Granted, I greatly enjoy the work and the freedom of being, essentially, a professional vagrant, yet there is a tinge of alienation being a person without an anchor, always on the move, always chasing a horizon.
The feelings of guilt, of alienation, the struggles with family, everything range true plucking my heartstrings like a guitar to form a foreboding yet fantastic melody. Kafka is as relevant to the modern reader as he was in his own time with themes that illuminate us with their timeless insight into society and the individual. You can watch it here. Aug 13, Glenn Russell rated it it was amazing. Up until the very end, the entire tale takes place in an apartment of a mother, father, son and daughter.
The son is unfortunately unable to continue to perform his job as a traveling salesman and support his family financially. This abrupt change forces the father, mother and daughter to exert more energy in their lives and take steps to earn money. Here is a word about each member of the family: The Father — At the beginning of the tale he is too worn out to even stand up straight and walk across the apartment without pausing.
At the end, he stands up straight, combs his white hair neatly, wears a uniform smartly in his new job working for a bank and can take charge of family situations and challenges with authority. The Mother — At the outset, she is weak and helpless. At the end, she does the household cooking and helps support her family through taking in sewing.
The Daughter — A wan stay-at-home at the beginning and a healthy out-in-the-world worker at the end. At the very end, this 17 year-old blossoms into an attractive young lady, a real catch for some lucky guy. Why does his family assume Gregor lost his human mind? If they wanted, they could simply ask him questions to find out. This speaks volumes about how people are too narrow in their thinking to deal with life creatively and with imagination.
This combination of these opposites is a stroke of genius. View all 31 comments. Gregor Samsa awakes from a bad dream, into a mad nightmare, as he struggles, stuck in his own bed this weary, young traveling salesman, has overnight been miraculously transformed He has missed his train in more ways than one, but Samsa, is a real trooper, still thinks he can catch the locomotive and make that vile business trip, eventually getting off the bed with great difficulty, just a Gregor Samsa awakes from a bad dream, into a mad nightmare, as he struggles, stuck in his own bed this weary, young traveling salesman, has overnight been miraculously transformed He has missed his train in more ways than one, but Samsa, is a real trooper, still thinks he can catch the locomotive and make that vile business trip, eventually getting off the bed with great difficulty, just a slight crash, in truth, opening the locked door somehow and moving around on the floor, in his many, new, ugly little legs the parents and sister are greatly shocked, at his new repulsive appearance.
And when the office manager arrives to see what happened , big mistake, he spots Samsa and is out the door without a word spoken twitching a little. Now the "Bug" becomes a burden to his lazy, ungrateful family after years of Gregor supporting them, all by himself a job he hated, with a big passion , they much embarrassed , hide him in his modest quiet room, feeding the "monstrous vermin", leftover garbage from their table scraps, a menu the bug implausibly prefers Months pass and it becomes obvious something has to give, the reader will decide is Samsa a real dung beetle, or is he mentally ill?
But to some, the gist of the fable is, how much does your family love you? A brutal depiction of a family in tremendous turmoil View all 45 comments.
My ever dearest Kafka, It has come to my attention that you've left a manuscript behind pertaining to the extermination of vermins. So my eccentric little self decided to pick up a copy of yours hoping to annihilate pests of the worst, possibly, the most malicious kind, only to find out you didn't offer such trick.
Well, woe is me! There goes me gay self screaming and running away from flying roaches! Oh bollocks, you could've helped! Interestingly, what I discovered was a lustrou My ever dearest Kafka, It has come to my attention that you've left a manuscript behind pertaining to the extermination of vermins. Interestingly, what I discovered was a lustrous gem of sorts — a brilliant speculative fiction that neither offers answers nor questions as to why something is happening, only that it is really occurring!
While I thought to turn Gregor Samsa into a monstrous insect was quite preposterous, it seems that in the end, it was the most logical choice, or so I thought! If Alice was to trot along with me and find this surreal handbook with absurdist humour, I wager that she'll say the same thing when she was in Wonderland a long time ago, "Curiouser and curiouser!
Give this as a gift, let them read and interpret it, and wish upon a bloody star that one day your enemies will metamorphose into a despicable vermin that you can whack or swat with tremendous gusto, that is, depending on their particular form.
Being turned into a monstrous insect is no mean feat especially if you're a travelling salesman and a breadwinner with a family to support — an asthmatic mother, a workshy father, and a clueless sister. Unfortunately, poor Gregor took that frightful curse of being turned into a vermin of sorts. Once a human who was socially acceptable, now he's but a social pariah — alienated, ostracised, and discriminated.
I wonder though what you've really meant by this novella of yours. Was this a philosophical commentary or an allegory about the human condition, human nature, or our precarious existence? Was this a mirror that reflects how we treat others who are entirely different?
Was this your way to expose the masks that we've held long enough just to uncover our true essence as human beings? Was this your life story? Were you trying to unveil the nefarious ways how humans can be so corrupt to their core that they forgot how to care, see each other through by loving one another and showing kindness in so many ways?
