Franz Kafka’s Novella ”The Metamorphosis”, Book Review Example

Franz Kafka’s novella, The Metamorphosis, encompasses the journey of a man into the world of an insect. This existential work is often dismissed as absurdist, however it serves to give a unique and striking portrayal of the transformation of its protagonist, Gregor Samsa, into a “monstrous vermin” (Metamorphosis, 54). Kafka’s narration is marked by skepticism, dark humor, and a keen wit. It expresses an underlying cynicism borne of exploitation, misery and injustice. The idea of vermin is essential to interpreting the work. Gregor’s character is a symbolic vehicle through which Kafka explores his troubled relationship with his father and his feelings of alienation from society at large. The metamorphosis causes Gregor to be treated as if he is something less than human – a sentiment that Kafka often expressed in his other writings. Gregor’s transformation, then, is outwardly symbolic of the pain of Kafka’s lived experience. Gregor’s appearance comes to reflect his social situation, thus embodying Kafka’s sense of social, religious, and philosophical alienation.

There are many biographical similarities between Gregor and Kafka. When the reader first meets Gregor, he is painted as a good son, a simple and hardworking employee whose efforts to repay his parents’ debts go mostly unappreciated. This portrait strongly resembles Kafka’s troubled relationship with his father, Hermann, a businessman who was heavily critical of his son for refusing to take up the family business.

After years of abuse, Kafka came to feel reviled and unwanted. After years of abuse, Kafka felt like vermin; unpleasant, reviled and unwanted. In his unpublished “Letter to His Father”, he goes so far as to refer to himself as “Ungeziefer” – that is, as vermin (Franz Kafka Diary, 43). He was so intimated by his father he developed a stammer, so severe he could barely communicate, while in his presence. His growing feeling of isolation from his family led him to confess in his diary that they “are all strangers to me, we are related only by blood” (Diary, 43). Kafka was never able to gather the courage to rebel against his father –he quite literally lacked the voice to protest – but his feelings of insignificance can be seen in a later diary while proclaiming that his father had “inevitably broken my spirit” (Diary, 123).

It is easily seen how Kafka’s life imitated his art when the reader is introduced to Gregor’s father, a demanding man who immediately displays a violent temper. Every portrayal of Mr. Samsa is laced with visually violent verbiage. Upon one of our first introductions to the character we here how “his father knotted his fist with a fierce expression on his face as if he meant to knock Gregor back into his room” (Metamorphosis, 34). Upon learning of Gregor’s transformation, Mr Samsa “came on, hissing like a wild man” (Metamorphosis,54).

Outraged by the loss of the family’s only means of support, he shows no concern for his son’s plight . Instead, Mr. Samsa calls him a failure and subjects him to constant belittling abuse, even to the point of throwing apples at him. Kafka’s pain can be felt as he describes the way an apple lodged into Gregor’s “armored back” causing him great anguish and subsequently breaking his spirit. Gregor’s transformation thus reflects Kafka’s intense feelings of isolation, vulnerability and inability to protect himself or emotions with ‘armor’ of any kind.

These feelings of isolation were not limited to his family and individual plight, but also extended to include societal implications. Kafka’s personal story has evolved from a minority Jewish community and it appeared that this period was conversational when many families migrated from the country to villages, were vehement and staunch, they disregarded the sentiments of their children and subordinated them to relent to their desires and being absorbed in a new cultural environment. The setting was industrial Europe and in an attempt to assimilate with society, parents were over intrusive about the thoughts and actions of their children. They felt their children should be required to follow their path, principles, logic and ideals, and disregarded to individual preferences, abilities or goals.

Kafka was a writer at heart and could never associate himself as a businessman or lawyer. However, the subjugation of society and his family had virtually forced him to accept the profession. Working long hours at a job he despised, Kafka felt like a vermin living in the body of a human. He felt his freedom was ruthlessly curbed and harbored a tremendous amount of resentment over that fact. He reflects in his 1913 diary entry, “they have cheated me of what is mine and yet, without going insane, I can’t revolt against the law of nature –and so hatred and only hatred”.

This autocratic and selfish behavior of society is mirrored in Metamorphosis. When the parents of Gregor find that their son is deformed and affected, their first concern was for Gregor’s “job”. They instantly became worried about the financial implications; “in the course of the very first day, the father explained the family’s financial position and prospects to both the mother and the sister” (Metamorphosis,25) The family is worried about the financial implications that would fall on their family in the absence of their son’s income. Following his sudden transformation, they express not sympathy or concern, but rather disgust for his neglect of his responsibilities and his family treats him like the vermin he has become.

Gregor is astounded by his family’s hypocrisy and is sad to see that he has wasted his life for the happiness and affluence of his ‘so called’ family. Regardless of this apathy, he still attempts to embrace his sister and search for some sign of love from his family, but is repeatedly rebuffed. Instead of being consoled, his personal effects were removed and he was alienated. They recoil from him, as from vermin, leaving him to suffer alone. His appearance came to reflect their treatment of him and thus he becomes a symbol of himself. His metamorphosis does not change his family’s treatment of him as a repulsive and inhuman creature, instead, it merely reveals the rift that had long ago separated him from those he loved, and who were supposed to love him in return. Once again, this scenario revels the similarity between Gregor and Kafka.

Lacking family and societal acceptance, Kafka began to reflect on religion and philosophy, developing attitudes that are reflected in Gregor’s plight. The author was born in Prague a part of the German Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was of the Jewish faith where Czech was spoken and segregated its Jewish population into a German speaking ghetto. Thus, Kafka grew up as a member of a minority (the Jewish community) within a minority(The German speaking population) at a time when there was little or no communication between these two groups or with the predominately Czech-speaking citizens of Prague and faced a mounting anti-Semitism during WW1. Although Kafka was an atheist in his young age he had an interest in religion which led him to develop a unique brand of “social atheism” that informed his work. His characters are often abused, oppressed, secluded, and suffering; themes of alienation and abandonment pervade in his writing.

Gregor’s voice, which becomes a unintelligible squeak, represents this idea of being alien, unheeded and misunderstood. Gregor’s transformation serves to further isolate him from the rest of humanity, turning him into something insignificant, filthy, repulsive, and fit for extermination. He is the object of loathing and disgust. He is ostracized even by his own family, acknowledging that he is “repulsive… and was bound to remain repulsive” (Metamorphosis, 28). “In accordance with family duty (the Samsa’s) were required to quell their aversion and tolerate him, but only tolerate” (Metamorphosis,37). This sense of being an outsider who is repugnant to others is frequently associated with Jewish sensibilities, and it is a theme often represented in Kafka’s work. After being abandoned by his family and society, Kafka is unable to find ultimate acceptance even from God.

The Metamorphosis is, in the final analysis, less a physical transformation than a mental one. Gregor’s change does not alter the treatment he receives from others, but it does affect the perception of himself. The transformation reflects Kafka’s troubled search for meaning, identity, and acceptance in his own life. Though the novella is undeniably witty, it is weighed down by pervasive sadness, and the deep and unrelenting loneliness of its author. In an absurdist tale of a human becoming an alien, Kafka writes of the alienation of humanity. His exploration of these themes is eloquent, to be sure, but the fundamental emptiness of his personal philosophy does not allow him to allay his fears. In this, both author and character remain unfulfilled.