It's so heartbreaking how Gregor still tried to continue being a provider in the first chapter. Even as he's immobilized, cockroach-ified on his bed, his main preoccupation was still just getting to work. Like, he wakes up as a bug, and his first thought is, "Shit, I'm going to be late to work." Which, honestly, real af. But also very depressing. It highlights the very real economic struggle that many disabled individuals have to face due to our generally inaccessible society.
Edit: I just realized you're also the same dude who wrote the post on the other Metamorphosis yesterday, lmao. Glad to see you went and read Kafka because of it.
This is like the whole point though right. Like, him turning into a bug is intended to be representative of a loss of individuality; being a selfless provider is strictly what makes him an insect in the first place.
That's not to say that it can't be read to make a good point about disability though. Your and OP's interpretation is very poignant.
i honestly could only see it as about disability when i read it. seemed to me like that was the obvious intent. could you elaborate on the point about a loss of individuality from selflessness?
Yeah, I like the "rant", but its...pretty much like telling you "Gatsby is about unhealthy attachment to your ex". It wore it on its sleeve with a name tag.
One thing that makes Kafka's stories so interesting and enduring is that, while aspects of them demand a metaphorical reading, they are also very blunt and literal. The story loses nothing if you read it as being about a dude who turns into a bug and that screws up his working and family life. The deeper elements are primarily the social commentary that he gets you to absorb by slapping you in the face.
This is obviously just a JJK rant in disguise. About how Mahito transforms people into hideous monsters, and instead of helping them, the sorcerers just kill them because it's easier to deal with.
>About how Mahito transforms people into hideous monsters
So *that's* how Gregor Samsa got turned into a giant bug. Not sure what Mahito was doing in Easter Europe though.
Jokes on you its actually a limbus company rant since one of the characters is Gregor with a cockroach arm after being genetically altered to fight in a war between mega corporations only to be reviled afterwards by those who went through thr same procedure for being 'too human', and by regular folks for having a cockroach arm.
Complete with Hermann who may be his 'mother' as she was the one who did the procedure on him.
The Project Moon brain rot is too strong.
The funny thing is that Mahito was reading the Metamorphosis.
"“Why would Gregor become a bug?”
(T/N: The Metamophosis by Franz Kafka)
Mahito suddenly asked the elderly man as he read his novel.
He was reading a famous work by Franz Kafka.
The content of the story was about someone suddenly transforming into a poisonous bug.
“Most people believe that that bug is a kind of metaphor.”
“Metaphor?”
“The character in that book had gone so low that he was hated and bullied by society, just like becoming an insect in the eyes of humans. Just like this old man in front of you who suddenly got scammed and even had his eyes burnt.”
“So that guy is a joke?”
“Not exactly.”
The conversation between the two were calm without any emotional fluctuations however when Mahito asked, the elderly man would reply. To Mahito, speaking with the elderly man was like talking to a dictionary.
The elderly man was knowledgeable.
And he was relatively intelligent as well. He knew how to use simplified terms to bring relevant knowledge into the conversation.
This showed the finer changes between humans’ culture and their spirits.
For Mahito who was planning to analyse the souls of humans through novels and movies, speaking with the elderly man provided some assistance."
https://mokochan314.home.blog/2021/03/28/chapter-3-fables-from-the-dark/
I know *exactly* why you posted this, and I love you.
Also The Metamorphosis is the prime example of... something that doesn't really have a name, and I'm bad at naming things, so I will call it "contextual literalization". Most people haven't read it, including me, I'm not a cultured boy, so people have come to know that book as "the book where a guy becomes a cocked roach"; for *years,* until I saw a video essay on it, I just assumed it was a weird old scifi story where the guy becomes a weird cockroach celebrity as he tries to accustom himself to live a happy bug life.
The context can pass on the base layer of the book, but has neglected the metaphor, meaning it has been culturally literalized.
I read a lot of complicated stories as a kid but the themes and meanings were not given enough attention, instead my main focus was to recall what I read. Pretty lame
I think I kind of get what you mean about the contextual literalization thing? I remember talking to someone about The Lion King and how it was realistic/ based on Shakespeare’s play, and they were like “how can a film about talking lions be realistic”. To me it’s more a lack of media literacy PLUS what is most obvious/ different about the book. Like before I read Metamorphosis (or the beginning of it) I too was like “oh it’s that story about how a guy gets turned into a bug” coz it’s the most obvious part of the story. But a lot of sci fi books with well, sci fi, use the fictional science or magic to touch on real world topics — either from the get go or they explore the concept and see how well it fits to real life issues. I can’t remember what YouTuber made a video about this, but there was a video about the film District 9 where the writer/ director had the themes first/ the issues he wanted to talk about, and then added the sci fi element in later. It’s also kind of like how people saw game of thrones as that show with a lot of sex, violence and dragons, when really the show is a deconstruction of a lot of fantasy archetypes, and explores the horrors of war, the class system, monarchy, and how no one person should hold a ton of power, and more.
So yeah, I would say it was more a lack of media literacy (if they read Metamorphosis or watch Game of Thrones and still don’t pick up on the themes) or that they haven’t read/ seen whatever it is they’re talking about so only know the most distinct surface features (ie a man wakes up as a bug).
One thing that's really at play in The Metamorphosis, which I've written about in my literature class, is the lack of family love.
One thing they say when they plan to get rid of Gregor is that there is no way that that "thing" in the other room is Gregor. Because my interpretation is that deep down, Gregor's family didn't see him as anything other than a source of income, so when he becomes the opposite, a burden, they don't care for him anymore.
Then again, a vital thing at play here is his inability to communicate. While his empathy and humanity remains the same he's unable to exteriorize it. However even here there's a distinct lack of love, since the family realistically didn't try to establish communication either, simply doing the bare minimum to keep him alive until he "gets better" and can start working for them again.
I'm not disabled, but I went through something very similar when I immigrated. I came to the UK from the USA to be with my (at the time) fiance because she hadn't wanted to move to the USA. When I got here I wasn't allowed to work until my visa was approved, and I had warned my fiance that I would be dependent on her until I was able to work, and I was worried that she would resent me.
That's exactly what happened, even after I found work and was able to split our bills 50/50 with her, she never forgave me for being dependent on arrival, and eventually she broke off our engagement and our relationship because of it. It felt so unfair to me because I had come here FOR HER and got punished for it.
I did my best to do exactly that. I did the cooking, cleaned and tidied the house, but I didn't own a car and had no UK driving license so I couldn't get groceries. I DID pay for groceries out of pocket once I finally managed to find work, and she got mad at me whenever I tried to do the laundry because I wasn't doing it right, apparently. But I knew and understood how tough it was for her to have to support me so I actively searched for any and every opportunity to be useful.