That I wouldn't know for you are not here. All you've left is but a manuscript that will leave us feeling discombobulated for many years to come! How disappointing! Anyways, your version of vermins is already obsolete, my friend.
Ever since you've left this world, vermins in the form of some reprehensible humans have survived! Yes, we do have that in our lives, unfortunately, which reminds me that I might need to further transmogrify them into roaches and whack, smoosh, squish-squash those little scuttling critters out of existence by wielding my handy-dandy, ever-reliable broomstick!
Not all vermins are worth the empathy, mind you! Only your story does. Wish me luck though! This one will feel like a game of Whack-a-Mole with me squealing while chasing those pests away from my life! Prisoner of your own body - left to die. Only Kafka can turn such a weird and creepy idea into a devastating metaphor. The story begins with the protagonist, Gregor Samsa, waking to find himself transformed into a large, monstrous insect. The cause of Samsa's transformation is never explained, but as he tries to adjust to his new condition and deals with being burdensome to his family, they are repulsed by the horrible, verminous creature Gregor has become.
They start to abuse him and ultimately Prisoner of your own body - left to die. They start to abuse him and ultimately cause his death. He continues to think with a human mind, but is unable to reconcile his mind with his body. However his mind begins to change in accordance with his physical needs and desires over time. Gregor gradually behaves more and more like an insect, but his humanity never disappears. A conflict that reaches its climax when his family moves the furniture out of his room.
Gregor initially approves of the idea because it will make his room more comfortable for him physically. But realizing that his possessions are reminder of his human life that provide him with emotional comfort, he suddenly faces a choice: he can be physically comfortable or emotionally comfortable, but not both.
Gregor, unable to relinquish his humanity, chooses emotional comfort and desperately clings to a picture on the wall, causing his father to attack and fatally injure him. His sister and mother are initially sympathetic, because they suspect that some aspect of his humanity remains. She holds on to the hope that he will return to his human form. Even his father, who is repulsed by George and attacks him twice, never suggests that they kill him or force him out of the house.
Instead, he implicitly shows compassion for Gregor by allowing the family to care for him. Gregor dies through an injury caused by his father. He attacks him with an apple, that gets stuck in his shell. No one looks after his injuries and he dies after a long period of suffering. Simply the awareness of his presence is enough to make everyone else feel constantly uncomfortable.
Significantly, it is his sister, the character to show the most sympathy toward Gregor, who decides to eliminate him. When Gregor is finally dead and the family no longer has to deal with his presence, everyone is relieved and their hope is revitalized. He is completely isolated in his room and unable to speak. He is a prisoner of his body, but as we learn, this feeling of estrangement actually preceded his transformation. The Absurdity of Life Franz Kafka The Metamorphosis is an absurd, and wildly irrational event, that is never explained.
The characters add to this sense of absurdity, as they are unusually calm, unquestioning, and not particularly surprised. Most characters react with disgust and shock, but are not exceptionally horrified and initially focus on adapting rather than fleeing.
These unusual reactions contribute to the absurdity of the story, but they also imply that the characters to some degree expect, or at least are not surprised by, absurdity in their world. Completely separated from the people around them, not able to provide for themselves and their families anymore, dependent, rejected and hated by relatives who are forced to care for them and feel disgusted.
Feeling completely excluded, separated, marginalized, deeply hurt and left to die. View all 17 comments. View all 24 comments. Franz Kafka had a fraught relationship with his father, a butcher and a loud, overbearing, self-satisfied man who was critical of Franz. I can see Kafka's internal feeling of insufficiency giving root to this story where it is externalized into the physical appearance of a loathsome bug, alienated from all around him.
Interestingly, the number three plays a repeated role: three parts to the story, three family members, three servants, three bearded lodgers It's debatable what this means, but I tend to think Kafka was referencing the number three's popularity in folk and fairy tales three wishes, three brothers, three billy goats Gruff, etc.
But Kafka, who was Jewish, did use some religious and even Christian symbols. Note the symbolic apple and the crucifixion imagery here: An apple thrown without much force glanced against Gregor's back and slid off without doing any harm. Another one however, immediately following it, hit squarely and lodged in his back; Gregor wanted to drag himself away, as if he could remove the surprising, the incredible pain by changing his position; but he felt as if nailed to the spot and spread himself out, all his senses in confusion.
My main thought after finishing this is that the family relationships being dissected here are incredibly sad, and disturbing. In an essay on The Metamorphosis , Vladimir Nabokov stated that "Gregor is a human being in an insect's disguise; his family are insects disguised as people.
They betray him repeatedly, and Gregor always accepts it meekly and even makes excuses to himself for their mistreatment of him. His father stashing away Gregor's wages while Gregor was working at a horrific job to pay off the father's bankruptcy, was awful to read about, and Gregor simply rationalizes it. It's particularly chilling how in the end they all brush off view spoiler [Gregor's death and cheerfully move on, even blossom hatch from their cocoons, after he's gone hide spoiler ].
