| Product: |
The Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka |
| Date: |
23/05/04 (1030 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Important
Disadvantages: Lack of language flair
Kafkaâ??s Metamorphosis in one of those texts many will have heard of and, indeed, many will have read. Its high state within the literary hierarchy stems from its concept of human transformation; the metamorphosis of the protagonist, Gregor Samsa, from a human being into an insect; seen as repellent and ugly. Although the concept appears intriguing, this review seeks to iterate my feelings on why Kafka is one of those marmite figures in the literary world: it seems that you either love him or hate him.
Franz Kafka was born in Prague (then part of Austria) on July 3, 1883 to Jewish parents and died at an early age in 1924 as a result of the tuberculosis he contracted in 1917. He originally trained as a lawyer but picked up writing, often at night and gave life to a number of short pieces of writing as well as couple of longer stories. Metamorphosis tends to be the text that most people will have encountered.
The plot in Metamorphosis is very limited due to the story remaining within the family dwelling and very much within Gregor Samsaâ??s room. It begins with Gregor waking up and, finding himself unable to move, struggling to get up as he is already late for work. Only a few pages later do we begin to understand the quite extraordinary transformation that has taken place overnight. We are soon introduced to the family albeit in strained circumstances before the clerk at Gregorâ??s work turns up to find out whether his employee is too ill to work or not. After this, there is very little to say about the plot apart from a general worsening in Gregorâ??s treatment by his family and the increasing plight of his family as they all begin working again in order to survive.
Kafka used Metamorphosis in order to present a number of important issues within society and illustrate prejudices held against minorities and incomprehensible truths. Kafka was born into a Jewish family, surrounded by friends and family who struggled to shrug off the a
nti-Semitism of their country. Often it was the case that these acquaintances would deny their heritage in an attempt to quell the bad feelings felt towards the Jewish groups, thus presenting Kafka with ideas he could later use in his writing. It is important to pick up this within the text and is evident when we realise that Gregor Samsa has indeed not changed as a whole, only in his physical appearance. This physical change, leading to the loss of his job and the familyâ??s main source of income, is what creates hate of what he has become despite the fact that inside he remains the same human being, able to feel pain as well as pity for the situation that he appears to have created.
Critics have often pointed out that it is not the fact that Jews are Jewish that leads to the hate towards them, it is the fact that anti-Semitism exists. Personally, this is what I felt within this book, as it is not Samsa himself that creates the resentment, it is the creation of resentment by his family and others that leads to the hate. Sad as it sounds this will always remain within human nature whether we like it or not.
One can also pick out the difficulties of the poor within society and the consequences of the main breadwinner becoming disabled in their ability to support their family. By drawing on social statuses within Metamorphosis, Kafka is able to demonstrate that our lives appear to be bettered by holding influential jobs or by being able to live freely, unhampered by physical defects, and that when we are unable to progress further due to disability of one form or another, society views us as having changed form altogether; as having metamorphosed into one of those redundant creatures within society, ugly and, essentially, vermin. This is all too frequent in todayâ??s society where beggars and the homeless are sometimes spat on and perhaps in a lesser degrading respect, purely ignored by societies ill-conceived feelings towards the â??lower-class
â??.
Metamorphosis as a whole is a worthwhile read. I forward this argument due to the fact that everyone should at least sample Kafkaâ??s writing and imagination in order to form their own opinion of the Czech writer, whether this is for the good or the bad. My own opinion relies on the ordinary style of his writing compared to other figures of the same stature. Metamorphosis, away from the transformation concept appears dull, slow moving and above all uninspiring. Half way through I felt jaded by Kafkaâ??s insipid inability to keep the reader interested in Gregor Samsaâ??s plight and was forced to take not only the one break from my reading but several, spanning several days.
However, as I have indicated above, this book does provide numerous reasons why the text has meaning. It is a shame that Kafka could not develop this within a more eloquent language and a faster moving text that could have set the world alight as readers became bowled over by his writing. Perhaps the book doesnâ??t need this kind of language and it is only my enjoyment of literary flair that makes me say this, however I will certainly make the case that one requires a level of interpretation of the text to truly enjoy it, ensuring that the deep-rooted meanings at the heart of Kafkaâ??s most famous work are not idly swept aside by the ignorant amongst us.Â
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