods. (c)
Q:
... Mr. Manager? To the office? Really? Will you report everything truthfully? A person can be incapable of work momentarily, but that is precisely the best time to remember the earlier achievements and to consider that later, after the obstacles have been shoved aside, the person will work all the more keenly and intensely. (c) This could have been the very best ever allegory of the modern office.
Q:
... the manager had already turned away, and now he looked back at Gregor over his twitching shoulders with pursed lips. During Gregor’s speech he was not still for a moment, but was moving away towards the door, without taking his eyes off Gregor, but really gradually, as if there was a secret ban on leaving the room. He was already in the hall, and after the sudden movement with which he finally pulled his foot out of the living room, one could have believed that he had just burned the sole of his foot. In the hall, however, he stretched out his right hand away from his body towards the staircase, as if some truly supernatural relief was waiting for him there. (c) Lovely scene.
Q:
His parents did not understand all this very well. Over the long years, they had developed the conviction that Gregor was set up for life in his firm and, in addition, they had so much to do nowadays with their present troubles that all foresight was foreign to them. (c)
Q:
... he felt a great pride that he had been able to provide such a life in a beautiful apartment like this for his parents and his sister. (c)
Q:
Thus, he had a long time to think undisturbed about how he should reorganize his life from scratch. But the high, open room, in which he was compelled to lie flat on the floor, made him anxious, without his being able to figure out the reason, for he had lived in the room for five years. With a half unconscious turn and not without a slight shame he scurried under the couch, where, in spite of the fact that his back was a little cramped and he could no longer lift up his head, he felt very comfortable and was sorry only that his body was too wide to fit completely under it. (c)
Q:
But his sister noticed right away with astonishment that the bowl was still full, with only a little milk spilled around it. She picked it up immediately (although not with her bare hands but with a rag), and took it out of the room. (c)
Q:
She brought him, to test his taste, an entire selection, all spread out on an old newspaper. There were old half-rotten vegetables, bones from the evening meal, covered with a white sauce which had almost solidified, some raisins and almonds, cheese, which Gregor had declared inedible two days earlier, a slice of dry bread, a slice of salted bread smeared with butter. (c) Lovely, a bunch of inedible stuff for the Bug.
Q:
Certainly they would not have wanted Gregor to starve to death, but perhaps they could not have endured finding out what he ate other than by hearsay. (c)
Q:
Already during the first day his father laid out all the financial circumstances and prospects to his mother and to his sister as well. ...
He had thought that nothing at all was left over for his father from that business; at least his father had told him nothing to the contradict that view, and Gregor in any case hadn’t asked him about it. At the time Gregor’s only concern had been to devote everything he had in order to allow his family to forget as quickly as possible the business misfortune which had brought them all into a state of complete hopelessness. And so at that point he’d started to work with a special intensity and from an assistant had become, almost overnight, a traveling salesman, who naturally had entirely different possibilities for earning money and whose successes at work at once were converted into the form of cash commissions, which could be set out on the table at home in front of his astonished and delighted family. Those had been beautiful days, and they had never come back afterwards, at least not with the same splendour, in spite of the fact that Gregor later earned so much money that he was in a position to bear the expenses of the entire family, expenses which he, in fact, did bear. They had become quite accustomed to it, both the family and Gregor as well. They took the money with thanks, and he happily surrendered it, but the special warmth was no longer present. (c)
Q:
This feeling sought release at every opportunity, and with it Grete now felt tempted to want to make Gregor’s situation even more terrifying, so that then she would be able to do even more for him than now. For surely no one except Grete would ever trust themselves to enter a room in which Gregor ruled the empty walls all by himself. (c)
Q:
Grete’s purpose was clear to Gregor: she wanted to bring his mother to a safe place and then chase him down from the wall. Well, let her just attempt that! (c)
Q:
They were cleaning out his room, taking away from him everything he cherished; they had already dragged out the chest of drawers in which the fret saw and other tools were kept, and they were now loosening the writing desk which was fixed tight to the floor, the desk on which he, as a business student, a school student, indeed even as an elementary school student, had written out his assignments. (c)
Q:
Was that the same man who had lain exhausted and buried in bed in earlier days when Gregor was setting out on a business trip, who had received him on the evenings of his return in a sleeping gown and arm chair, totally incapable of standing up, who had only lifted his arm as a sign of happiness... But now he was standing up really straight, dressed in a tight fitting blue uniform with gold buttons, like the ones servants wear in a banking company. Above the high stiff collar of his jacket his firm double chin stuck out prominently, beneath his bushy eyebrows the glance of his black eyes was freshly penetrating and alert, his otherwise disheveled white hair was combed down into a carefully exact shining part. (c)
Q:
Gregor’s serious wound, from which he suffered for over a month (since no one ventured to remove the apple, it remained in his flesh as a visible reminder), seemed by itself to have reminded the father that, in spite of his present unhappy and hateful appearance, Gregor was a member of the family, something one should not treat as an enemy, and that it was, on the contrary, a requirement of family duty to suppress one’s aversion and to endure—nothing else, just endure. (c)
Q:
Was he an animal that music so seized him? For him it was as if the way to the unknown nourishment he craved was revealing itself to him. (c)
Q:
It must be gotten rid of,’ cried the sister ...how can it be Gregor? If it were Gregor, he would have long ago realized that a communal life among human beings is not possible with such an animal and would have gone away voluntarily. Then we would not have a brother, but we could go on living and honour his memory. But this animal plagues us. (c)
Q:
The fright had only lasted for a moment. Now they looked at him in silence and sorrow. (c)
Q:
He remembered his family with deep feeling and love. In this business, his own thought that he had to disappear was, if possible, even more decisive than his sister’s. (c)
Q:
‘...about how that rubbish from the next room should be thrown out...(c) Yep, they did put a lot of rubbish in there, too. Still, they probably are including Gregor into this designation as well. How do you go from being the backbone of a family to rubbish? In a hurry.

