Review: "The Metamorphosis," by Franz Kafka
You don't have to make your head spinning about how did he turn himself into an insect?
Who did make it happen?
What did make it happen?Why did it happen? How did it happen? Was it his choice to become an insect? Oh, I get it. Kafka just tried to picture himself. Didn't he? The simple point is it happened. Accept it, that's the fact. And, then deal with it. Do you want to hear the ugly truth about human evaluation system?
Society/loved circles always expect you to play some defined roles of belief/ accepted modes of ethics/behaviors/ cultures. Once you stop playing that role ( whatever the reasons doesn't matter for the topics now ) or maintaining your own individuality from the very beginning or unable to perform those roles; they start to label you as " different", " alienated","isolated" ... They didn't know much about your new formation because they are limited by their own boundary visions. And from unknown ( dark) comes fear. They start to fear you for your unpredicted non-categorical behavior. And, when they start to fear you their love slowly turns into a burden of regret resulting in accumulation of hate to end the disturbing induction they experience from you.
Yes, that is the dark side of human personality. They told that you are a special, unique person with the remarkable gift to change the world; not only that they also laud you when you fulfill their expectations like a super man/woman. But, when the gift in yourself they admired are missed from their focal zone they start to disappear from your perimeter. Still, some people remain by product of empathy stored earlier as a form of love. But, how much time only emotions can fight the war of reality or survival?
What amount of optimum emotions are needed to stop kicking out the transformed person? It's complicated. Tolstoy said "... each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way" So, there is a variation of parameters to standardize playing cruel. To me, Metamorphosis isn't just about how indifferent Gregor's family become to him and how cruel people can be, but it's about how a person's life can become pointless to others when they fall outside of the normal roles of society. There is another point I found in the story, the personality/ individuality that makes him alienated from the other caring ones, forces him to become more isolated fires by experiencing more hate from his family. Maybe, it's an allegory to for the general existential issue of having a body at all.
The absurdism that characterizes Kafka's work typically tends towards these highly specific themes like aging, accidents or depression. But, I think that the deep-seated things it explores are related to those things, but it's broader than that ... ... It discloses the dark hidden horrendous look of Survival game !! Either fetch it, accept it and deal with the dark truth or get lost from the history of human significance. I don't know, I always find Camus and Kafka whisper to me from the beginning days of my existence. They somehow could write what I had felt from deep inside from my earlier days. The Catcher in the Rye describes my whole university life. This types of writing feel so close to me -_- "The Trial" is another good work of Kafka. If you didn't taste it you may give a try :)
