Book Review: The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

After reading Kafka’s The Metamorphosis and delving into its multiple layers of philosophy, psychology, and human experience, I finally feel ready to put my reflections into words. Kafka’s most famous “Kafkaesque” work, written in 1915, is barely a hundred pages. Yet, it captures something vast: the absurdity, fragility, and loneliness of human existence.

The Absurdity of Existence

Gregor Samsa wakes up one morning to find himself transformed into a giant insect. There is no explanation, no reason, just a sudden rupture in the everyday. Kafka is not giving us fantasy for its own sake; he is holding up a mirror to the absurd unpredictability of life. Anyone who has experienced illness, loss, or sudden change will recognise this existential jolt. Everything is the same, yet nothing is the same.

Alienation, Isolation, and Identity

Gregor’s metamorphosis isolates him not only from society but also from his own family. Once the breadwinner, he now becomes an object of fear and shame. His sense of self begins to disintegrate as his humanity is no longer recognised. For me, this part hits hardest. How quickly a person can shift in others’ eyes from valued to burdensome when circumstances change. It echoes the real experiences of those stigmatised by disability, chronic illness, or conditions misunderstood by society.

Family and Responsibility

One of Kafka’s most painful truths lies in the family dynamic. Gregor continues to worry about providing for his parents and sister, even as his body fails him. Yet, the very family who once adored him slowly turns against him when he is “no longer useful.” Kafka strips bare the transactional underbelly of relationships, showing how fragile love can appear when tested by dependence and need.

The Kafkaesque Bureaucracy

Woven throughout is the bureaucratic absurdity Kafka is famous for. The family’s dealings with employers, clerks, and outsiders illustrate how faceless systems diminish human dignity. Reading this in today’s world of endless forms, rules, and institutions, it feels uncannily relevant.

Suffering and Release

Gregor’s demise is tragic, yet also strangely tender, a release from relentless suffering and alienation. His quiet death leaves behind a haunting message: perhaps in endings there is a form of redemption, or at least relief.

Why It Resonates Personally

For me, The Metamorphosis is not just literature; it’s a psychological case study, a social commentary, and even an emotional therapy session. It reminds us to ask:

How do we treat those who no longer “fit” our idea of normal or productive?How fragile is the line between identity and otherness?What remains of our humanity when society strips away our roles and usefulness?

I also see it as a metaphor for children who feel “different” or “othered.” The story urges us to embrace empathy, to resist defining worth only by productivity, and to sit with life’s absurdity rather than always trying to explain it away.

Final Thoughts

This little book is disturbing, yes, but profoundly beautiful. Kafka’s language (even in translation) is deceptively simple, yet the impact lingers long after the last page. It is both tragic and surreal, yet deeply human. It deserves its timeless status because it forces us to face truths we’d rather avoid.

If you’ve never read Kafka, start here. Read it not to “solve” it, but to feel it. And when you do, prepare to be unsettled, moved, and changed because The Metamorphosis is not just Gregor’s story, it’s ours.

Kafka, disturbingly brilliant as ever.