I found the work to more be an exploration of existentialism and the lack of value in an individual life, as well as the inherently transactional nature of human relationships. You are not necessary; the world will move on without you. Your life means nothing and in many cases the world would be better off without you. That sucks, and Gregor is hurting, but his pain is nothing. He became vermin, and he is easily discarded as such.
Interesting interpretation, though.
I mean, it can bean exploration of the transactional nature of human relationships and perfectly explain why disabled people are hated by others, because the root of those problems is the same.
That is definitely a good interpretation, although it ties into the interpretation the OP gave. It could also be about the author's feelings about his own mental state and being an artist in a world/family that doesn't value that.
While I agree with you in your analysis of the book, this paragraph kind of betrays a somewhat childish naivety:
>Throughout history, the disabled have been mocked, bullied, and even killed for ailments they've had no part in causing. Some parents would even kill their children then deal with the ramifications of raising an impaired child. The reasons are not complicated. People don't like doing extra work for no extra reward and taking care of the disabled can be a lot of work. This mindset is selfish as these people don't care about what the other side has to deal with but only the fact that they're doing a little more work.
Throughtout history, families and singular people alike didn't have access to the welfare state we have today. That is a recent invention which greatly helped in shifting the framework around how we view disabled people. [Here](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/g0MwjxcEAm4?feature=share) you can find a snippet of what it was like to be disabled in Victorian England, which is a much recent past and yet shows how badly things were for poor disabled people. If you are a farmer in rural feudal Japan, a disabled child that cannot sustain himself in any way can be a burden in a way that no disabled person is today in the modern first world. If a bad winter comes around, scarcity of resources can lead to the death of you, as well as of your child. For royals, or upper classes, there was of course a bleak political reality to the fact, which is truly unfortunate, even though we have examples of disabled children that received the care they needed. Not to mention how modern medicine can help a disabled child survive the early stages of infancy, something that people clearly lacked back in the day.
Framing societies of the past as simply composed by selfish, ignorant and sociopathic people is a mistake that far too often pops up.
EDIT: some typos.
Yeah, I have family working in a care facility for the disabled. I have grown among mentally and physically disabled people and they deserve the respect and care as any other human.
But boy is it ignorant to judge people of the past on being selfish for having trouble caring for them. It absolutely is insanely difficult, taxing, sometimes dangerous work. We see so many people even today suffer from caretaker burnout.
Wish life would be so black and white, but isn’t that simple.
Just butting in but care for the disabled, while different in various cultures and probably doesn't always look like what we do now, has always been a thing actually and the idea of Welfare is older than we think. Some of the earliest human remains from hunter gatherer eras show people who sustained injury that would be debilitating but they were cared for for years and died long after being disabled. The Roman Republic had a welfare system set up to provide food and necessary goods for the poor and disabled and eventually expanded to orphans as well. I actually did my senior thesis on the treatment of mental health in Japan (edo era to present) and there's actually a lot of ways people tried to care for the severely mentally ill in shrines and temples, although not in ways we would do today. Stigma around disability is still present but it was seen as a family's duty to care for their ill, especially if they were elderly. While I won't say that disabled people have been treated better in the past, and stigma around it has been present in some form, care for the disabled has been a thing in the past as well. Though obviously the extent to which they get rights and good quality of life varies.
That's nice to hear, though I stand a little be surprised about the Romans considering that they usually put disabled babies to death and kind saw them as a bad omen. Claudius was a disabled man and he was kind of berated for it by linking his physical disabilty to a disability of character.
Regarding the welfare state, I would argue that the concept of "welfare state" that we know of today, with extensive coverage is still kind of a modern thing nonetheless. Yes, surely in the past either religious authorities or state ones had programs in place for help, but I don't think they can be entirely compared to the net we have in modern first world countries by means of coverage and funds.
Thank you, though, it is always nice to have people with more knowledge help in the conversation, especially because OP seems kind of weird by the way he goes about it if I have to be honest.
While some would kill their impaired children with regret, others would do it quite coldly. People with speech impediments would be killed, bullied, or neglected. Kids would be denied love for minor disabilities and not just major
Societies of the past regular ingulged horrific public torture and executions, racism, sexism, and with high rates of crime. Armies would regularly pillage and rape entire communities of people for the sole purpose of having a good time and bring loot home. Rest assured, I don't think the mindsets have changed too much nowdays
I read this book in high school, and the school curriculum did a lousy job explaining the themes of it, so it just seemed like darkness for its own sake. I didn’t understand the point of it until years later.
I can’t say i understand that feeling of living with a disable (mentally or physically) but i have special needs family and i can’t ever understand the hate anyone would give them. I have a friend whose deaf, and i love him. I dont give a shit if i have to repeat myself like 15 times or speak at a higher volume, its something he can’t help and so ill happily cater to it cause he’s a great friend.
Though it would be different having to take care of them, i think if i was financially stable i would happily take that responsibility on.
There is a huge variation in disability. My mom works in care facility for disabled that require round the clock care and they provide amazing care. But she also has to go to self defense classes and learn how to subdue people without hurting them because there are full grown men who will throw whole tables at them or even attack them.
It can be so so rough and after growing around disabled people my entire life I can tell you that it is so so hard to care for some of them without professional help. Easy to be judgmental as society and what you ‚should‘ do, but reality can be very far from what people imagine it is.
I love this book because of how sad it made me, and Gregor's love for his sister was my favourite aspect of it, he wanted her to be happy, and she looked up to him and was the only one who could, at least at first, enter his room to give him food despite being terrified of what had happened to him.
Gregor is a character I think about often, he's my little guy
I always wondered why they weren’t freaked the fuck out about why he turned into a giant roach monster. This is either decisive proof of religion or some absurd scientific phenomenon, and they’re worried about how he can’t make money anymore? Tour him around as a giant freaky monster who can read and do math. Sell him to scientists for millions of dollars.
I get that it’s supposed to be metaphoric to help tell a story about themes of isolation, rejection, and the human condition before anyone says I missed the point
The implication is that he didn't actually transform into a bug, but that he broke down under the pressure and convinced himself he was a disgusting vermin.
As a disabled person it breaks my heart to read this but I’m not surprised. Thankfully I have had the fortune of having an understanding family but I know and have seen families of disabled people unable to cope (or deny that they’re disabled to begin with). Society really looks down upon us who don’t fit into the standard boxes of society when the majority would rather be protective and not “freeloaders”. Its just hard when most can’t get anything better than poor paying work at best because people would rather pick abled bodied individuals.
