The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka


 Summary

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka is quite an interesting and unique novella. It’s about a guy named Gregor who works as a travelling salesman and one day wakes up transformed into a “monstrous vermin”. The book then shows how his life is as a giant insect. 


My Thoughts 

Overall, I absolutely loved this book. However, It seemed very repetitive and honestly a bit boring at the start, but as I continued reading it, it definitely got a lot better. I didn’t really know where it was going in the beginning, but when I kept reading, it got much more interesting. I had a lot of questions, like why was Gregor so unshocked that he was turned into a bug? It seemed so normal to him. And it was interesting because at the beginning when Gregor realized he was a bug, he had barely any reaction besides “Oh no! I can’t sleep on my right side!” (not a direct quote from the book). And then he starts talking about how much he dislikes his job. Which was so interesting because he is a BUG! Why is he worrying about anything else!?! And then he realizes he's late for work, but he can’t get out of bed and is missing the train. Like SIR YOU ARE A ROACH! HOW ARE YOU GOING TO WORK? But this just shows what kind of person Gregor is. He's hardworking and cares deeply about his responsibilities. It also shows that a main part of Gregor’s life IS his job. Which he states clearly that he spends almost all of his time working. And the only reason he is still working as a travelling salesman is for his parents. He talks about how he hates the job and how he’s overworked, but he will continue working there to be able to support his parents and the family. His parents basically rely on him to get money. Which makes it even more sad because Gregor is doing all this work just for them, but the minute he becomes a bug and they have to try a bit harder to take care of him, they want absolutely nothing to do with him. This was so sad because Gregor knew how they felt about him and he tried his best to make things easier for him. His family locked him away in his room all day, every day. They treated him as such a burden on them. His sister, Grete, was the only nice person to him. She brought him food, cleaned up his area, and cared for him. His parents on the other hand, wanted him dead. In fact, his father tried stomping on him and threw apples at him (yes apples…). He frequently injured poor Gregor. As the book goes on, Grete seems to switch up, she seems less caring of Gregor and near the end has a complete change of view. She says, “My dear parents, things cannot go on any longer in this way. Maybe if you don’t understand that, well, I do. I will not utter my brother’s name in front of this monster, and thus I say only that we must try to get rid of it. We have tried what is humanly possible to take care of it and to be patient. I believe that no one can criticize us in the slightest.” This was quite a shock to me. Because earlier, Grete was so nice to Gregor and now she is saying she wants him gone as well? That last sentence raised some questions for me. Like, was she only being nice to Gregor, so nobody would denounce her? For societal expectations? She didn’t genuinely care about him? Eventually, (SPOILER!!!) Gregor dies alone from weakness as he was starved and his family starts rebuilding their lives very quickly, happy that he finally died. It is a really sad book, and I felt so bad for Gregor. This book shows what can happen when someone is different in some way (not a literal bug) and how society (and even their own families) can react to that. 


Overall, I really enjoyed this book, and it has a lot of important themes. It's very short, so the amount that was in it is surprising. It's also overall pretty well written and I really love this book. You should definitely check it out!


-Jehan

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