Some of the German dialogue and expressions don't translate well into English. For example, Gregor's boss is called "Herr Prokurist" -- literally, Mr. Manager which was the name used for him in one translation I looked at , but it sounds very lame in English. So I appreciated the additional level of authenticity and even insight that reading parts of this in the original German gave to me. The more I think about this and pick it apart, the more impressed I am with it.
There are so many layers to this story. I started out with 3 stars based on my college memories of reading this, upped it to 4 stars when I finished it the other day, and, after spending more time analyzing it for this review, am finally winding up with 5. I highly recommend taking a look at Vladimir Nabokov's lecture and notes on The Metamorphosis , here at the Kafka Project website. Initial post: I didn't care for this when I studied it in college but I'm hoping it will grow on me this time.
So my intention is to try to work through this novella in German. Wish me luck! See above. View all 47 comments. Jun 24, Lisa rated it it was amazing Shelves: favorites. One morning a young man woke up and decided he didn't want to leave his room. He felt at odds with the world and wished he could opt out of his busy life. He knew he was unlikely to get away with skipping school, so he thought about how to find a perfect excuse.
His eyes fell upon the half-read copy of Kafka's Metamorphosis he had left beside his bed, and was pleased. When his stressed mum banged on the bedroom door and yelled that it was time for breakfast, shower and school, he answered: "I ca One morning a young man woke up and decided he didn't want to leave his room. When his stressed mum banged on the bedroom door and yelled that it was time for breakfast, shower and school, he answered: "I can't!
I mean my legs and legs! Vermin or not, he would socialise and be part of the family. And he would go to school. We care about people here in Sweden, no matter what their personal condition is. If you have a minor insectification problem, so be it. I will write and explain to your teacher that you need certain special education tools, and we can find you a hobby that fits your ability as well.
They will bully me. There is a perfectly functional anti-bullying programme at your school, and you have been working on it yourself! I feel weak! Fresh air is just the right environment for insects! What kind of bug are you anyway? Shall I go and get one of those nature books, so you can check for yourself? Haven't you got a job to go to?
I'll wait here with an action plan until you open your door and come out! I stick by my children, whatever mess they have gotten themselves into! It is impossible to be an isolated, grumpy, neglected insect these days, with all those over-active parents and student care teams buzzing around like annoying flies!
In the evening, he finished reading Kafka. The story could be true. View all 57 comments. Any day you wake up as a cockroach is a shit day. View all 21 comments. 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.
However, when that backbone is removed the unit adapts; it carries on and finds new means of survival. The most important me Surreal, inexplicable and unusual, Kafka explores the futility of human existence.
The most important member of the family is swept aside, forgotten about and life continues as it always must. 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. 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. 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. View all 9 comments. Rather than waving his legs and antennae in the air, screaming, "Omigod! I imagine Kafka laughing uproariously when reading the story to his friends. And although they are described as poor, they are never too hard up to retain the services of at least one domestic servant.
One last translation problem in the story is the title itself. As a title for this rich, complex story, it strikes me as the most luminous, suggestive choice.
Reprinted with permission of the publisher, W. How does Gregor die? What does Gregor's death symbolize? What is the point of metamorphosis? What does the Apple symbolize in the metamorphosis? Is the metamorphosis a horror story? What does the bug symbolize in the metamorphosis? What is the cause of Gregor's metamorphosis? What does Gregor's transformation symbolize? How many chapters does metamorphosis have? How many pages does the metamorphosis have?
Product Details. Is Dune hard to read? How do you read a page book in 2 hours? Can I read a book in a day? He took leave from his insurance job, to no great avail. He and Felice reconciled and were engaged again in July At 4am on 11 August Kafka woke abruptly and started coughing blood.
On 4 September doctors diagnosed tuberculosis. Tuberculosis was a project to which he was condemned, and this confinement he experienced as being, somehow, set free. In December he broke with Felice for the second and decisive time.
She got over it, and married another man a year later. Why did he write? Hermann Kafka, ex-serviceman and purveyor of fancy goods, was the strapping son of a butcher. Hermann and his wife Julie conceived five further children after Franz was born in , though two died young, leaving Franz as the sole boy with three sisters. They never get it right. And there is the combat of vermin, which not only sting but, on top of it, suck your blood in order to sustain their own life.
In the story, Gregor, having gradually accepted his insect state as irreversible, then attempts to adapt the good efforts he customarily makes on behalf of his family, and — while he succumbs to a degree of self-pity — is rather ashamed of himself. How do the Samsa family members adapt themselves to Gregor? Some of the most distinguished writers to have written on Kafka have taken the view that Gregor is a suffering saint, and his family a collection of monsters. Kafka proposed to her in the summer of In other words, Kafka felt Hermann had already deformed him irreparably in the sexual-romantic department.
Within a few weeks the two were planning a future, contemplating a fresh start in Berlin, or Tel Aviv. I have not bought myself off by my writing. I died my whole life long and now I will really die. Metamorphosis is the most vivid — the saddest, most ghastly and unforgettable — of them all.
By the middle of his health was so poor he had to move back in with Hermann and Julie. He was suffering from agonising tubercular lesions, and the pain of swallowing left him ever more parched and starved.
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