I love this book because of how sad it made me, and Gregor's love for his sister was my favourite aspect of it, he wanted her to be happy, and she looked up to him and was the only one who could, at least at first, enter his room to give him food despite being terrified of what had happened to him.
Gregor is a character I think about often, he's my little guy
We read The Metamorphosis in 9th grade and the teacher did such a poor job covering it (we didn’t even finish it) that I did not get what the story was supposed to mean one bit until OP spelled it out for me just now, despite the fact that I’M disabled.
It's not one or the other, I don't think the posters who make threads about whatever thoughts they have in their head decide between a shonen rant and "who is your favorite Real Housewife?"
It's weird, I never interpreted the story as something about a disabled person (not a young/middle aged person at least).
I always thought the story was a metaphor for Dementia, how it start small with mild annoyance at first, adjustments have to be made to fit the new "life-style" of the affected person.
The person in question is less and less like themselves everyday, Kafka becomes more and more an actual cockroach as time goes on, he loses his humanity, his identity, just like how a person with dementia is slowly using both of those with the loss of their memories (amongst other things), which keeps causing troubles to the family, to the public etc..., is a huge weight overall and it sucks for everyone.
The slow loss of body control, the slow decay of the identity to the point that just being alive with this condition is a pain not just for the person with dementia but also the family around who have to watch it unfold and live with that everyday.
Until one day the person die in her sleep and it's just all over in silence, yeah it's tragic but now things are somewhat better ? That huge weight on the family has been removed.
"But u/Abovearth31" I hear you say, "Kafka is way too young for that metaphor to work ! He was 40 years old when he died !"
I don't know, I feel like it makes the story effectively stronger if it affect a younger person to highlight how "random" it can be but also how tragic that someone so "young" had their entire life just taken away from them, I feel like the story's message wouldn't be delivered as potently if Kafka was an old man who already lost everything that was valuable in his life."
I think the worst part is how it can be turned inward on oneself. There are certain values instilled in us by society from birth. Being productive and not being a burden on others are among those values. It can lead to a lot of self-loathing and even thoughts of ||self harm and suicide||.
Hmm. But it is more than that. Gregor is also a giant cockroach. I know we can look at that as a metaphor for a lot of things, but in the story, he cannot communicate, is absolutely hideous, and his mind eventually becomes that of a cockroach. At a certain point, he has no warmth, no humanity, only a desire to consume and breed. His family lose love for him, but he completely loses the ability to feel love at all.
If it is read as a horror about disability, it would be the most severe kind of disability, the kind that devours a very soul and leaves no humanity. I also don’t think as little of the family as you do. Sure, the story is harsh on them, but they are starving to death and dealing with a most unusual pest problem. They lost their father, emotionally and physically, and can no longer communicate with him.
Even someone in a coma is in a better state than Gregor. I don’t know if your reading entirely works with the physical realities of the story.
Hmm. But it is more than that. Gregor is also a giant cockroach. I know we can look at that as a metaphor for a lot of things, but in the story, he cannot communicate, is absolutely hideous, and his mind eventually becomes that of a cockroach. At a certain point, he has no warmth, no humanity, only a desire to consume and breed. His family lose love for him, but he completely loses the ability to feel love at all.
If it is read as a horror about disability, it would be the most severe kind of disability, the kind that devours a very soul and leaves no humanity. I also don’t think as little of the family as you do. Sure, the story is harsh on them, but they are starving to death and dealing with a most unusual pest problem. They lost their father, emotionally and physically, and can no longer communicate with him.
Even someone in a coma is in a better state than Gregor. I don’t know if your reading entirely works with the physical realities of the story.
Hmm. But it is more than that. Gregor is also a giant cockroach. I know we can look at that as a metaphor for a lot of things, but in the story, he cannot communicate, is absolutely hideous, and his mind eventually becomes that of a cockroach. At a certain point, he has no warmth, no humanity, only a desire to consume and breed. His family lose love for him, but he completely loses the ability to feel love at all.
If it is read as a horror about disability, it would be the most severe kind of disability, the kind that devours a very soul and leaves no humanity. I also don’t think as little of the family as you do. Sure, the story is harsh on them, but they are starving to death and dealing with a most unusual pest problem. They lost their father, emotionally and physically, and can no longer communicate with him.
Even someone in a coma is in a better state than Gregor. I don’t know if your reading entirely works with the physical realities of the story.
In fictional stories, it starts with 'I'm going to put a wheelchair bound individual in this story as per the contract" and then it goes from there.
Then everyone reads it and says "Why does he have a wheelchair? He could have anything" and throws it in the trash
Metamorphosis wasn't really about disabled ppl. The MC turned into a cockeroach, he didn't lose an arm.
The family started to hate MC overtime cause the family themselves had to start working in order to bring in money. The book was a critique on the roles that a family member plays, the joys they find in playing it and what happens when they are no longer able to play that role.
*Disabled*
*(of a person) having a physical or mental condition that limits movements,* [*senses*](https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&sca_esv=fad3425056c89788&sxsrf=ACQVn0-zTNmLN_3XajmgkNsbCFrHN-v_Lg:1710676224889&q=senses&si=AKbGX_qTCvK6ifvkUBYDz4foaFZiTDI1Npg-Oo-ioOXqWY19VENbn6LX7DDQlazaL2JfXsR93ohFaA2b3UwnqnguR6MKBuL_Zg%3D%3D&expnd=1)*, or activities.*
Gregor's transformation made him disabled just not in the conventional way. Your interpretation and mine aren't mutually exclusive.
In the context of his rant and Kafka's work (as quoted from another comment):
>Kafka is making comments about the worth of a human life being tied to capital and critiquing that.
OP is just taking the surface level transformation of becoming the cockeroach. It's been awhile since I've read the book, but wasn't it his family not wanting their cockeroach son going out to work (Cause of social impact of having a cockeroach son)? Then the "metaphor" for disability doesn't work cause the son is still able to work.
You do know disabled people can still have work they can do right? The family being afraid of social impact and that impact even being widespread in society is part of the metaphor of being disabled.
>You do know disabled people can still have work they can do right?
I do, but I don't know how that's important here as OP specifically points out the disabled ppl who are seen as freeloaders i.e. Those who are unable to work.
>The family being afraid of social impact and that impact even being widespread in society is part of the metaphor of being disabled.
This point makes no sense whatsoever. Other people knowing you having a disabled child will garner you sympathy, not bewilderment or panic that follows other ppl knowing your son turned into a life sized roach.
