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Kafka Stories - 2014
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Discussion - Week Seventeen - Kafka - The Metamorphosis
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To get the ball rolling, I'll pilfer an old comment I made on this one a while back:"...turning into a bug is far from the most disturbing thing to happen to this guy. The undermining of the value of his life prior to metamorphosis is rather more unsettling. There's also a great deal of uncertain hope which may also be terrifying and dreadful in anticipating the future."
Agree or disagree?
I haven't done a reread of this yet, but if I recall, one disturbing conclusion was that he started to discover that, regardless of whatever his intentions may have been, his family is ultimately better off without him. He's been a burden on them without realizing it until his metamorphosis revealed to him the truth about his nature and the degree to which he has been inconveniencing everyone. I.e., substantially, there's no real metamorphosis, but rather a greater self-awareness. Maybe.
Of course, there's also just the literal level, which one can't get away from with Kafka either. Kafka develops his stories in such a way that one feels foolish for trying to make an allegory of them, but one can also feel foolish for being too literal and not making an allegory of them.
Mod
You might re-think this after your re-read. Prior to his metamorphosis, Gregor is the sole breadwinner, supporting his family, paying all the bills, and setting aside some extra money to send his sister to a music conservatory. Gregor works for a man he loathes, but is obligated to do so to pay off a large debt incurred by his father's failed business. The inconvenience comes After the metamorphosis.
While that's true, upon his death all three members of the household discover their own strengths and they are far more capable of providing for themselves than expected. His father regains his strength and vitality, and his sister becomes more vivacious and even more beautiful! It left me with the reflection that their dependence upon him was somewhat illusory, and even repressive relative to what they could have achieved without him.But you're right, I do need to read it again. Just looking back at the conclusion now, though, I find that what seems like a kind of "optimistic" ending carries with it the sad implication that they've finally escaped him.
"... Leaning comfortably back in their seats they canvassed their prospects for the future, and it appeared on closer inspection that these were not at all bad... they wanted to take a... better situated and more easily run apartment than the one they had, which Gregor had selected... they became aware of their daughter's increasing vivacity... she had bloomed into a pretty girl with a good figure... a confirmation of their new dreams and excellent intentions..."
Somehow they couldn't have gotten any of this with Gregor around. But it may well contradict what's come before. It's also in sync with Kafka's tendency to punish his protagonists with irrational guilt and to show that their efforts and dreams were so often at cross-purposes to the reality of what they might have achieved.
Everything is a misstep.
Jim wrote: "Prior to his metamorphosis, Gregor is the sole breadwinner, supporting his family, paying all the bills, and setting aside some extra money to send his sister to a music conservatory."Yeah, I was going to say just this (I read this almost exactly a year ago at the last rentrée). I remember being struck by how fragile their lives were, money-wise. There is also, near the end I think, an incident with some logers, and this also has dire economic consequences for the family and appears to be largely Gregor's fault (though here maybe I need to be re-reading).
This fragility was maybe the main thing that struck me as I was reading (and it was deeply depressing). Somehow for me the disgust that he inspires in others and indeed expects to inspire in others in his life as a bug seems tied to his new status as an parasite. He consumes (space and some food, and his family's time and efforts) but he does not contribute.
Mod
Gregor's metamorphosis triggers his family's metamorphosis. Before, Gregor is supporting the family - they are dependent on him. After the metamorphosis, he becomes the dependent - father must work again, mother takes in sewing, and his sister gets a job. They become providers for themselves, and so self-sufficient instead of "parasites". Gregor's only contribution is track marks on the walls and ceilings...
Mod
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_E9aO...
There's the whole theme, also, of conditional love (as opposed to unconditional). Gregor's family's love is totally conditional upon his being...well, human. Of course. It makes sense. But it's heartless and cold, and I think that is how Kafka saw not only his own family, but the entire world.
We got a good start on the discussion of this excellent tale, with some variance in perspective (could call it disagreement). More to say? (I forgot to mention that I reread this the same day we started this discussion).-The understatement of the century: "to catch that [train] he would need to hurry like mad and his samples weren't even packed up, and he himself wasn't feeling particularly fresh and active."
-More Kafka self-negating madness: "at one of the side doors his father was already knocking, gently, yet with his fist."
-Meanwhile, wacky room, right? Overpacked chamber with an unreasonable number of doors that communicate with everywhere, and that strange/pathetic portrait of the fur-woman from an advertisement.
-Hedging: (the chief clerk) "The chief did hint to me early this morning a possible explanation for your disappearance--with reference to the cash payments that were entrusted to you recently--but I almost pledged my solemn word of honor that this could not be so. (I.e., I'm accusing you now in an off-hand way while showing how much faith I've had in you, and I'm really your biggest supporter, but never quite that much, as I almost made a pledge on your behalf, though that might have been an error... Oh, you equivocating bastard!)
-Everyone whom Gregor admires also comes in for some blame, and can be seen acting in selfish ways, inconsiderate ways, or out of sheer childishness. Best intentions are always harmful (e.g., wanting to remove Gregor's furniture).
-How European to be so bitterly poor that you can only barely manage to employ three house servants for a family of four.
-Contrary impressions piled one upon another in a figure at rest: "...his uniform, which was not brand-new to start with, began to look dirty, despite all the loving care of the mother and sister to keep it clean, and Gregor often spent whole evenings gazing at the many greasy spots on the garment, gleaming with gold buttons always in a high state of polish, in which the old man sat sleeping in extreme discomfort and yet quite peacefully."
(By the way, does anyone else picture Emil Jannings from "The Last Laugh" whenever reading of someone overly proud of a uniform that really represents a rather low position of status?)
-For further discussion: wasn't even the conservatory really more of Gregor's dream than his sister's, who may be better off as an amateur/dilettante, and thus wasn't he imposing on her by providing her with a fantasy of his own creation? Is she not perhaps better off even for being relieved of the burden of another person's fantasy (though perhaps she ends with the parents' fantasy for her future marriage).
Literary factoid: Gregor's family's apartment is exactly, but exactly, a description of Kafka's family's apartment, in which he lived for most of his adult life.
Most people who have heard of Kafka know this story. It has become a kind of literary icon of self-loathing and alienation, but there’s more here than just a bed bug…