In the beginning his sister cleans and provides food to Gregor and in a strange way he still is part of the family. He therefore held a prominent role in the family.Īfter the transformation, his family can’t even look at him, he is isolated to his room and has to hide under the couch, when a family member occasionally enters. When his father went bankrupt, Gregor took over as the sole breadwinner for his parents and little sister. If we no longer have a role to fulfil, we become an outcast

So instead of a traditional review, I’ll talk about lessons learned (spoilers included).Ģ. Also, The Metamorphosis has been analysed through the lens of existentialism, religion, Freudianism and… As always with the classics, I wonder how I can possibly add anything to the discussion. The amount of essays, reviews, articles and academic papers, which have been written about this little story (60 pages on Kindle) is truly frightening. Personally, I would like to think that – similar to Murakami – there is no right or wrong the interpretation is entirely up to the individual reader. Kafka himself never revealed the deeper meaning.

The novella from 1915 is still being debated and there are almost as many interpretations as there are readers. Haven’t we all wondered what our first thought would be if we woke up one morning and found ourselves transformed to an unidentified, beetle-like insect? No?Īnyway, that question is just one of the reasons you may want to read Kafka’s The Metamorphosis.

Gregor kafka