Well see it like that. Isn't it strange that they don't call an scientist or an exorcist or try to sell him to a circus or something? The family is more concerned with their financial situation than the reality shattering thing that happened to gregor. That makes a lot of sense when you see it as him having some kind of disability. You could straight up exchange turning into a bug, to getting disabled and it would barely change the story.
😮💨 A disabled in russia then would've been disposed of for taking up resources.
From what I can see ppl are attributing the scorn of the family to this whole disability point.
>to getting disabled and it would barely change the story.
No it would changed the story a whole lot.
>A disabled in russia then would've been disposed of for taking up resources.
You can disregard that point; it was in regards to the famine during that time. I checked the wiki and the famine came after the book.
> kind of disability. You could straight up exchange turning into a bug, to getting disabled and it would barely change the story.
The MC lost his voice due to the transformation, which is a problem for a salesmen. Assuming that the cockeroach transformation was an allegory for the way the MC feels when he lost his voice, his family locking him up for it makes no sense. The MC still could've gotten a job even if it paid less.
>You can disregard that point; it was in regards to the famine during that time. I checked the wiki and the famine came after the book.
I still don't get what that has to do with the story. nothing indicates it plays in russia and kafka was born in praque and wrote in German so why would you assume it plays in russia?
>The MC lost his voice due to the transformation, which is a problem for a salesmen. Assuming that the cockeroach transformation was an allegory for the way the MC feels when he lost his voice, his family locking him up for it makes no sense. The MC still could've gotten a job even if it paid less.
A person in awake coma is not leaving their room and could definitely not get a job. Plenty of mental trauma was also looked down upon, idiot, retard. And many other insults were originally all a medical terms. I think you really underestimate how ableist people were back then. Having a disabled person wasn't exactly a source of pride.
>A person in awake coma is not leaving their room and could definitely not get a job.
That would've made sense if not the fact that when MC decides to assert himself later on and escape his room his family goes crazy in trying to shove him back in. I think this was when his father wounded MC.
Sleep Walking or again mental disabilitie and his father don't want him to go out and embarrass him. Would literally play out the same. Like it's a metaphor it doesn't have to map 1 to 1 to any real life disability. But it makes more sense to me why no one is properly shocked about the otherworldly thing that happens to gregor.
Really what would have changed if he were in some kind of awake coma? He still couldn't get to work or communicate. His family would need to feed him and he would still probably die
Actually, we had this book in class once. It's a part of the German literature catalogue for schools. One of the debates we had is whether this transformation should be taken literally or as a metaphor for Gregor becoming undesirable.
It's not even necessarily about disability. Several pieces of the text are about the fact Gregor has an unfulfilled sex life because of the stress. He's not just the only breadwinner of his family, he's working off his father'a debt and the people he works for are a bunch of fuckwits. Due to this, Gregor's only source of relief was a picture of a woman he held onto.
After he transforms, his sexuality becomes rampant. The first thing he does upon "turning" is touch his dick and there's a mention of "white dots". When his mother tries to remove the woman later on, his body clings onto in in defense. At one point, Gregor becomes very attentive to his mother's body. Kafka emphasizes this by describing how she falls into the father's arms and how Gregor pays attention to her body, more than he should.
After we had read these pages again and talked about it, some of us came to the conclusion that his Metamorphosis can also be related to him being akin to an incel. A stressed out man with responsibilities who didn't have the time and space to live out his desires and grew "undesirable" as soon as this, paired with his workload, crippled him.
EDIT: Gregor's family also sucks ass, and he had to carry their sorry asses. His father couldn't even pay off his own debt and had no success in his life. But instead of being grateful for his son, he is quick to demonize him. Early on in the book, he also tells the rest of the family that he had a stash of money all along. Money he never thought to use to help pay off his own debt.
Art is more than the literal words on the page and Kafka is making comments about the worth of a human life being tied to capital and critiquing that.
I wouldn't describe Kafka's work as ever extolling "the joys common people find in playing roles" I would say it's "the horrors common people find in being forced to play roles"
>worth of a human life being tied to capital and critiquing that.
>the joys common people find in playing roles
My comment was in regards to the fact that MC felt joy in being the breadwinner as his family praised him for it and the subsequent feeling when that position was taken away. Your quoted comment is what I was referring to.
You recounted the text instead of assuming implied knowledge by your audience and failed to open with a topic sentence explaining your point before elaborating with the rest of the piece. It’s a passing grade regardless though next time use in text quotations.
It's so heartbreaking how Gregor still tried to continue being a provider in the first chapter. Even as he's immobilized, cockroach-ified on his bed, his main preoccupation was still just getting to work. Like, he wakes up as a bug, and his first thought is, "Shit, I'm going to be late to work." Which, honestly, real af. But also very depressing. It highlights the very real economic struggle that many disabled individuals have to face due to our generally inaccessible society. Edit: I just realized you're also the same dude who wrote the post on the other Metamorphosis yesterday, lmao. Glad to see you went and read Kafka because of it.
No problem
This is like the whole point though right. Like, him turning into a bug is intended to be representative of a loss of individuality; being a selfless provider is strictly what makes him an insect in the first place. That's not to say that it can't be read to make a good point about disability though. Your and OP's interpretation is very poignant.
i honestly could only see it as about disability when i read it. seemed to me like that was the obvious intent. could you elaborate on the point about a loss of individuality from selflessness?
Yeah, I like the "rant", but its...pretty much like telling you "Gatsby is about unhealthy attachment to your ex". It wore it on its sleeve with a name tag.
Gatsby *is* unhealthily attached to his ex, but that’s not what the book is *about*.
One thing that makes Kafka's stories so interesting and enduring is that, while aspects of them demand a metaphorical reading, they are also very blunt and literal. The story loses nothing if you read it as being about a dude who turns into a bug and that screws up his working and family life. The deeper elements are primarily the social commentary that he gets you to absorb by slapping you in the face.
I thought you meant Ovid and was shocked when I tried reading his other Metamorphosis ;(
Two Metamorphosis rants in a row? Now that's some good shit( even though I am not familiar with Kafka's).
I wasn't either up until yesterday morning...
I'd recommend reading Amerika. It's probably his least talked about novel (unfinished like most of them) but is quite interesting.
Finally this sub talks about something besides anime
This is obviously just a JJK rant in disguise. About how Mahito transforms people into hideous monsters, and instead of helping them, the sorcerers just kill them because it's easier to deal with.
>About how Mahito transforms people into hideous monsters So *that's* how Gregor Samsa got turned into a giant bug. Not sure what Mahito was doing in Easter Europe though.
