"The Metamorphosis" Book Review
“One morning, when Gregor Samsa woke from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin.”
The almost didactic opening to Franz Kafka’s 1915 short story, “The Metamorphosis,” perfectly leads into a story that is equal in its emotion and strangeness. As implied, the story concerns a traveling salesman named Gregor Samsa who one morning turns into a giant insect. Although at first glance, you could think it’s going to be foolish and “artistically ambiguous,” (that’s the mindset I went into it with) it is quite the opposite.
The story, although very well-written, at times would make Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind seem like an action-packed thriller. Nonetheless, once it reaches the end, it picks up an immense amount of speed while Gregor’s world falls apart around him. As it progresses, Gregor gradually loses hope and becomes more instinctual and less humane until his untimely death by an apple chunk. The reader sees both how the sudden change affects Gregor and the family, putting stress on all the people involved.
When looked at in a wider, symbolic view, the simple man-turned-bug plotline turns into a deep story about the uncontrollable changes one may go through in life and sometimes the social stigma that accompanies that change. When Gregor needed people, primarily his family, they deserted him and tried to go on without him even though he wasn’t gone entirely. The only person who had true compassion was his sister who constantly fed and fought for him showing true love and devotion.
An interesting part of the story comes from a controversy surrounding what type of insect Samsa is. The exact type is never stated but many people envision it as a cockroach when reading as it is often described in such a manner. However, Vladimir Nabokov, an expert in both literature and insects, drew out Samsa and determined him to be a type of beetle—not a cockroach.
Overall, “The Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka is definitely worth a read. Although it is sometimes confusing and slow, it can be found online for free, it’s a fairly short story and it’s very entertaining for its concept.
Photo courtesy of publisher, Classix Press.
