“How about if I sleep a little bit longer and forget all this nonsense",”
― Franz Kafka, Metamorphosis
And my Kafka obsession continues...
Imagine waking up as gigantic beetle. Suddenly you become an "individual". Suddenly you become different. You are not so useful to humans anymore.
And yet another book review - yay! I'm actually surprised at the increasing amount of books that I can read these past few weeks. Welcome to the rest of my life. My plan is to post a review first here on Hive before I move on to the next. But sometimes I just can't help it. I need to read again as soon as I'm done with the other. There was no recovery time in between. No time to reflect (except for some books that are hard to get over with.) Anyway, these days though, I read more than I write which isn't such a bad thing imho. My mind wanders slowly in different worlds, making friends with different characters through the most superior way - reading. So forgive me if I'm busy reading while I'm away!
Back to beetle bum. All I can write here are my genuine feelings about this bug - I mean this book. Now I know how it is to be a pesky human, I mean a bug. Hey I can't say much because nothing really happened much. But what can you expect from Kafka guys? Okay so "The Metamorphosis" is about a bug that died period. Well of course there's more than that, anyone who reads Kafka's should think hard because he leaves everything to your own interpretation. He wants you to actually think (yup I know that's hard). But one thing for sure, this guy is weird. And I like him.
See, I feel sad for Gregor-the-bug. The funny and weird thing though was that he was more preoccupied about getting to work than his "metamorphosis". I understand he was the breadwinner alright. He cared about his mother, father, and sister. They cared about him too until he became a gigantic beetle one morning. He became an inconvenience to his poor family. They forgot that Gregor, however ugly and disgusting of an insect he was, was still their son.
I know there are a lot of interpretations out there but here is mine. For me, this is about the pointlessness of our lives as I know very well that Kafka writes about existentialism. Our main character Gregor worked so hard and saved a lot of money to pay the debts of his parents and to get his sister to music school only to lose everything. He thought he created this sort of meaning in his own life only to become a starving bug. His family had far more important problems to be worried about and there he was, a disgusting and insignificant bug roaming around in his big and dusty room. Forgotten and left for dead. None of the things he did in his life mattered in the end.
Towards the end, the cleaning lady who liked Gregor was about to tell the family about his death and it made me sad that they refused to listen. I was actually expecting that Gregor finally became "human" again but it was too late because he was dead. He died of starvation when he was still a bug. And that the family regretted their treatment of him when he was still a bug. This would have given me some proper justice. So I hated that this was not what happened. But oh well, reality vs expectations. Kafka doesn't give us the Hollywood feels.
I also hated that something good happened out of Gregor's unfortunate circumstance. His family finally learned to work hard for themselves and not be forever parasites. The ending tells me that they prospered a bit but at the expense of their own son. That was their own metamorphosis.
You got to wait for someone to "turn into a bug" before you finally learn how to live. But when you're a bug, you're not part of the club anymore. Humans. How quick they are to outcast you when you become different - by choice or not. How quick they are to leave you when you start doing your way or your own thing. Then you become isolated and lonely - wishing to be part of the herd again. Wishing to be useful and normal. But you can't and the only way is death.
I notice that this book is getting a lot hate from Goodreads because of the story's pointlessness. But this is what I like about Kafka's books - the pointlessness. That is the point. I'm in love with his weird mind. I'm actually glad that I started with "The Trial" because that was my "Intro to Kafka". The Metamorphosis is not so bad though. This book is not for Coleen Hoover types. Time and time again, just stick with ya fluffy books dear. I seriously believe that Kafka is an acquired taste.
Overall, this is such a quick read and a funny journey to "the absurd". I'm so happy that I bought a used book because that adds to the charm of my collection. Again, to those who are planning to read this classic, please don't expect so much from the story but maybe just use your mind. And that will give you some meaning you're looking for.