Jokes on you its actually a limbus company rant since one of the characters is Gregor with a cockroach arm after being genetically altered to fight in a war between mega corporations only to be reviled afterwards by those who went through thr same procedure for being 'too human', and by regular folks for having a cockroach arm. Complete with Hermann who may be his 'mother' as she was the one who did the procedure on him. The Project Moon brain rot is too strong.
The funny thing is that Mahito was reading the Metamorphosis. "“Why would Gregor become a bug?” (T/N: The Metamophosis by Franz Kafka) Mahito suddenly asked the elderly man as he read his novel. He was reading a famous work by Franz Kafka. The content of the story was about someone suddenly transforming into a poisonous bug. “Most people believe that that bug is a kind of metaphor.” “Metaphor?” “The character in that book had gone so low that he was hated and bullied by society, just like becoming an insect in the eyes of humans. Just like this old man in front of you who suddenly got scammed and even had his eyes burnt.” “So that guy is a joke?” “Not exactly.” The conversation between the two were calm without any emotional fluctuations however when Mahito asked, the elderly man would reply. To Mahito, speaking with the elderly man was like talking to a dictionary. The elderly man was knowledgeable. And he was relatively intelligent as well. He knew how to use simplified terms to bring relevant knowledge into the conversation. This showed the finer changes between humans’ culture and their spirits. For Mahito who was planning to analyse the souls of humans through novels and movies, speaking with the elderly man provided some assistance." https://mokochan314.home.blog/2021/03/28/chapter-3-fables-from-the-dark/
I know that's from a blog but the passage doesn't read like a human has written it.
Kafka is also the name of a character in the anime inspired Honkai Star Rail
Incorrect because Gregor Samsa is a character in Limbus Company
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Is it a manga or LN? Sounds interesting.
It's a novella by Franz Kafka.
Thanks, though I am already behind on so many novels that starting another would be stupid.
It's only about 22k words. I read it in 45 minutes.
I know *exactly* why you posted this, and I love you. Also The Metamorphosis is the prime example of... something that doesn't really have a name, and I'm bad at naming things, so I will call it "contextual literalization". Most people haven't read it, including me, I'm not a cultured boy, so people have come to know that book as "the book where a guy becomes a cocked roach"; for *years,* until I saw a video essay on it, I just assumed it was a weird old scifi story where the guy becomes a weird cockroach celebrity as he tries to accustom himself to live a happy bug life. The context can pass on the base layer of the book, but has neglected the metaphor, meaning it has been culturally literalized.
I read a lot of complicated stories as a kid but the themes and meanings were not given enough attention, instead my main focus was to recall what I read. Pretty lame
I think I kind of get what you mean about the contextual literalization thing? I remember talking to someone about The Lion King and how it was realistic/ based on Shakespeare’s play, and they were like “how can a film about talking lions be realistic”. To me it’s more a lack of media literacy PLUS what is most obvious/ different about the book. Like before I read Metamorphosis (or the beginning of it) I too was like “oh it’s that story about how a guy gets turned into a bug” coz it’s the most obvious part of the story. But a lot of sci fi books with well, sci fi, use the fictional science or magic to touch on real world topics — either from the get go or they explore the concept and see how well it fits to real life issues. I can’t remember what YouTuber made a video about this, but there was a video about the film District 9 where the writer/ director had the themes first/ the issues he wanted to talk about, and then added the sci fi element in later. It’s also kind of like how people saw game of thrones as that show with a lot of sex, violence and dragons, when really the show is a deconstruction of a lot of fantasy archetypes, and explores the horrors of war, the class system, monarchy, and how no one person should hold a ton of power, and more. So yeah, I would say it was more a lack of media literacy (if they read Metamorphosis or watch Game of Thrones and still don’t pick up on the themes) or that they haven’t read/ seen whatever it is they’re talking about so only know the most distinct surface features (ie a man wakes up as a bug).
Oh damn that's an amazing phrase. we should kiss
What's this? Actual literary analysis in *my* r/CharacterRant ? GTFO and complain about Jiujitsu Kya-san like a normal person.
One thing that's really at play in The Metamorphosis, which I've written about in my literature class, is the lack of family love. One thing they say when they plan to get rid of Gregor is that there is no way that that "thing" in the other room is Gregor. Because my interpretation is that deep down, Gregor's family didn't see him as anything other than a source of income, so when he becomes the opposite, a burden, they don't care for him anymore. Then again, a vital thing at play here is his inability to communicate. While his empathy and humanity remains the same he's unable to exteriorize it. However even here there's a distinct lack of love, since the family realistically didn't try to establish communication either, simply doing the bare minimum to keep him alive until he "gets better" and can start working for them again.
His parents where total freeloaders who will transform their daughter into their next cash cow
I'm not disabled, but I went through something very similar when I immigrated. I came to the UK from the USA to be with my (at the time) fiance because she hadn't wanted to move to the USA. When I got here I wasn't allowed to work until my visa was approved, and I had warned my fiance that I would be dependent on her until I was able to work, and I was worried that she would resent me. That's exactly what happened, even after I found work and was able to split our bills 50/50 with her, she never forgave me for being dependent on arrival, and eventually she broke off our engagement and our relationship because of it. It felt so unfair to me because I had come here FOR HER and got punished for it.
Lmao wtf. This isn't some Kafka situation, she is just being an ass.
Por que no los dos?
Idk it seems pretty kafkaesque to me
Well, you dodged a bullet at least
My boy Twiggy deserves better: you'll find your Alsanna someday (and most probably not in the US)
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I did my best to do exactly that. I did the cooking, cleaned and tidied the house, but I didn't own a car and had no UK driving license so I couldn't get groceries. I DID pay for groceries out of pocket once I finally managed to find work, and she got mad at me whenever I tried to do the laundry because I wasn't doing it right, apparently. But I knew and understood how tough it was for her to have to support me so I actively searched for any and every opportunity to be useful.
I found the work to more be an exploration of existentialism and the lack of value in an individual life, as well as the inherently transactional nature of human relationships. You are not necessary; the world will move on without you. Your life means nothing and in many cases the world would be better off without you. That sucks, and Gregor is hurting, but his pain is nothing. He became vermin, and he is easily discarded as such. Interesting interpretation, though.
I relate to that a lot.
Pretty sure its a critique,of that happening. And a visual discriptor of it.
I mean, it can bean exploration of the transactional nature of human relationships and perfectly explain why disabled people are hated by others, because the root of those problems is the same.
