i originally read "the metamorphosis" my senior year of high school. and i actually did read it. i found the premise interesting, a man that morphs into a cockroach. the only thing that left a real impression on me was the apple that got lodged in gregor's back (when he was in roach form) after someone threw it at him. it made me sad to imagine him stuck with an apple in his back for the rest of his life or until it rotted. and imagine the kind of infection an apple could cause! i remember drawing a roach with an apple in his back for a project in which we had to draw what was going on in gregor's mind. in addition to the apple, milk comes to mind when i think of this book but because i think he was fed it. i mean do roaches find milk appetizing? but other than that i don't recall any deeper meaning.
upon my re-reading as an adult, the lesson that i learned from this novella, was not to be a slave to your job. work can alienate you from the people you love and can lead to lonelieness. this interpretation can also be my millennial point-of-view on work looking for validation. work should be something that adds to life not takes away from it. in "metamorphosis", all gregor had was work and that turned him into a monster, literally. i mean how else can you interpret cockroach? though i learned on wikipedia that a better translation for the word kafka used is vermin, so maybe gregor isn't supposed to be a roach? but i think it works best for imagery purposes, so i am okay with the translator that chose cockroach.
prior to gregor's metamorphosis, his life centered around his work. gregor was a traveling salesman and worked towards paying off his family's debt. as a result of his traveling, he had no social life or identity beyond his occupation. gregor realized that his work did not allow him to have friends and all he really had was his family. his loneliness is demonstrated by his framed magazine picture of the woman in furs. he is like a teenage girl filled with love but with no real person in her life so it is directed toward whatever teenage heartthrob is popular at the time. though gregor was lonely, in his human form he could have changed his life, but sadly as a cockroach that was not possible.
the sadder realization is that gregor's life as a human was not much different than his life as a cockroach. the only difference is that there was a physical manifestation of his alienation versus the immaterial one of his job. as a roach, his interaction with his family was limited based on his appearance as a bug. his mother was scared of him, his father was worried, though his sister was in tune with his needs, overall they were primarily concerned by how his condition affected their income. however, this would have been the same if he was a human, his job limited his interaction with his family since he travelled. also the emotions of his family would have been the same, since gregor was the breadwinner of the family, they saw him more in terms of their income versus a person. this is demonstrated by the parents immediate fear of the cockroach versus his sister who still considered the cockroach as gregor.
gregor's sister was the only person who saw gregor as a person in his human form. this is demonstrated in her giving him milk in the beginning, which was his favorite drink and which he did not like as a cockroach (so to answer my other question, roaches do not like milk). however, even her opinion of him changed because she started to treat gregor as a cockroach. she fed him scraps and garbage and moved furniture so it is easier for him to crawl around. it seems sad that his sister's
opinion changed but gregor and his sister's relationship would have probably become estranged even if gregor remained in his human form. all relationships take work even the ones that we assumed are givens like family relations. if gregor continued to work as he did, the physical distance would have caused gregor and his sister to grow apart. gregor initially was happy to work to support his sister however i could imagine him becoming resentful
of it later.
i think kafka wanted us all to realize that work is not the means to happiness in life. one needs social interaction with people to be happy. in a sociology class i took at ucla, i read excerpts for the book "working" by studs terkel. from what i can recall, people's self-identity is very much intertwined with their occupation even though they may not enjoy working. i remember discussing how the expectation of work as something enjoyable is ridiculous since by definition work is hard physical labor. the point was made in the book or maybe the class that in the bible, work was initially a form of punishment. adam was casted out of the garden of eden and focused to labor for taking a bite of the forbidden fruit. from the very beginning (if you believe in a judeo-christian religion) work was a punishment. therefore, since work is not a source of joy, it should not be the main focus of our lives.
i know that this must sound like selfish millennial talk but whereas my generation's view of work is rooted in the fact that everyone got a participation reward regardless of their effort growing up; kafka's novel is a warning of not allowing work to crush the human spirit. regardless of gregor's physical appearance, he was still gregor. his mind was not effected by the metamorphosis, he still thought like a human. granted gregor couldn't communicate like a human as a cockroach (though i think that was to demonstrate how as a human, gregor was never communicated how he actually felt), he still had a sound mind. and perhaps that is the real lesson of "metamorphosis", regardless of the fact that work can change one beyond recognition, it can never truly change one's soul. though gregor changed physically he was still the same
person spiritually, he still cared for his family and felt guilty about being a burden to them. there was still something human about gregor especially since he responded to the music that his sister played. therefore, gregor serves as a warning to what can happen if you allow work to consume your life. one must find time to develop their soul and not just work. i think it is important to point out that kafka didn't view all work as evil. when the family began working for themselves there was an improvement in their lives. so maybe kafka just wants us to find a nice balance, work is fine just do not become consumed by it.
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