I read this book a year ago because I had a subject, called Universal Literature, where I was said to read some classics, and this work was one of them. Moreover, I had to study its content because it could be one of the books I would be asked for in the University Access Exams (in fact, it was one of the two exams I could choose between).
Firstly, I would like to say that I remember I felt missed when I first saw this book: it was very short (little bit less than 100 pages) compared with the others I also had to read (as The Divine Comedy, by Dante Alighieri, or The Flowers of Evil, by Charles Baudelaire), and its name, The Metamorphosis, made me feel quite intrigued.
I also remember that I searched for information about the author, Franz Kafka, and I found that his life was a kind of sad and his books were so weird and full of symbolism.
Knowing this stuff, I started to read and I found, as I was waiting, a strange book: It is a book as a whole, I mean, it is not divided into chapters, and it all begins with a man, Gregory Samsa, who is transformed into a kind of huge beetle.
Gregory is the elder brother of his family, who is his sister and his parents, and he is the only one who works and brings money to home, so the fact that Gregory has become in a nasty insect makes that he cannot be able to work again. Then, his family encloses him in his bed room and does not let him to go out again because they consider Gregory is not “useful” and that he is not a member of his family yet. So, Gregory’s father starts to work and everything goes alright at the house, but Gregory: He is forgotten by his family (they have even forgotten to give him food), left all alone at his room, with an enormous wound in his shell that is killing him slowly.
Finally, Gregory dies, and no one realizes about that, up until the day the woman that sometimes cleans his room comes inside and see the corpse. Then, his family leaves him there and keeps on with its life.
When I finished reading, apart from weeping, I realized about some things: First of all, I saw his family (his sister more than the others) tries to help Gregory at the beginning but, as the story goes on, they stop helping him, even though his sister, because they consider him an strange, they refuse him because is different. By the way, I could also realize that the room where Gregory lingers symbolizes the Death and the living room, where his family usually is, symbolizes the Life, where Gregory is forbidden to come in, because he is dead to all of them.
And secondly, I have watched that Gregory becomes more and more in a beetle (he stops talking, sleeping, wishing…) because he is apart from the society and he dives in himself, up until he is a complete insect and does not feel anything…Well, one thing: sadness and the needing of dying because of it.
But I did not know there was so much behind this little novel, although I supposed it. That is because I realized it was full of symbolism and, as I said before, I knew Kafka’s books always hide a far beyond meaning inside of them.
After reading the book, I searched for information about Kafka’s life and I found that he had a very bad health during his whole life. Kafka was always ill and one of his two sisters understood and looked after him, but the one who ever understood him at all was his father. Kafka was almost hated by his father because he was so introvert, a kind of weird and, moreover, ill. These three things were the opposite of the kind of son Kafka’s father wanted to have: what is commonly known as a macho man, someone strong who were capable to lead a house and a family. In fact, his father was not the only one who did not understand him: the society did too. Kafka was different from the other people, and in that time nobody could understand the different crowd (and, what is worst, neither nowadays), so he felt very out-of-place and misunderstood, set apart by the world.
And all those things are what Kafka has shown at his book: he wrote a kind of autobiography for unburden himself: Gregory is a beetle (which represents Kafka, who is ill and has a not understood personality by society), whose father just wanted him to work and, now that he cannot do it, he hates Gregory for has become in an insect, as if the boy were guilty of it (what represents the loathe of his father to him because he is different, as if Kafka decided it to be, and does is not a macho man, who has a family and works). Moreover, there is Gregory’s sister, who helps him when he becomes in an insect (who symbolizes the Kafka’s sister that helps him when he is ill and that understands him). To finish up, everything ends in a very bad way, because Gregory’s family forgets him completely, even though his sister does, and Gregory dies of sadness and illness (which is Kafka’s thoughts about his own future: that everyone will hate him and that he will die all alone).
Now, I would like to add that I wanted to talk about The Metamorphosis because I think it is one of the most interesting books you can read, not only because of the singular story, but because of what it hides inside, and because it is a sad tale that can give you the chance to understand how a different person can feel when everybody refuses being with him or her. Moreover, I think it shows perfectly how cruel humans can be... I think the reality that lingers in this book is overwhelming.
Sure, I would have liked the story would have finished the other way around: that he finally would have been understood and would have lived a lot of years happy as a beetle…but, sure too, it would not have been realistic. Alas, the true thing is that, if the story would be real, it all would have finished as it does in the book. Because we humans are cruel, and that is something we have learnt to live with.
P.S: Just for you to know, Kafka died because of sadness and illness, all alone.
Alas, he was right.