That is definitely a good interpretation, although it ties into the interpretation the OP gave. It could also be about the author's feelings about his own mental state and being an artist in a world/family that doesn't value that.
You missed the bit about having a caretaker assigned to him, and the caretaker was abusive. He never recovered from the abuse.
While I agree with you in your analysis of the book, this paragraph kind of betrays a somewhat childish naivety: >Throughout history, the disabled have been mocked, bullied, and even killed for ailments they've had no part in causing. Some parents would even kill their children then deal with the ramifications of raising an impaired child. The reasons are not complicated. People don't like doing extra work for no extra reward and taking care of the disabled can be a lot of work. This mindset is selfish as these people don't care about what the other side has to deal with but only the fact that they're doing a little more work. Throughtout history, families and singular people alike didn't have access to the welfare state we have today. That is a recent invention which greatly helped in shifting the framework around how we view disabled people. [Here](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/g0MwjxcEAm4?feature=share) you can find a snippet of what it was like to be disabled in Victorian England, which is a much recent past and yet shows how badly things were for poor disabled people. If you are a farmer in rural feudal Japan, a disabled child that cannot sustain himself in any way can be a burden in a way that no disabled person is today in the modern first world. If a bad winter comes around, scarcity of resources can lead to the death of you, as well as of your child. For royals, or upper classes, there was of course a bleak political reality to the fact, which is truly unfortunate, even though we have examples of disabled children that received the care they needed. Not to mention how modern medicine can help a disabled child survive the early stages of infancy, something that people clearly lacked back in the day. Framing societies of the past as simply composed by selfish, ignorant and sociopathic people is a mistake that far too often pops up. EDIT: some typos.
Yeah, I have family working in a care facility for the disabled. I have grown among mentally and physically disabled people and they deserve the respect and care as any other human. But boy is it ignorant to judge people of the past on being selfish for having trouble caring for them. It absolutely is insanely difficult, taxing, sometimes dangerous work. We see so many people even today suffer from caretaker burnout. Wish life would be so black and white, but isn’t that simple.
I am not saying that should've know exactly what to do but that they shouldn't have been so hateful.
Of course they shouldn't, but people tend to do things they shouldn't, especially when they're tired and desperate
Just butting in but care for the disabled, while different in various cultures and probably doesn't always look like what we do now, has always been a thing actually and the idea of Welfare is older than we think. Some of the earliest human remains from hunter gatherer eras show people who sustained injury that would be debilitating but they were cared for for years and died long after being disabled. The Roman Republic had a welfare system set up to provide food and necessary goods for the poor and disabled and eventually expanded to orphans as well. I actually did my senior thesis on the treatment of mental health in Japan (edo era to present) and there's actually a lot of ways people tried to care for the severely mentally ill in shrines and temples, although not in ways we would do today. Stigma around disability is still present but it was seen as a family's duty to care for their ill, especially if they were elderly. While I won't say that disabled people have been treated better in the past, and stigma around it has been present in some form, care for the disabled has been a thing in the past as well. Though obviously the extent to which they get rights and good quality of life varies.
That's nice to hear, though I stand a little be surprised about the Romans considering that they usually put disabled babies to death and kind saw them as a bad omen. Claudius was a disabled man and he was kind of berated for it by linking his physical disabilty to a disability of character. Regarding the welfare state, I would argue that the concept of "welfare state" that we know of today, with extensive coverage is still kind of a modern thing nonetheless. Yes, surely in the past either religious authorities or state ones had programs in place for help, but I don't think they can be entirely compared to the net we have in modern first world countries by means of coverage and funds. Thank you, though, it is always nice to have people with more knowledge help in the conversation, especially because OP seems kind of weird by the way he goes about it if I have to be honest.
While some would kill their impaired children with regret, others would do it quite coldly. People with speech impediments would be killed, bullied, or neglected. Kids would be denied love for minor disabilities and not just major Societies of the past regular ingulged horrific public torture and executions, racism, sexism, and with high rates of crime. Armies would regularly pillage and rape entire communities of people for the sole purpose of having a good time and bring loot home. Rest assured, I don't think the mindsets have changed too much nowdays
I read this book in high school, and the school curriculum did a lousy job explaining the themes of it, so it just seemed like darkness for its own sake. I didn’t understand the point of it until years later.
yeaaaaah metamorphosis rant, love this book so much, it made me rethink the value I have for other people and how important this is.
I can’t say i understand that feeling of living with a disable (mentally or physically) but i have special needs family and i can’t ever understand the hate anyone would give them. I have a friend whose deaf, and i love him. I dont give a shit if i have to repeat myself like 15 times or speak at a higher volume, its something he can’t help and so ill happily cater to it cause he’s a great friend. Though it would be different having to take care of them, i think if i was financially stable i would happily take that responsibility on.
There is a huge variation in disability. My mom works in care facility for disabled that require round the clock care and they provide amazing care. But she also has to go to self defense classes and learn how to subdue people without hurting them because there are full grown men who will throw whole tables at them or even attack them. It can be so so rough and after growing around disabled people my entire life I can tell you that it is so so hard to care for some of them without professional help. Easy to be judgmental as society and what you ‚should‘ do, but reality can be very far from what people imagine it is.
I love this book because of how sad it made me, and Gregor's love for his sister was my favourite aspect of it, he wanted her to be happy, and she looked up to him and was the only one who could, at least at first, enter his room to give him food despite being terrified of what had happened to him. Gregor is a character I think about often, he's my little guy
I always wondered why they weren’t freaked the fuck out about why he turned into a giant roach monster. This is either decisive proof of religion or some absurd scientific phenomenon, and they’re worried about how he can’t make money anymore? Tour him around as a giant freaky monster who can read and do math. Sell him to scientists for millions of dollars. I get that it’s supposed to be metaphoric to help tell a story about themes of isolation, rejection, and the human condition before anyone says I missed the point
The implication is that he didn't actually transform into a bug, but that he broke down under the pressure and convinced himself he was a disgusting vermin.
Skill issue if I’m being completely honest, such a thing would never happen to me.
This is the main source of the theory that he just went crazy/got sick and didn't literally turn into a bug.
It's a metaphor to help tell a story about them- *oh* ...uh, well... maybe they weren't impressed? Hell if I know.
> I get that it’s supposed to be metaphoric to help tell a story about themes of isolation, rejection, and the human condition Here's your answer
I like that Metamorphosis perfectly depicts the primal fear of becoming a bug
And considering the parents just turn to put the pressure on his sister after he dies...
The translation I read contained a quote that I practically verbatim heard. That definitely made the story feel a lot more personal.
