Unit 14 concepts and applications

¶ … Kafka's the Metamorphosis

Question # 3.) In this topic, discuss the symbolism in Kafka's "Metamorphosis." For instance, one of the most important images is the window and its relationship to Gregor's vision. There are also other equally important symbols too, like music, furniture, the apple, and Gregor's insect body. In this topic, analyze how Kafka uses symbolic objects and images to convey Gregor's pain and suffering. You can also connect Kafka's story to Bartleby or Gogol's "Overcoat." Just make sure that you should focus on Kafka's story and incorporate quotes from Kafka to illustrate your point.

Within the canon of classic Western literature, there have been few works of fiction which have inspired as much critical debate as Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis. Originally written in 1912 and published in his native German in 1915, Kafka's masterpiece presents the curious dilemma of Gregor Samsa, a young man who readers learn in the opening line "woke up one morning from unsettling dreams, [and] found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin" (803). The fact that Kafka never reveals the source of his protagonist's mystifying transformation is the reader's first indication that this is a story rich with symbolic meaning, and as the narrative unfolds a number of figurative devices are used to convey a deeper message. When the contextual clues are considered in full, it becomes clear that Gregor's plight is much more than a fantastic tale of a man who became a bug; as The Metamorphosis actually represents Kafka's and his generation's increasingly disenchanted attitude toward the industrialization of society.

The fact that Kafka casts the young Gregor as a member of the working class, by revealing early Chapter 1 that "Samsa was a traveling salesman" (804), is significant to the overall motif of the story because his sudden conversion to an insect state suggests that he has somehow lost his sense of humanity. One of the first thoughts Gregor has after realizing the absurdity of his predicament focuses on the relative degradation of his menial job, as he complains internally "I've got the torture of traveling, worrying about changing trains, eating miserable food at all hours & #8230; no relationships that last or get more intimate" (804). The conditions he mentions are strikingly similar to those endured by factory workers of that era, who made arduous journeys to and from work each day, suffered from malnourishment or starvation, and rarely enjoyed the free time needed to form lasting friendships. Much of the story's first chapter focuses on Gregor's confrontation with his manager, and when the stricken young man reflects on how "he was a tool of the boss, without brains or backbone" (807), the metaphorical link between his own state of subjugation and that of the working class is unmistakable.