Book Review: The Metamorphosis

So, I am halfway into a six hour car trip, and I am falling asleep, so naturally I am thinking I need an audiobook to wake me up. I usually stray away from audiobooks because I cannot annotate BUT if it will keep me from dying at the wheel I will do it. I search on Youtube "free audiobooks" because I am cheap and find The Metamorphosis which I have never read before. I go into the novella blind and that may have been the best way to do it. Kafka, this is some seriously genius work. 

I love when things sort of go over my head at first. Genuinely, I was like WOW this sucks, he's just a gross bug! I have this disease where no matter what I am reading I have to finish it though, can't help it, so I was like sure I'll hear this out. Finally, as it progressed and those wheels started turning did I finally see the overarching metaphor Kafka was making and it was one thousand percent worth sticking around for. 

This perception of the sick and, I'd go as far as to say, the disabled is really jarring and sad. Kafka describes society in a need basis. We need people who can contribute to society, we need people who can function on their own, and we need men as providers. When Gregor cannot be that spoke in the wheel, he becomes useless in the eyes of his family and his employer. It is really telling on how a person's perception of you can change when you are not meeting the expectation set before you. This timeline he creates demonstrates a persons patience with the "unhelpful" as well. The first few weeks we see extra care being taken of Gregor: his sister really focuses on how much he is eating and if he is enjoying that food. His family, we hear, are worried about him and are holding out this hope of him returning to normal. As time passes and there are no changes to Gregor's state, the family becomes frustrated and that frustration is taken out on Gregor's wellbeing. His room is not kept clean anymore, it becomes this cesspool of dirt and food remnants, and not even his sister cares about what he is eating or if he is eating any longer. 

This hope that Gregor will return to his normal state of health, and begin providing for the family once more is lost, which means so is there care for him. This view of people is operational and situation. How we can contribute to the world is the only thing that makes us any different or more valuable than a household pet. 

Gregor describes himself at the beginning of the story as,

“a tool of the boss, without brains or backbone.”

It's that cyclical nature of work until we die. We deem our worth by our contributions to others successes, sometimes completely outside of our own. We are tools, or parts of a machine, rather than a person with thoughts and feelings. 

One of the most interesting things to me in this story was Gregor's full consciousness to the world around him. A bug that understands complex emotions. I kept screaming during the book, "TRY AND ASK GREGOR A QUESTION TO SEE WHAT HE DOES," because like so seriously, is it so hard to maybe be like "Gregor is you understand me blink twice." ????? Because, he does understand you!! I know it's silly but I think it puts into perspective this new view the family had of Gregor. They accepted that he was not a human, so he could not possibly understand them. Why? It's back to that view of the sick and the disabled. They are deemed unhuman, or less that human, because they cannot contribute the same way others can. 

The sisters progression really got to me. At the end of the story she is screaming at the family that they have to get rid of Gregor. I have a few thoughts on this. In this hypothetical we have created, it's not to say that I don't understand her. Throughout the story the other side of the coin is that this family is completely collapsing. It's financial ruin because Gregor brought in all the money. We learn though that the father is fully capable of having a job, but is sitting back on the money that Gregor brings in. It's a huge stereotype we are working with here: the son's of the family should support the rest. Sure, this works for lots of people and lots of people accept this, but what we cannot except and what Kafka is warning us about is creating the person within the work and money they do or make. But back to the sister; I really felt for her as you can tell she deeply cares about Gregor. There is the fact that even though they didn't lose Gregor, in a lot of ways they really did. 

It's also a story about grief. I think you can read this and think maybe it's really just about letting things go. Holding onto the memories and ideas of a person after they pass will only bring you more sadness. Gregor overhears the conversation his family is having about getting rid of him, and he decides in that moment for the betterment of his family he cannot stay. 

“He thought back on his family with deep emotion and love. His conviction that he would have to disappear was, if possible, even firmer than his sister's. He remained in this state of empty and peaceful reflection until the tower clock struck three in the morning. He still saw that outside the window everything was beginning to grow light. Then, without his consent, his head sank down to the floor, and from his nostrils streamed his last weak breath.”

This heart wrenching ending really solidifies these ideas of grief and suffering to me. We heal best when we can accept someone or something is truly gone. Even though the family was cold to Gregor, they can now actually grieve his death. 

Shifting gears, Gregor's internal conflicts show another metamorphosis he is undergoing. His changes are physical and mental; he becomes this gigantic bug, but also internally he is challenged on his right and wrongs and the things he holds most important. As his intelligence and memory begin to deteriorate, this change isolates who he was to who he is now. How do we create internal identity when we are isolated from the world? What if we can't express it? 

Gregor grapples with his identity before the transformation, and furthers those ideas as he accepts his new identity. In a society of roles and needs, how do we really be a person? These are lots of questions I have no answers for, but will be thinking about for a long time - Thanks Kafka.

My favorite quote from the novella, 

“I cannot make you understand. I cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside me. I cannot even explain it to myself.”

It speaks volumes about the changes he is undergoing and this lack of individual identity this metamorphosis has imposed on him. No one can understand, not even himself.