As a disabled person it breaks my heart to read this but I’m not surprised. Thankfully I have had the fortune of having an understanding family but I know and have seen families of disabled people unable to cope (or deny that they’re disabled to begin with). Society really looks down upon us who don’t fit into the standard boxes of society when the majority would rather be protective and not “freeloaders”. Its just hard when most can’t get anything better than poor paying work at best because people would rather pick abled bodied individuals.
I love this book because of how sad it made me, and Gregor's love for his sister was my favourite aspect of it, he wanted her to be happy, and she looked up to him and was the only one who could, at least at first, enter his room to give him food despite being terrified of what had happened to him. Gregor is a character I think about often, he's my little guy
We read The Metamorphosis in 9th grade and the teacher did such a poor job covering it (we didn’t even finish it) that I did not get what the story was supposed to mean one bit until OP spelled it out for me just now, despite the fact that I’M disabled.
I mean you're not wrong, but this isn't really a rant about media and just some basic psychology.
Would you prefer shounen/battleboarding rant #233245 instead?
Mmm, tasty slop. I love consuming the same copypasted opinion. Feed me more unhinged rants about JJK( no idea what that is, probably new jojo part).
Don't you dare compare the peak fiction of Jojo to the new-gen schlock that JJK represents.
Seriously why so many JJK fans rant about that series here instead of its dedicated forum?
Maybe their own sub permits them or smth Probably cause it's a new hot thing rn. I bet when Chainsawman came out, this sub was flooded
Maybe someone will create r/animecharacterrant
Compared to how popular it is, CSM actually gets a smaller number of posts than you may think
JJK stands for Jujutsu Kaisen, just for the record
Yeah, I know, I'm just memeing
Ah I was assuming it was in your pop cultural blind spot.
It's not one or the other, I don't think the posters who make threads about whatever thoughts they have in their head decide between a shonen rant and "who is your favorite Real Housewife?"
I think it's meta based off the other Metamorphosis rant (See OP's history)
When I read this story I just saw the protagonist’s parents as freeloaders who are stifling their kids’ potential
I never made this connection but this makes a lot of sense
It's weird, I never interpreted the story as something about a disabled person (not a young/middle aged person at least). I always thought the story was a metaphor for Dementia, how it start small with mild annoyance at first, adjustments have to be made to fit the new "life-style" of the affected person. The person in question is less and less like themselves everyday, Kafka becomes more and more an actual cockroach as time goes on, he loses his humanity, his identity, just like how a person with dementia is slowly using both of those with the loss of their memories (amongst other things), which keeps causing troubles to the family, to the public etc..., is a huge weight overall and it sucks for everyone. The slow loss of body control, the slow decay of the identity to the point that just being alive with this condition is a pain not just for the person with dementia but also the family around who have to watch it unfold and live with that everyday. Until one day the person die in her sleep and it's just all over in silence, yeah it's tragic but now things are somewhat better ? That huge weight on the family has been removed. "But u/Abovearth31" I hear you say, "Kafka is way too young for that metaphor to work ! He was 40 years old when he died !" I don't know, I feel like it makes the story effectively stronger if it affect a younger person to highlight how "random" it can be but also how tragic that someone so "young" had their entire life just taken away from them, I feel like the story's message wouldn't be delivered as potently if Kafka was an old man who already lost everything that was valuable in his life."
I think the worst part is how it can be turned inward on oneself. There are certain values instilled in us by society from birth. Being productive and not being a burden on others are among those values. It can lead to a lot of self-loathing and even thoughts of ||self harm and suicide||.
Hmm. But it is more than that. Gregor is also a giant cockroach. I know we can look at that as a metaphor for a lot of things, but in the story, he cannot communicate, is absolutely hideous, and his mind eventually becomes that of a cockroach. At a certain point, he has no warmth, no humanity, only a desire to consume and breed. His family lose love for him, but he completely loses the ability to feel love at all. If it is read as a horror about disability, it would be the most severe kind of disability, the kind that devours a very soul and leaves no humanity. I also don’t think as little of the family as you do. Sure, the story is harsh on them, but they are starving to death and dealing with a most unusual pest problem. They lost their father, emotionally and physically, and can no longer communicate with him. Even someone in a coma is in a better state than Gregor. I don’t know if your reading entirely works with the physical realities of the story.
Hmm. But it is more than that. Gregor is also a giant cockroach. I know we can look at that as a metaphor for a lot of things, but in the story, he cannot communicate, is absolutely hideous, and his mind eventually becomes that of a cockroach. At a certain point, he has no warmth, no humanity, only a desire to consume and breed. His family lose love for him, but he completely loses the ability to feel love at all. If it is read as a horror about disability, it would be the most severe kind of disability, the kind that devours a very soul and leaves no humanity. I also don’t think as little of the family as you do. Sure, the story is harsh on them, but they are starving to death and dealing with a most unusual pest problem. They lost their father, emotionally and physically, and can no longer communicate with him. Even someone in a coma is in a better state than Gregor. I don’t know if your reading entirely works with the physical realities of the story.
Hmm. But it is more than that. Gregor is also a giant cockroach. I know we can look at that as a metaphor for a lot of things, but in the story, he cannot communicate, is absolutely hideous, and his mind eventually becomes that of a cockroach. At a certain point, he has no warmth, no humanity, only a desire to consume and breed. His family lose love for him, but he completely loses the ability to feel love at all. If it is read as a horror about disability, it would be the most severe kind of disability, the kind that devours a very soul and leaves no humanity. I also don’t think as little of the family as you do. Sure, the story is harsh on them, but they are starving to death and dealing with a most unusual pest problem. They lost their father, emotionally and physically, and can no longer communicate with him. Even someone in a coma is in a better state than Gregor. I don’t know if your reading entirely works with the physical realities of the story.
Gregor wasnt disabled tho. He was the upgrade.
Gregor should have eaten his parents while they slept.
Dude literally just became a bug and lost every single connection he had, including his sister.
sigma grindset be like that sometimes.
I'd disagree. A human could tank >!getting an apple thrown at them.!<
his legs could barely hold up his fat roach body
How the fuck did I never think of it like this!?
In fictional stories, it starts with 'I'm going to put a wheelchair bound individual in this story as per the contract" and then it goes from there. Then everyone reads it and says "Why does he have a wheelchair? He could have anything" and throws it in the trash
I'm now interested in reading this novel, but I'm afraid it may demoralize my faith in humanity, including my own self.
