Franz Kafka - The Metamorphosis

Gregor Samsa wakes up one morning only to find he has metamorphosed into a giant bug. Why? Who knows. The question is never asked or answered by anyone in the story. We do know that Gregor, as a traveling salesman, mindlessly works at a job he hates to support his family and pay off the debts of his father’s failed business.

His family never appears to pitty him — they are too self absorbed in the hardship that Gregor’s metamorphosis will place on them; he won’t be able to work, his appearance would shame the family, and other self-absorbed problems.

The story was sent to my MP3 player by Great Book Audio but the story really had no coherence to me. It may have been Kafka’s intent, but the story seemed to have no purpose. It did not illuminate anything of the human condition or do any of those other things that a ‘classic’ is supposed to do.

The only thing that made sense was something I found when scouring the web to see what I missed and one writer suggested it was actually a dark comedy. That I may agree with. Only in a comedy would someone wake up, find themselves turned into a bug, and their first thought be “I am going to be late for work”. What clinched this interpretation for me is the web personality test that asks: Which character from Kafka’s The Metamorphosis are you?