Humanity
seems to have a problem realizing their fatal flaws. We humans usually don’t
like to accept them once we have been told them, either. Literature seems to be
the only hope to bring the realization of society’s flaws forth. This can be
done using empathy. The Metamorphosis
by Franz Kafka has been to known to show elements of a parable. Parables can be
used to teach a lesson to its reader, to make them feel empathetic and realize
a moral. This has been executed in The
Metamorphosis many times. There are many lessons to be taken from Kafka’s
short story when you are thrown into the shoes of Gregor, the verminous bug. He
was made a bug because that’s what he was on society, like many people had
become in the modernism era. He worked his life away without having any
experiences, relationships, or pleasure in life of any sort. This leads to his
sad demise. His family is what he lives his miserable life for, though they do
not care for him at all. This is another lesson Kafka teaches. These morals can
be taken and applied to one’s life, so they can realize what they are missing
before it is too late.
A very prominent lesson in this
story is that outward appearances hold no value, and being quick to judge the
appearance of someone will leave you in the dark with missed opportunities.
Gregor was a verminous bug, unsuitable for sacrifice. How ironic that his
insides were so beautiful and pure, while his outsides were the opposite. He
was so devoted to his family that upon realizing he had become a bug, his
concern was only to make it to his job. Even upon the arrival of his manager,
Gregor only wants to get out of bed and go to work. “’Perhaps you have not read
the latest orders which I sent in. Besides, now I’m setting out on my trip on
the eight o’clock train; the few hours’ rest have made me stronger.
Mr. Manager, do not stay. I will be at the office in person right away. Please
have the goodness to say that and to convey my respects to the Chief.’” (Kafka
5). Gregor, upon learning he has been transformed into a bug, will stop at
nothing to get out of bed, get on a train, and explain himself to the boss. He
expects to do all of this in the state he is in. Most family members and
friends would be devastated that their loved one has become a giant insect.
Gregor’s family does not. They are disgusted with him, so much they refuse to
look at him or be near him, even his beloved sister. “But not only did she not step
inside; she even retreated and shut the door. A stranger really could have
concluded from this that Gregor had been lying in wait for her and wanted to
bite her” (Kafka 13). Gregor has thought that his sister still loves him
unconditionally and is not bothered by his appearance. He does realize that his
sister is closing the door on him not to give him privacy, but because she
cannot stand the sight of his hideous exterior. The irony is that it is the
family who is repulsive, not Gregor. Kafka uses a dark humor to open the
reader’s eyes to the lessons. David Foster Wallace explains this in his speech,
Laughing with Kafka. “Because,
of course, great short stories and great jokes have a lot in common. Both
depend on what communication -theorists sometimes call "exformation,"
which is a certain quantity of vital information removed from but evoked by a
communication in such a way as to cause a kind of explosion of associative
connections within the recipient. This is probably why the effect of both short
stories and jokes often feels sudden and percussive…”(Wallace 1). The humor
Kafka uses is not directly expressed in a joke, which is why many people don’t
see the humor at all. For example when Gregor is trying to comfort his
frightened mother but accidentally snaps his jaws at her at the smell of the
coffee. This seems so depressing to read, but there is a sense of humor here. This
lesson that Kafka is teaching is relevant to all people because no one can say
they have never judged a person by their exterior appearance. This is where the
empathy is created, and hopefully where a realization is made.
