-^-for posterity-^-

i’ve been teaching one of my classes about kafka’s metamorphosis. they’re quite interested in the whole thing and we sit and have lively discussions about what it means.

the book’s about one man named gregor samsa who wakes up to find himself turned into a monstrous bug. he tries to get up and out of bed after some struggle and worries about getting dressed and going to work even though he’s in such a state. his family and boss are at his locked door looking for him outside and he scurries to open the door. he unlocks the door and everyone shies away in shock as they realize their once normal gregor has become such a beast. his family begins to treat him with disgust and his father even goes so far as hitting him as he tries to leave his room and one time throwing apples at him from the kitchen table. everyone is relieved when he dies and his family goes on a picnic.

some of the most popular interpretations i’ve read about deal with the feelings of solidarity and isolation, how the many networks that we’ve created through our modern existence have come to envelope us and we begin to feel quite nihilistic. there is so much to feel hopeless and trapped about just as gregor is suddenly trapped and is left to rot by his family.

while there are many interpretations of the story (one book i read said there were 130 credible ones) i thought some of the interpretations of my students were interesting.

one group thought that kafka was trying to tell us that the only thing people really like is beauty. when people stop becoming beautiful, people stop loving them just as gregor’s family stopped loving him.

another group thought that true love was not real. they thought that everyone would at some point fall out of love with someone else if something absolutely horrible happened to them. they said that, for example, if it was possible for someone to turn into such a bug than their family more than likely would not like them.

yet another group said that the story was designed to improve families. they said that most families would not love someone if they really turned into a giant bug and that most families should love their children unconditionally.

the final group said that the story was designed to show us that, when we have problems, we will find out who really loves us.

all of the groups thought the moral of the story rested in how other people perceived gregor and how they acted in response to him. none of the groups focused on the traditionally western interpretation of the story and i found it interesting.