The Metamorphosis

Kafka knows how to write humans

A beautifully realistic exploration of alienation. It kept striking me that even though this is a fantastical tale Gregor acted in a way that (though i might not want to admit it) i would act too (if in those circumstances). There were no unwarranted heroics or depressions. Same with the family. I would’ve loved at some parts of the story if i had been able to see Gregor as the one protagonist and the family as his opponents. But by laws of human emotions and reactions, Kafka does not allow us that right. The family always had a perfectly warranted response to all happenings in context of their specific character and their joined dynamic. So yes i would’ve loved to want to scream at Greta to ‘just help Gregor with his injuries’ but if you had a brother turned rodent in his room for months in months wouldn’t you start to question his humanity enough to not care at least a little. In short: Kafka knows how to write humans.

The prose was also very easy to read and (unlike most philosophical authors) was the message not that deeply hidden beneath superfluous words and poetics. I was surprised by that after my journey of reading other (not so straight to the point) tales. So much so that i had to search ‘spark notes: metamorphosis kafka meaning’ just to check if i missed something *really* hidden.

Other than that i really did enjoy the message. It wasn’t anything life changing but it did show the beauty of life. The ups and downs. Alienation and independence. Death and bloom. All the while navigating sustaining life. Money, foods, free time, exhaustion,… It made me ponder on humanity as a trait, which is spectacular in a 120 page study.

4/5 stars

Side note: I love parallelisms and symbolism so much. Shout out to those! (I see you, cleanliness-in-the-house-and-gregor’s-room-starting-to-become-a-trash-pile-to-symbolise-losing-his-humanity!!)