Perhaps
the saddest lesson to be learned in The
Metamorphosis is the one Gregor never does; the fact that those closest to
you, whom you care most for, can hurt you the worst. Gregor was being used by
his family to pay off their debt, and even still, was looked at as a failure,
especially to his father. They never truly cared for Gregor, not even his
beloved younger sister. Upon a terrible thing happening to their son and
brother, the family turns against him. The father is truly disgusting in his
ways of treating his son in a time of need. “If Gregor only had been allowed to turn himself around, he
would have been in his room right away, but he was afraid to make his father
impatient by the time-consuming process of turning around, and each moment he
faced the threat of a mortal blow on his back or his head from the cane in his
father’s hand.” (Kafka 8). The disturbing thing about this story is not the
fact that a man was transformed into a bug, it is the way the bug is treated by
his own family, how there is absolutely no intimacy between them. This intimacy
is explained by Thomas C. Foster’s Nice
to Eat With You, when he discusses how close and comfortable with other
people one must be in order to eat with them. “We’re quite particular about those with whom we break bread. We
may not, for instance, accept a dinner invitation from someone we don’t care
for. The act of taking food into our bodies is so personal that we really only
want to do it with people we’re very comfortable with” (Foster 6). This idea of
communion, and the act of eating is so personal that most of us only feel
comfortable eating around those we are very close with, such as our families. Gregor
doesn’t have this. His family refuses to eat with him, and even before he was a
bug he rarely ate with them due to his demanding work hours. His sister runs
away and closes the door on him to let him eat alone because of her own
discomfort. Foster also discusses vampirism in Nice to Eat You. Vampirism focuses on the typical vampire in the
media, where he focuses in on a vulnerable victim. This is a usually young
woman for the purpose of taking their virginity. This idea is seen in The Metamorphosis between Gregor and his
life-sucking parents. Foster says, “The essentials of the vampire story, as we
discussed earlier: an older figure representing corrupt, outworn values; a
young, preferably virginal female; a stripping away of her youth, energy,
virtue; a continuance of the life force of the old male; the death or destruction
of the young woman”(Foster 19). Gregor is the vulnerable victim of his father.
His father is the vampire that sucks everything he can out of him, putting him
to work for ridiculous hours for his own benefit. He strips Gregor of the
person he once was. The family takes advantage of him until he absolutely
cannot work anymore, which would be when he dies.
From the very
start of The Metamorphosis, it is
clear that Gregor spends his whole life working longs hours at a miserable job.
He works sunup to sundown doing miserable work as a travelling salesman,
receiving a poor salary. Kafka clearly wants to convey that people should not
spend their life working day and night, especially at something that does not
make them happy. “’O God,’ he
thought, ‘what a demanding job I’ve chosen! Day in, day out, on the
road. The stresses of selling are much greater than the actual work going
on at head office, and, in addition to that, I still have to cope with the
problems of travelling, the worries about train connections, irregular bad
food, temporary and constantly changing human relationships, which never come
from the heart. To hell with it all!’” (Kafka 1). These ways of working all the time came about
from modernism, an era from around 1914 to 1965. The rapid growth of modern
cities and industry kept this way of life going. Kafka disagrees with this work
ethic and wants people to be able to experience passion and good relationships
with people. Kafka himself was not happy at his job at a law firm, and said
writing was his calling and his pleasure. Everyone should be able to have this,
instead of working themselves to death. In the idea of existentialism, one
could say Gregor chose this demise himself through the way he existed.
Existentialism is the idea that one’s life is dependent on only the self, and
the choices that are made, thoughts that are had, and actions that are done. He
made the choice to allow his parents to take advantage of him, as he never denied
them or quit his job. Unfortunately, Gregor’s love and devotion to his family
lead him to his downfall. Thoughts and feelings also play into existentialism.
Gregor always had a seemingly negative attitude towards his job, surroundings,
and life overall. “The dreary
weather—the rain drops were falling audibly down on the metal window ledge—made
him quite melancholy. ‘Why don’t I keep sleeping for a little while longer and
forget all this foolishness,’ he thought.”(Kafka 1). Gregor is so consumed with work
that he is not bothered by the fact that he is now a bug, but that the weather
is dreary and that he must be hallucinating, as he could not be miss work. When
Gregor is dying he suggests that he understands what he has done to get him to
this place. “Gregor now hardly ate anything
anymore. Only when he accidentally passed the food laid out for him would he
take a bite into his mouth just For fun, hold it in for hours, and then mostly
spit it out again” (Kafka 21). Gregor realizes here that he is over, and that his life was his
decision. It is a sad thing to come to peace with, but he understands his life
he led of loneliness and alienation. Kafka is conveying a moral lesson to the reader to get them to
realize you must not choose or allow yourself to live your life in such a way.
Kafka gives
many moral lessons to be taken from The
Metamorphosis. He uses his dark humor to create empathy in a reader, so
they can feel what Gregor feels. Reading of the depressing life of Gregor will evoke the realization of
the lessons, so that one should not repeat these same tragedies. These moral
lessons show Kafka’s The Metamorphosis
to be considered a parable.
