Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka There Aren\'t Many

Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

There aren't many stories that begin with an opening as shocking and hideous as Kafka's opening sentence in The Metamorphosis. It is preposterous of course to imagine waking up in bed and discovering you are a huge roach, but by doing that Kafka has the reader's undivided attention. He has set the tone for what will follow. Not only is he a big insect, his voice sounds like the buzzing of an insect. This is a story with a psychological twist; it is likely that Kafka wrote this story in order to somehow work through his rebellion against his father, with whom he had a tense relationship. Meanwhile the protagonist / bug is Gregor Samsa, who has to remain in his room lest his family find out that he isn't a human anymore. His family is in denial that the bug is really Gregor. They shove him back into his room. The problem is more complicated than just a man turning into a cockroach; Gregor was the breadwinner but now he obviously cannot report for work as a roach. But due to his inability to continue as a human -- juxtaposed with the family's need to earn money -- the family finds jobs. They also take in renters, who don't know about Gregor the roach, but one night when a violin was playing Gregor came out of the room and when the renters spotted him they threatened to leave without paying rent. It is an altogether bizarre scene and a very strange and yet compelling story. Gregor has to play hide-and-seek with various people that arrive at the house because well, cockroaches aren't supposed to appear where humans once took up space.

Response to the Story

The story is impossible and even ridiculous of course but in fiction the writer can do whatever he wishes. A reader is asked to allow the unbelievable to become believable. The reader is supposed to relate to a man who has turned into a bug, and when his boss comes to the house to fetch him to come to work, the boss finds his employee has become a bug. That scene is both funny and strange. It is strange that the bug finds comfort for the first time in his experience as a cockroach when his boss is in the house. When Gregor "flopped down upon his many tiny legs…he felt a physical ease and comfort for the first time that morning" (136). A reader can imagine how embarrassing it would be to be home and in your room and your supervisor has come to the house looking for you. But imagine having turned into a big cockroach and your boss comes looking for you -- that would be terrifying for you and for your boss. Coming to his senses and grabbing the cane that the boss had left as he quickly took off, Gregor's father "…brandished [a] cane and the newspaper at Gregor in order to drive him back into his room" (137). At this point Gregor the roach is pleading with his father and Kafka writes that "no pleading was understood," which is easy to understand (who could understand the buzzing from a roach who is trying to keep his father from stomping on him?) (137). Earlier, on page 131, Gregor was trying to make his voice "as audible as he could for the crucial discussion about to take place" and when he coughed, he tried to cough softly "…since this noise too might sound different from human coughing" (131). Well, a reader responds, of course a cockroach cough won't sound like a human cough, is Kafka testing the limits of believability with every new weird passage in this story.