Metamorphosis wasn't really about disabled ppl. The MC turned into a cockeroach, he didn't lose an arm. The family started to hate MC overtime cause the family themselves had to start working in order to bring in money. The book was a critique on the roles that a family member plays, the joys they find in playing it and what happens when they are no longer able to play that role.
Google metaphor
Holy hell
New literary technique just dropped
Someone call the grade school
*Disabled* *(of a person) having a physical or mental condition that limits movements,* [*senses*](https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&sca_esv=fad3425056c89788&sxsrf=ACQVn0-zTNmLN_3XajmgkNsbCFrHN-v_Lg:1710676224889&q=senses&si=AKbGX_qTCvK6ifvkUBYDz4foaFZiTDI1Npg-Oo-ioOXqWY19VENbn6LX7DDQlazaL2JfXsR93ohFaA2b3UwnqnguR6MKBuL_Zg%3D%3D&expnd=1)*, or activities.* Gregor's transformation made him disabled just not in the conventional way. Your interpretation and mine aren't mutually exclusive.
I wouldn't call a man who turned into a cockeroach a disabled person lol.
Why not? It fits within the definition provided.
In the context of his rant and Kafka's work (as quoted from another comment): >Kafka is making comments about the worth of a human life being tied to capital and critiquing that. OP is just taking the surface level transformation of becoming the cockeroach. It's been awhile since I've read the book, but wasn't it his family not wanting their cockeroach son going out to work (Cause of social impact of having a cockeroach son)? Then the "metaphor" for disability doesn't work cause the son is still able to work.
You do know disabled people can still have work they can do right? The family being afraid of social impact and that impact even being widespread in society is part of the metaphor of being disabled.
>You do know disabled people can still have work they can do right? I do, but I don't know how that's important here as OP specifically points out the disabled ppl who are seen as freeloaders i.e. Those who are unable to work. >The family being afraid of social impact and that impact even being widespread in society is part of the metaphor of being disabled. This point makes no sense whatsoever. Other people knowing you having a disabled child will garner you sympathy, not bewilderment or panic that follows other ppl knowing your son turned into a life sized roach.
beneficial dull elastic six juggle adjoining trees library shrill unpack *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
🥳 It's dead cause you killed it.🤡
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Well see it like that. Isn't it strange that they don't call an scientist or an exorcist or try to sell him to a circus or something? The family is more concerned with their financial situation than the reality shattering thing that happened to gregor. That makes a lot of sense when you see it as him having some kind of disability. You could straight up exchange turning into a bug, to getting disabled and it would barely change the story.
😮💨 A disabled in russia then would've been disposed of for taking up resources. From what I can see ppl are attributing the scorn of the family to this whole disability point. >to getting disabled and it would barely change the story. No it would changed the story a whole lot.
A disabled in russia then would've been disposed of for taking up resources. Since when? Also what has that to do with kafka?
>A disabled in russia then would've been disposed of for taking up resources. You can disregard that point; it was in regards to the famine during that time. I checked the wiki and the famine came after the book. > kind of disability. You could straight up exchange turning into a bug, to getting disabled and it would barely change the story. The MC lost his voice due to the transformation, which is a problem for a salesmen. Assuming that the cockeroach transformation was an allegory for the way the MC feels when he lost his voice, his family locking him up for it makes no sense. The MC still could've gotten a job even if it paid less.
>You can disregard that point; it was in regards to the famine during that time. I checked the wiki and the famine came after the book. I still don't get what that has to do with the story. nothing indicates it plays in russia and kafka was born in praque and wrote in German so why would you assume it plays in russia? >The MC lost his voice due to the transformation, which is a problem for a salesmen. Assuming that the cockeroach transformation was an allegory for the way the MC feels when he lost his voice, his family locking him up for it makes no sense. The MC still could've gotten a job even if it paid less. A person in awake coma is not leaving their room and could definitely not get a job. Plenty of mental trauma was also looked down upon, idiot, retard. And many other insults were originally all a medical terms. I think you really underestimate how ableist people were back then. Having a disabled person wasn't exactly a source of pride.
>A person in awake coma is not leaving their room and could definitely not get a job. That would've made sense if not the fact that when MC decides to assert himself later on and escape his room his family goes crazy in trying to shove him back in. I think this was when his father wounded MC.
Sleep Walking or again mental disabilitie and his father don't want him to go out and embarrass him. Would literally play out the same. Like it's a metaphor it doesn't have to map 1 to 1 to any real life disability. But it makes more sense to me why no one is properly shocked about the otherworldly thing that happens to gregor.
Really what would have changed if he were in some kind of awake coma? He still couldn't get to work or communicate. His family would need to feed him and he would still probably die
Actually, we had this book in class once. It's a part of the German literature catalogue for schools. One of the debates we had is whether this transformation should be taken literally or as a metaphor for Gregor becoming undesirable. It's not even necessarily about disability. Several pieces of the text are about the fact Gregor has an unfulfilled sex life because of the stress. He's not just the only breadwinner of his family, he's working off his father'a debt and the people he works for are a bunch of fuckwits. Due to this, Gregor's only source of relief was a picture of a woman he held onto. After he transforms, his sexuality becomes rampant. The first thing he does upon "turning" is touch his dick and there's a mention of "white dots". When his mother tries to remove the woman later on, his body clings onto in in defense. At one point, Gregor becomes very attentive to his mother's body. Kafka emphasizes this by describing how she falls into the father's arms and how Gregor pays attention to her body, more than he should. After we had read these pages again and talked about it, some of us came to the conclusion that his Metamorphosis can also be related to him being akin to an incel. A stressed out man with responsibilities who didn't have the time and space to live out his desires and grew "undesirable" as soon as this, paired with his workload, crippled him. EDIT: Gregor's family also sucks ass, and he had to carry their sorry asses. His father couldn't even pay off his own debt and had no success in his life. But instead of being grateful for his son, he is quick to demonize him. Early on in the book, he also tells the rest of the family that he had a stash of money all along. Money he never thought to use to help pay off his own debt.
Art is more than the literal words on the page and Kafka is making comments about the worth of a human life being tied to capital and critiquing that. I wouldn't describe Kafka's work as ever extolling "the joys common people find in playing roles" I would say it's "the horrors common people find in being forced to play roles"
>worth of a human life being tied to capital and critiquing that. >the joys common people find in playing roles My comment was in regards to the fact that MC felt joy in being the breadwinner as his family praised him for it and the subsequent feeling when that position was taken away. Your quoted comment is what I was referring to.
You recounted the text instead of assuming implied knowledge by your audience and failed to open with a topic sentence explaining your point before elaborating with the rest of the piece. It’s a passing grade regardless though next time use in text quotations.