Book Review: The Metamorphosis

November 13, 2024

The Metamorphosis

Franz Kafka, 1915, an absurdist? modernist? Novella

I’m sure tons has been written about this bad boy, but I’m going to take a crack at it before reading any other analyses, then see later if I’m stupid.

The Metamorphosis is a story about the inherent conflict and dehumanizing nature of a society that forces people to generate value in order to survive. Oh no, I’m a bug and I’m late for work! It’s not the transformation into a bug that makes Gregor inhuman; it is that he cannot work, and how this infiltrates his thoughts and his family.

Gregor has a very pure nature. There is this kind of pure human condition that he seeks to obtain—supporting his family so that his parents can enjoy leisure and sending his sister Grete to the conservatory to learn violin. He doesn’t like his work; he explains the hated nature of being a traveling salesman in very objective terms, as though we’re meant to think that it’s obvious. He has a desire to eventually tell his boss to go shove it. In his ideal world, everyone is happy, healthy, and content, and not forced to work. His thoughts upon his transformation are just about the anxiety of not being able to work and support his family. As his family’s situation gets worse and worse, he continues to be depressed about their financial situation. There is also an aspect where he worries about his own self-actualization, symbolized by the painting he wants to keep in his room, but this is secondary to his concerns about his family.

The lack of ability to do work is the main conflict. Gregor is clearly anxious about this, and the opening is an almost unreal realization of the kind of catastrophized thinking someone might have when their family’s well-being depends on their selling their labor. His manager appears when he’s less than an hour late for work (when he’s never been late before in his life) and comically rapidly goes into a barrage about his lack of work, how his boss thinks he’s stolen money, and that his work is even unsatisfactory. This catastrophization goes even further as he can’t defend himself, only squeak. At no point does he really consider the ramifications of becoming a bug; he only tries to save his job. While there is initial disgust at his metamorphosis, this is all done in the context of his losing income, which ties these concepts together. His family starts out tolerating or loving him, especially his sister. But this breaks down due to the family now having to work and rent their flat. The pressures put on their lives drive at the humanity of the family, as they grow to revile him since he makes it hard for them to survive. Due to his presence, they feel forced to keep the large apartment; the work drives them all to exhaustion; the sister cannot pursue her passions; and he makes it impossible for them to rent the spare room in the apartment. This is a threat to their survival, and as they get more desperate, they get more violent, until the sister, who initially loved him in bug form, completely declares him inhuman and says he should be gotten rid of. This is entirely a result of his not being able to generate value. Interestingly, it is the people in the story who don’t derive value from Gregor that are okay with him. The family and his work despise him, but the cleaning lady and the lodgers who encounter him don’t inherently hate him. You can imagine a world where the family’s survival was not predicated on Gregor’s value, in which the family would have been initially afraid but continued to love and accommodate Gregor.

I think two ideas are being presented here. Due to the way society is set up, it is dehumanizing to labor for someone else, but you are also forced to because it is even more dehumanizing not to work and become invalid.

Every character who sells their labor is somewhat despicable. Gregor is servile and hates his job; there is an errand boy described as spineless, and Gregor despises the maid that comes to the house. The Samsas also rent out a room in their house, and this trade of value for money is also dehumanizing as they give up their space, and the lodgers are condescending and entitled. The trade of value for money projects hierarchies that get in the way of the pure world that Gregor wants.

At the same time, it is even worse not to earn money because then you are invalid in the society. Gregor is made figuratively inhuman in this sense. I think the obvious parallel can be drawn to becoming disabled and the ramifications of that under a capitalist society where you are forced to sell labor and cannot. But Kafka points towards other examples like being old, fat, clumsy, or even unsuccessful in business. There is a parallel to the furniture that is sentimental to the family but serves no purpose to the lodgers and just ends up gathering dust in the room. You need to continue to be valid and push through, or else your survival is threatened. And in this society, it is so easy for something to change and to become invalid, and this will destroy your humanity. Gregor is made inhuman; the family is made inhuman. They are all invalid.

I think it’s interesting how things resolve when Gregor dies. There is a moment of sobriety. The family weep and are sad—they have lost their son and brother. They take control of their space and dignity by throwing the lodgers out. As Gregor is dead, there is no conflict between his humanity and his value generation. Humanity is completely restored to him and the family. They continue to be rude to the cleaning lady because she is still having to participate in the conflict. It turns out the only way out is to die.

This is all summed up in the last line. The Samsas are now optimistic, as they were when Gregor first got the job and was able to allow the family to thrive. Grete mirrors Gregor at the start, stretching out her young body as Gregor feebly tried to make use of his new insect one. As opposed to the loss of value generation Gregor experiences at the start, here Grete gains value generating ability as she has suddenly transformed in the parents’ eyes to being beautiful and able to marry. Her humanity is now determined by her beauty. The story is doomed to repeat.

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