Customer Reviews

The Metamorphosis (MCI) (Bloom's Modern Critical Interpretations)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As he starts realizing that he is living the life of one, Gregor Samsa wakes up one day to find out that he's become a disgusting insect. Or does he? Is the insect that he sees himself as, a product of his neurotic mind?

This book is wonderful in that small details tell a lot. It's short reading, though 3/4 of the book is just explanations and theories of the story. This book will make you think if nothing else. And books that do that are books that live long in the readers' mind after they've read them--the immortal books.

Franz Kafka was the truest writer of our time. This was because he never applied the label of writer to himself. He was not driven by anything other than to write, and keep in mind that he did not write for you to read; you've ventured into an untouched river. This is why you can not distinguish the characters in his work with the man; they are the same. This story will confuse you like no other you have ever read, but if you can give it meaning within your own life(and this scenario of a workaholic etc.,is perfect for the U.S.)then you will gain incite on Kafka, and realize that you may also be one of his characters.

Metamorphosis is a short read: it's either a long short story or a very short novel. But in these few pages Franz Kafka serves up an important theme--this is the way humans react when one of their children or parents suffers some medical condition that makes them repulsive to others. Pity the poor parents who have to raise a child with a serious facial deformity that makes them ugly. Pity the children whose own parents are suffering a fatal disease. In both cases, Kafka is saying that the human tendency is to hide the problem or to wish it to go away--i.e. for that pitiful soul to die. This is ghastly, but perhaps true. Think of the strain on a marriage when a deformed child is brought into the world--many such marriages don't last. In the case of the novel the family try to hide their son when he metamorphs into a beatle. They try to maintain their love for their son but find it impossible because their son's repulsive appearance overwhelms them. They soon prefer that the beetle, their son, die. The son's metamorphosis is a metaphor for this paradox faced by families of the sicked or deformed. Such a theme is deeply disturbing. But as Voltaire said, if you want to write a great book you must embrace a great theme.

The book was great!! I loved how the characters seemed to "metamorphosize" into different characters by the end of the story. It's not only the story of Gregor's metamorphosis but a story of his family's metamorphosis as well. This book will keep you thinking and allows for extremely different views on Gregor's plight in the novel.