solo me quise hacer la intelectual

He is fool by spending his life to them; nobody would care if he became an ugly Metamorphosis!!

إنه أحمق عندما ينفق حياته على أحد؛ فلن يهتموا به أبداً عندما يصبح مسخاً !!

ولأقولها صريحة، فكل علاقة ينقصها التكافؤ، ستتآكل بالتقادم حتما. سواء كانت الرابطة حب أم صداقة، فمصيرها الزوال بتلاشي احتياجهم لك ولخدماتك. الحب والارتباط هي مجرد مشاعر تعكس رغبات واحتياجات دفينة قد لا نعي بكينونتها بداخلنا.. يعطي الناس معاني مخادعة لاحتياجاتهم المخجلة!.
ولتتعظ ببطل الرواية "جريجور سامسا"، الذي ظل فردا من العائلة حتى أصابه العجز وانقطع عن العمل والكسب، فأصبح بعدها مسخا كالحشرة، وأصبح وجوده مزعجا مقززا..
ربما شعرت الأخت بالمسؤولية والالتزام نحوه؛ "فالعِشرة لا تهون إلا على أولاد الحرام"، ولكن إلى متى؟ إلى متى ستجبر نفسها على خدمته، رغم تقززها ورغم "قلة حيلته"؟
صديقي، إلى متى ستقبل ببناء علاقتك بهم على أساس شفقتهم وبعض مشاعر الالتزام المؤقتة؟!..
صديقي، أنا لا أرتضي لك مثل هذه العلاقة البائسة، فلا ترتضيها أنت لنفسك. ولنتعظ جميعنا من وقائع المسخ "جريجور سامسا"..

Let's declare it directly honestly; that each relationship lacks of equality, would be definitely eroded as time goes by. Whether the bound was LOVE or FRIENDSHIP, its destiny would be a demise as they don't need you anymore. LOVE and ENGAGEMENT are merely feelings that reflect hidden needs and desires we might don't aware of its existence inside us.
People give their impressive needs a trickery terms.

Take a lesson from novel's main character "Gregor Samsa". he was part of the family until he is poor and incapable of working and earning, therefore he became a metamorphosis like a beetle, which is annoying to be exist with them.

May be his sister took responsibility and commitment to him, as they say "Intimacy doesn't be ignored except by sons of Prostitution". but how long? for how long she will force herself to serve him, despite she is disgusted of him and of his deficiency?!!.

