The Metamorphosis And Modernis Essay, Research Paper

Franz Kafka published a relatively small amount of stories in his lifetime. Almost all of them are autobiographical in nature. In this way, his novella, The Metamorphosis, could be considered an allegory for his own life. The whole idea of a metamorphosis seems to come from Kafka s life. This story was written at a time when he felt he had just found his mature style as a writer. Kafka wrote in his journal on January 3, 1912, about the time that he wrote The Metamorphosis, My development is now complete. He felt that he would now focus all of his attentions on writing, knowing that all the other areas of his life would suffer. Kafka wrote the following in his diary the next day, everything rushed in that direction and left empty all those abilities which were directed towards the joys of sex, eating, drinking, philosophical reflection, and above all music. I atrophied in all these directions. This is basically what happened to Gregor. Once he transformed into an insect, where Kafka matured, all aspects of his life suffered and he was cut off from everyone else around him.

Kafka was born in the Jewish ghetto of Prague in 1883. He was an outsider from the very beginning. Jews were out of place in Prague because they spoke German in a Czech city, and they were neither Czech nor German. Moreover, as he never fully accepted the teachings of Judaism, he was outsider within his Jewish community. Kafka did not even feel at home in his own family. His father was a man of a large build who was entrepreneurial and socially upwardly mobile. Kafka s harsh father made no secret of his disapproval of his slighter son s passion for writing, often pointing out that Franz was a disappointment. This left Kafka feeling like an outcast in all aspects of his life, similar to the way that his character Gregor felt in The Metamorphosis.

Gregor feels alienated from his job. He dislikes his job yet he feels that he works hard and receives no credit for it. This is shown by the passage on pages fifteen to seventeen where Gregor s boss confronts him for missing a day of work, although he has been one of the most consistent employees in his office. Alienation is symbolized by the fact that Gregor locks the door to his room wherever he goes on business, separating himself from the outside world. Gregor also feels alienated from family. He feels no strong emotional connection to them until the end. Gregor works hard so that he can support them but again, he feels under-appreciated. This alienation is symbolized when Gregor separates himself from his family by locking the door to his room in his house, the same way he had while out of town on business. Gregor feels alienated from his humanity. This is suggested by his reaction, or lack thereof, to the transformation from human to insect. Later on in the novella, Gregor even feels alienated from his own room and environment. This is suggested by his inability to see the street outside of his window, and by his mother and sister removing his familiar belongings.

Franz Kafka had to live with his father for the first thirty-three years of his life. However, Kafka lived in his fathers shadow until his death in nineteen twenty-four. He never felt as though he was good enough for his demanding father and suffered guilt from this until his death. This guilt destroyed his self-confidence. In the years before his death, he wrote these words about himself, A picture of my existence… would show a useless wooden stake covered in snow… stuck loosely at a slant in the ground in a ploughed field on the edge of a vast open plain on a dark winter night. Again, this is similar to the way Kafka s character, Gregor feels about himself.

Guilt is Gregor s most powerful emotion. When he is transformed into an insect, Gregor is made unable to work by circumstances beyond his control. Although this metamorphosis is not his fault, he is racked by guilt every time that the family mentions money. He is also overcome by guilt when he when he thinks about the pain he has caused them by losing the ability to support them. The descriptions of Gregor the insect give the reader the idea that he is not an attractive sight. This is probably an earlier form of the mental picture Kafka formed of himself in the quote above. Gregor s guilt seems to have destroyed him to the point where he has become pathetic.

Gregor s alienation is very similar to that Kafka felt himself. Gregor s guilt and low self-confidence are also emotions that Kafka was experiencing. These parallels and others link this work almost directly to Kafka s life. The emotions and actions of his characters can be traced to entries in his personal diaries and events that occurred in his life around the same time, in nineteen-twelve. All things considered, it would be hard not to consider The Metamorphosis as an allegory, one for Kafka s own life.