The Metamorphosis

Franz Kafka

• Born to a middle class, Jewish family from Prague in 1883
• Studied law at the University of Prague
• Moved to berlin in 1923 to focus on writing
• Died of Tuberculosis in 1924
• Most of his work was published posthumously by his friend Max Brod

Eldest of six children. His two younger brothers died in infancy, and his three sisters died in Nazi death camps

His father, Hermann, was a successful businessman who was tyrannical and abusive to his family

Franz's mother, Julie, lacked the depth to understand his dreams of becoming a writer

In 1907, Franz began working at an Italian insurance agency. He hated it there, and was forced to work long hours that left no time for his writing

Dora Diamant was Franz's last lover, who was with him while he was battling depression, insomnia, anxiety, and Tuberculosis

Franz's poor home life, unstable relationship with his siblings and parents, and sub-par health manifests itself in his writing

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Most of his works infuse realism and fantasy to depict bizarre predicaments

In his writing, Kafka's characters often faced overbearing power of some sort that broke their will and self-worth

His works circle around themes of alienation, existential anxiety, guilt, and absurdity

The Metamorphosis is Franz's most famous work which has overarching themes of depression and alienation

Gregor Samsa is a middle-aged man who works as a traveling salesman, a job he hates, in order to support his family

Gregor wakes up one day as a bug, and is therefore no longer able to work

At first, his family attempts to be supportive

Eventually they realize he is of no use to them, and they begin to treat Gregor very poorly

One day, Gregor's mother comes in to his room and is so frightened from seeing him that she feints

Gregor's father believes Gregor attacked his mother. He becomes angry and throws an apple at Gregor, which gets lodged in his back and becomes infected

As the infection and his sadness get worse, Gregor stops eating and becomes very ill

Thinking Gregor cannot understand them, the family becomes frustrated and talks about how they must get rid of him or he will ruin their lives

Sad, defeated, and determined not to burden his family any longer, Gregor goes back to his room and dies

Upon finding his dead body, his family is relieved and excited

To celebrate, the family takes a trip to the country side to discuss their finances

They realize how much money they saved by not having to feed Gregor, and they decide to buy a new apartment

Through Gregor, Franz explores the idea of how self image and self worth can fluctuate based on circumstances

Because his identity as a human shifts to that of a bug, Gregor also has the title of "provider" stripped from him

He and his family struggle and fail to adjust to this change in his identity

Because of this identity shift, Gregor is ousted from his family's community. He is left isolated and alone, which heavily influences his self-image

Gregor was so concerned about fitting into his family's community, that he neglected himself as an individual. When he was alienated, he realized that he had no identity outside that of a "provider", "son", "brother", or "employee"

Reading of the Metamorphosis causes self-reflection about how much of your own identity you find in your relationships with other people...

...and how little of your identity and worth you actually find within yourself

The book can also be seen as a comment on how people only value you if they can benefit from you

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