I recently reread Franz Kafka's novella "The Metamorphosis" after more than a half century. I read it for the first time as a college student. At that time, I was just a beginner, learning about the vast world of literature. I saw the story as a tale of ostracism and isolation, which resonated with a 20-year-old loner feeling, well, ostracized and isolated.
A lot of life experience has passed over these past five decades. Now I see "The Metamorphosis" as an allegory of the transactional basis of familial relationships and the relative nature of moral obligations. Gregor Samsa, the man who in the first sentence of the story becomes a gigantic insect or horrible vermin, depending on whose translation you read, has what seems to be a simple relationship with society and his family. He works as a traveling salesman and lives with his parents and younger sister. Gregor is the breadwinner, as his father, a failed businessman, and mother are too incapacitated to work, and his sister is too young to earn income.
A family lie escaped me the first time I read the story. Months into Gregor's transformation, all three family members find employment to continue the lifestyle that Gregor afforded them. Thus, Gregor had little need to support his family, even though his salary was greater than theirs collectively.
During this reading, I was struck by how Gregor became not only someone to hide from the rest of the world but a thing of deliberate neglect. As a 20-year-old, I was so absorbed in Gregor's problems that I did not consider how his family members began deserting him in his small bedroom. His endearing sister Grete, who quickly became his caretaker once he suffered his metamorphosis, gradually abandoned him. as did their parents, hastening his demise. Gregor could not speak like a human. He climbed the walls and ceiling of his bedroom. He was in the eyes of his family no longer Gregor, no longer human. Once people are convinced that someone else is even a shred less than human, there's no limit to the harm they can inflict on them.
I can say much more about my newinsights into failed communication, societal expectations, and self-abnegation, all additional themes of "The Metamorphosis"; however, enough said to encourage you to read a beloved book from your youth. See what it means to you today.
