The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

[Kyriakos]

The Metamorphosis is a short story, written in three parts, as a depiction of one year in the life of the protagonist, Gregor Samsa. Samsa's transformation into a human-sized insect makes him extend and multiply his lonesome ways of old, and now he feels he is by necessity bound to his room, although an early attempt to brush off the metamorphosis is made and met with utter defeat.
Samsa does not lose his courage though, and tries to hold onto his human past, in many ways, by remembering it, by dreaming about the future where he will be once again accepted in the microcosm of his family even as an insect, and, finally, at least by insisting to keep his furniture in his room.
In the end all that fails though, and he tragically commits suicide.
His family, liberated from the burden of his presence, are seen rejoicing and quietly begin to make plans for their future. Even the house will be abandoned, along with Gregor's memory.

Overall i found this story to be an amazing depiction of what probably was a symbolic examination of a person being brushed aside from the world. Kafka himself, as can be seen in his diaries, faced the dilemma of shutting himself up from external stimulations, or of tragically carrying on to exist with a facade of care for his outward experiences. As Samsa, whose surname is very much like that of his author, in the end he dies due to the wound caused by this dilemma.

[wordeater]

Yes, this is a great story. It's a kind of parable about how society treats people who are different.

[Kyriakos]

I agree, although possibly not just different, but broken up in a way. Gregor's family is virtually equally unsympathetic towards him as the person sent from work to see why he missed the morning train.

[Theunderground]

Far too gloomy for me to like. I like kafkas 'penal colony' and most of all his story about the ape who becomes human. (forgotten the name.) A thought provoking but too pessimistic writer. Like maupassant on acid.

[Kyriakos]

The Penal colony is (imo) even gllomier; afterall it has to do with violent death :)

The story with the ape is called "A report to an Academy". The ape, Ratpeter as he is now known, gives an account of how he was first captured from the wild, and then familiarized himself with humans, until he became well-versed in their ways. He remains an ape though. Iirc there are two versions of the story.

[Theunderground]

I just feel that it captures the 'obsession' which captures humans sometimes. (the penal colony.) I think it sheds some light on human motivation. A report to an academy (cheers for the reminder!) is i think the masterpiece of Kafka,because it shows up the 'herd' like mentality of some humans. Most of Kafka is gloomy,but some i personally find instructive on human nature. metamorphosis does indeed diplay a lot of human nature but i dont like it when a hero (Gregor.) tops himself. A brave meaningful loving death like the Earl of Kent yes,Gregor no.

[Kyriakos]

Can't really say what Kafka himself thought it meant, but in my view the report to an academy probably places Kafka himself as the ape, trying to learn human ways. This could be due to a replacement of the old view that others are apish, with the new view that possibly the observer is apish and all the others are correct.
I base this view on a note of Kafka in his letter to his father, where he claims that his mind is "just an ordinary mind", or even at best just an ordinary mind. So it would follow that probably Kafka himself did not have a solid view of intellectual superiority, no matter that his complicated symbolisms (whether conscious as to their meaning, not so conscious, or a mixture of both) show a person of high intelligence at work.

Also i would think that Kafka always is the protagonist in his stories, for he wanted to live in them, in his own created environment.


As for the Penal colony, my view is that it *could* be about some murderous thoughts against others that Kafka had when very young (symbolized by the 'old commander of the colony" which now have fallen in disrepute (the new commander does not approve of the old one's ways) but still a part of him (the officer/mechanic) wants to uphold them, and tragically ends up activating the deadly machine on himself.

[osho]

Kafka has always been and is my favorite author and the Metamorphosis is one of the few I never can forget, the one that appealed to my deepest self, delved into the hardcore of me. I have read is several times and every time I find the story different. The story is indeed complex and not the one we generally can read and throw away. We will have to read at least two or three times to arrive at the meaning, in fact there is meaning and that is characteristic of great novels, at something the author wants to impart to us. And what he really wanted to impart to us is the futility of our life in a world that is fraught with too much commercialism, a timeline in history where human values, and in fact it is hard to delineate human values, are undefined and all are running or draining themselves of their energies to achieve something and at the end of the day they will end up in the plight of the vermin in the Metamorphosis, reduced to something miserable, and this is a metaphoric meaning and if you try to look for a literal meaning you will get none.