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Social aspects in novella The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (1883 - 1924) was the author of only three unfinished novels and several stories but he remains one of the most significant writers of the twentieth century. The works of Franz Kafka have considerably influenced the great number of writers, artists and cinematographers. For many years critics have been trying to analyze Kafka's works through different philosophical approaches, but Kafka was not a philosopher, he was a common citizen and a clerk, and in his works he applied the most dramatic philosophy, the philosophy of life. Kafka's works are abundant with absurd, surreal situations, but it is important to remember, that Kafka lived in the pre-World War II Germany, the cradle of fascism and holocaust, and in his works Kafka foresaw the approaching horrors. The novella The Metamorphosis is the vivid example of Kafka's deep insight and understanding of the social flows.
The novella The Metamorphosis tells the story of the salesman Gregor Samsa who turned into the bug and it follows the way Samsa family coped with the transformation. The novella begins with Gregor waking up as the bug and considering the possibility of continuing work in the shape of a bug. The way Gregor's father and sister protect his asthmatic mother from seeing Gregor in his new form reveals not only Gregor's sickening and disfeature d state. Here the author raises the question of alienation and difference from the others. Franz Kafka had a vast experience in being different and he carried this experience into the novella. Kafka was a German-speaking person among Czech people in his youth, a Czech among Germans, and above all, a Jew, which was not simple in Germany at the beginning of the twentieth century.
Gregor and his family never question why he turned into a bug and the exact kind of a bug is never mentioned during the novella. When the story was publishes in 1915, Kafka insisted on not printing the picture of a bug on the book cover. All these facts show, that the shape of the bug works only as the symbol of transformation of a healthy young person into the incapable or invalid family member, whose sight sickens the other family members, this shape symbolizes the difference. The problem of discrimination is the most essential in the novella. The choice of the bug shape for Gregor's metamorphosis is not accentual. The author accents, that any difference from the rest of the members of the social community can be the reason of alienation and discrimination.
Gregor transformed into a bug, and though he preserved human mind and speech, members of his family presumed, that he could not talk and could not understand them, which symbolizes that they viewed him below their level. One can be temporarily incapacitated, but when the problem has been resolved, one will certainly work all the harder and with all the more concentration. (Kafka, p. 579) Despite Gregor's hopes, the difference is permanent, and it is viewed by the family as something shameful and disgusting, they try to hide Gregor from strangers and can not bear his sight themselves. The choice of the family as the social group in which the object of discrimination appeared is not accidental. The author shows, that we are all brothers and sisters, but we are able of hating our own kins, if they are different, if they do not fit the standards.
In this context the task of attending to Gregor's needs, taken by his sister with determination and repulsion serves as the example of speculation on the problems of discrimination in the society for gaining personal interests. Grete tends to exaggerate the horror of her brother's circumstances in order that she might do all the more for him (Kafka, p. 610) Gregor could get no news directly (Kafka, p. 585), he might have believed that his window looked out on a desert (Kafka, p. 587) Gregor has no right to do what he wants or to go where he likes, which is one of the aspects of life of discriminated people. The room, into which Gregor is confined by the circumstances and his family looks like prison. This room reminds Jewish ghettos; it creates the image that Kafka could foresee the future in concentration camps, in which his three sisters perished. Kafka brought much autobiographic experience in his novella The Metamorphosis. Franz Kafka had very difficult relations with his father, and this is reflected in the novella.
The problem of misunderstanding between children and parents is very essential in the novella. Gregor Samsa became a sole supporter of his family after the collapse of his fathers business. He was giving all of his money to the family, not leaving anything for himself, while his father gradually became an incapable old man who could not really rise to his feet (Kafka, p. 599), mother was ill and sister was too young to work. The father and the son changed the roles, Gregor became the head of the family, he was not only providing for the family, but taking all important decisions, such as determination to send Grete to the conservatory, the selection of the apartment. All family members took this reversal of roles for granted, they felt themselves very comfortable, and when Gregor turned into a bug, they suddenly lost the source for living. It is important to notice, that in reality father had never given up his domination over Gregor.
All five years after fathers bankruptcy Gregor was working for fathers creditor to pay fathers debt. Later Gregor finds out that father saved some money from his business and from Gregor's salary but did not help Gregor to pay the debt and be free to live his dreams. And Gregor never questions fathers decision. They had simply gotten used to it, both the family and Gregor; the money was gratefully accepted and gladly given, but there was no special outpouring of warm feeling. (Kafka, p. 595) Kafka shows the father, who makes his son subconsciously obey his will. Gregor has not alternative and no chance for confronting his father, and when he finally see that the alternative existed, he is not able to use it. Here Kafka criticizes the whole family institution, which allows parents to control their children under the pretext of the filial obligation.
After Gregor's transformation father, mother and sister had to find job. Father took the job of a bank attendant, he was standing there straight as a stick (Kafka, p. 599) and began wearing uniform and with a kind of mulishness his father persisted in keeping his uniform on even in the house Gregor often spent whole evenings gazing at the many greasy spots on the garment, gleaming with gold buttons always in a high state of polish (Kafka, p. 603). Not only Gregor has undergone the metamorphosis, but his father too, transforming into a healthy, strong and willful person. The uniform stands as the symbol of the fathers returned position of the head of the family. Franz Kafka shows that the traditional dependency of children on their parents is tiresome to the both parties. The father gave up his authority, compelled Gregor to take responsibility for the whole family, robbed him of his dreams and sense in life, and at the same time the father himself lost the sense in life, he started slowly aging and approaching death.
When the father regains his authority, life returns into his body. That is why uniform becomes important to him; he wants to give his family a symbol of his power and importance. Unfortunately, the new reverse of the roles never brings freedom to Gregor. Here Kafka again accents the shallow outlooks of his contemporary family institution. Gregor does not live up to fathers hopes, he is the looser, he is not a valuable or honorable member of the family and society, and father punishes him: his father believed only the severest measures suitable for dealing with him. (Kafka, p. 599) Gregor's death from the harmful attitude of his family members and the relief, which this death brought to them, this is highly symbolic. The end of the novella shows, that the author does not see any possibility for the positive resolve of the problems that were arisen in his novella.
The oppressors acquire relief by getting rid of the problem, not by resolving it, and it leaves little hope for the discriminated people. The novella The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka is the authors declaration against the social inequity and injustice. The author portrayed his contemporary reality on example of as single family and he called for the metamorphosis of the whole social structure, because in its current state it could lead only to destruction and the historical process proved Kafka's assumptions. Bibliography Brod, Max. Franz Kafka: A Biography. New York: Da Capo Press, 1995.
Pawel, Ernst. The Nightmare of Reason: A Life of Franz Kafka. New York: Vintage Books, 1985. Samuelson, Arthur, ed. The Complete Stories of Franz Kafka.
Schocken Books, 1995.
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