The Metamorphosis

Stud . X

Prof . X

Course

16 May 2007

The Metamorphosis

At the turn of the 20th century a struggling Jewish writer living in Prague was trying to balance work and honing his craft . In his lifetime he was not able to taste literary success but was successful in creating one of the most thought provoking work that redefined what writing is all about . His name is Franz Kafka and his masterpiece , The Metamorphosis

This will attempt to interpret The Metamorphosis for the purpose of sharing it to a

new generation of readers . It will not be an easy task . Whoever will undertake the work of understanding it must realize that Kafka 's opus is like a gem that is multifaceted . Thus , a student reading it must not stop after getting one set of interpretation . This is what makes Kafka 's work a good read and part of the reason why interest regarding the material did not wane , even after close to a century since its publication in the year 1915

The Novella

It is a well known fact that man is a creature of habit . Habits are also formed quite easily . It only takes a few weeks to develop one Now imagine the activities and hobbies that this person is used to doing . The regular day to day things that were already taken for granted . What if all of a sudden something happens that will disallow the person to have the ability to do the normal and the ordinary ? It is an invalid 's worst nightmare This crisis being described happened to a character in a Franz Kafka novella . The main character of the story Gregor Samsa woke up one morning with a terrible realization . The traveling salesman , turned into a gigantic bug . He did not only was transformed into a vermin he was also suffering ailments unknown to him and seems to be difficult to diagnose and understand . His transformation was a metamorphosis gone very badly . His voice , his face , his upper and lower body all was changed into something horrible

Of course there is no human bug and of course Kafka wrote fiction . But it can also be understood that the author was using metaphor to communicate a ton of truth . In a creative way Kafka wanted the world to know how it feels to be disabled

The author creatively brings the reader to a place of teaching . But instead of lecturing the students he created a way to communicate the two ways of how a person can be invalid . The first one , by virtue of common sense , everybody knows that the usual cause of disability is through an accident . An unfortunate even that ruins lives like being hit by a car driven by a person who suffered a stroke . It can also come by way of natural calamities such as earthquakes , typhoons etc . But according to Kafka 's book - without saying it aloud - there is another sure way of becoming an invalid . And that is through...