My friend, how long will you accept building your relationship with them on their sympathy and kindness, and on their temporary feel of commitment?
My friend, I don't satisfy with such a poor relationship for you, so please, don't be okay with that for yourself.
and let's get a moral of Chronicles of "Gregor Samsa".

Well, this sure was a weird and thought-provoking book.

It is about a man who wakes up to find himself an insect and it follows the effect this has on his family and how he comes to terms with the change and adapts to it.

I am assuming it is about feelings of alienation and being 'different'.

A short yet profound story.

I'm looking forward to checking out "The Trial"

I once used my copy to kill a beetle.
Thereby combining my two passions: irony and slaughter.

*wields*

Could have been weirder

*edited on 26.04.2024 after reading and in response to Father's Last Escape by Bruno Schulz

The Metamorphosis

Franz Kafka


The Metamorphosis can quite easily be one of Franz Kafka’s best works of literature- one of the best in Existentialist literature. Franz Kafka has been one of my all time favorite authors, he quite effortlessly shows the struggle of human existence- the problem of living in modern society- through the narrator, the world of Kafka is surreal having tinge of fantsay but still a perfect mirror to our real world.


One fine morning, Gregor Samsa wakes in his bed and finds himself metamorphosized into an a mammoth bug- the vermin; as expected, he struggles to comprehend what realily has transpired, for the reality may be stranger than fiction but what has happened is out of proportions, he checks out his little room and though everything looks ordinary to him anyway it gets a peculiar inclination it may not be so. He attempts to turn over and return to stay in bed so that he may do away with the unease of his newly found existence, requests to disregard what has occurred, but the state of strange and recently transformed back limits his mobility to just side to side, as if his degrees of movements have been limited in sync with his existence.

"As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect."


Franz Kafka has a panache to throw the reader off guard, starightaway, through the very direct manner in which the initial lines of the novella relates the odd occasion of Gregor's transformation, the author raises the normal circumstances to abnormal levels to give it a tinge of surrealism and infuses it with commonality of the life to make a preposterous world which is crisp, disorganized as opposed to rational and normal, as we expect it to be; but the Kafka always do what you least expect.

The protagonist of the story, Gregor Samsa agonizingly becomes accustomed to his creepy vermin body and his family takes care of him (mostly an inappropriate things, however they couldn't care less) and expels furniture from his room with the goal that he can uninhibitedly move around and climb the walls. Be that as it may, they would prefer not to see his appalling structure, he is kept to his room, and normally stows away under the couch when his sister enters with his food, to save her sensibilities (as opposed to the pleasantly human creepy crawly Gregor, his sister isn't chivalrous in any way, yet progressively hostile and barbarous); his brutish dad (as Kafka himself had been quite afraid of his father) pursues him back by tossing apples at him when he once comes out. The relatives additionally need to take employments for they can no longer soak up the fruitful child. What's more, the circumstance separates, and the family crumbles.


The problem of alienation is explored to depth in the novella- Gregor become insect and behaviour of his family members change towards him, he may transformed to something unusual at the core he is still the same however he faces problem of acceptance by society due to his transformed appearance, which ridicules his being- his existence- as if he is thrown into the hell of nothingness without any notice. The feebleness of his existence disintegrates his being into nothingness, under the sheer pressure of the society- the 'Other'.

The novella raises some very basic and profound questions of human existence- alienation, identity, being. Kafka questions all our presuppositions of life- success, social position, money, that a healthy life is characterized by a steadily improving standard of living and a socially-acceptable appearance which we think matter most- through Gregor's metamorphosis. These presuppositions of our life pose more serious questions- which are very chilly and which can rip us apart from any sense of our (inauthentic) existence.

The author robs Gregor-the protagonist- of every sense of his inauthentic existence by stealing off all assumptions of his life, now he is striped down to the very core of his existence. The protagonist is encountered with basic problems of human existence- what it takes to be?- which we encounter in our lives- if we once appeared socially acceptable and now have ceased to do so, are we still in fact ourselves? Was the socially-acceptable persona in fact ourselves, or is there more essential self-ness in the being we have now become? Or have we, in fact, been nobody in the first place, and are we nobody still?


Gregor Samsa perhpas makes us to look in to our own abyss, to ponder our own character perhaps showing the horror of our lives, about the fluidity of what we take in our lives as fixed and steady. The Metamorphosis makes us question our identity, our very existence- what it takes to be human, about how we try to behave in an manner pleasing to others, perhpas underlining the bad faith of Sartre. The distrubing aspect of the story is the manner in which Gregor Samsa surrenders himself to the fivolity of his family members, the manner in which he is stripped off the exisetnce he has carved for himself is rather unsettling and speaks about irrationality of life, the horrors and dangers of our own metamorphosis. Kafka gives us that how the conventions of normal society are twisted because of our incompetence to look past the surface to the individual inside.

Gregor waking up one morning as a bug was a hilarious analogy of the effects an illness can have on someone, as well as on those who are close to him. Though the underlying story behind the hilarity of the analogy was anything but funny. I took it as more of a warning of what NOT to do when a loved-one is afflicted by some unfortunate disease or circumstance. I found his resistance of acknowledging to himself that he had become a bug in the beginning of the story to be very interesting. When he couldn't ignore his state any longer, he looked to others' reactions as to how he would look at his own condition. As he was trying to unlock his bedroom door to let his parents and supervisor in, he thought,

"If they took fright, then Gregor would have no further responsibility and could rest in peace. But if they took it all calmly, then he had no reason to get excited either and he could, if he hurried, actually be at the station by eight."

The reaction of those around him, and most importantly, those of his closest loved-ones, is what influenced his own attitude towards himself and his own state. He became completely ashamed of himself, striving to completely hide himself from view, though it took great effort and pain on his part to do so. His imprisonment, or rather, his confinement from the company of others, had a devastating affect upon his mental well-being and in turn, affected his physical well-being. Such a sad story and the fact that his family didn't feel remorse for their actions, but relief for themselves at his death... I don't believe Kafka was trying to say this is how humans are indubitably, even though most of them try to put on a show of galantry and higher morals. But that humans certainly can become some of the most self-serving, self-centered creatures on Earth. It serves as a warning to us all that while it is good to allow others to serve us from time to time, it is far better to always serve others. Gregor's family had all become accustomed to being taken care of by him. They didn't even mind that he was held in servitude to pay off their debts. This was made evident when the fact was made known that Gregor's father had been saving up extra money earned by Gregor, when it could have been used to pay for his freedom much sooner. Gregor, on the other hand, had been serving his family and loved them purely because of it. His first thought was not of himself, but of the hardship his condition would cause his family.

So lest we fall into such an ugly state of existence, let us guard ourselves by serving those we love, thus loving more those we serve.

Surreal, inexplicable and unusual, Kafka explores the futility of human existence. Or does he?

Gregor Sansa is turned into a bug and through the process he realises just how insignificant he is, how insignificant we all, ultimately, are in the greater scheme of things. He was his family’s backbone, holding them up, supporting them financially whist they took the easy path. However, when that backbone is removed the unit adapts; it carries on and finds new means of survival. The most important member of the family is swept aside, forgotten about and life continues as it always must. I guess he wasn’t that important after all.

There are so many designs that can be put onto this story, so many interpretations. And this is what Kafka does so well. He leaves you with absolutely nothing, no answers or explanations, only a simple case of this happened and it ended like this. We as readers look for meaning within the narrative because that is how narrative traditionally works. There has to be a point to it all, right? But perhaps that is the point: there is no point. Perhaps by looking too hard we miss what Kafka is trying to say, or not say, with his passive writing.

There are certainly elements of alienation in here, even in the recollections Gregor has before he was turned into a bug. As per the modernist mode, he was isolated from his peers and the world at large. Powerlessness is also another theme that runs through the story. Gregor’s family, and Gregor, cannot stop what is happening. They just have to go on with it and hope to make it through to the other side. A suggestion that no matter how hard we work in life, how much love or success we appear to have, we can be struck down at any moment. Forced into a situation we cannot control, we perish. Such is life.

It would be easy to talk about elements of Kafka’s own biography here, and consider the work’s relevance to events that would eventually happen later in the century, but I think that would be to put too much of a design on the book. His personal feelings about life obviously helped to propel much of his writing. He wrote many strange stories, though Metamorphosis is the most renowned of his work. Utterly compelling, yet bewildering, this isn’t a story that will ever leave the reader. It’s haunting and told with realistic mundanity.

“One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that in his bed he had been changed into a monstrous bug…”