"The Metamorphosis," by Franz Kafka

I've never hated the cover of something more.

In college I had to read "The Metamorphosis" at least twice, but my last semester in school I took a class called Modern Fiction. For this class I wrote my smaller, minor paper about this short story, and my only memory is that I had a separate point about the ending that no one had brought up in class, and so I stayed behind to ask my professor about it, and he got mad at me for not actually talking about it in class, and it was the smartest and dumbest I've ever felt. (Edit: I actually found the paper on my computer. It was only five pages long, which is insane for a 400-level class, and I didn't use the point I brought up to my professor. What a waste.) Anyway, this is the first short story instead of a novel we're getting into, so let's get on with it!

V small book.

"The Metamorphosis" about a man by the name of Gregor Samsa. He is a traveling salesman who lives at home with his parents and his sister, Grete. One morning he wakes up to find that he has become a bug. The remainder of the story goes into his difficulties of adjusting to the living situation, but also his family's growing discomfort and hatred toward him. They are made uncomfortable by him, and as he was working to pay off his family's loans, they are now suffering in debt. Finally at the end of the story, just as his family is deciding they need to get rid of him so they can move to a smaller apartment, they find the next morning that he has died. The short story ends with his family all taking the day off of their respective jobs to enjoy the city they all live in, which ends the fiction piece on a more positive note.

Showed this page so you could see the notes I made in my Modern Fiction class.

I haven't read anything else by Kafka, but I feel like I would enjoy anything he writes. This short story, to me, is a cautionary tale of what can happen when you spend your life swept up in a job you dislike. Gregor had no social life, always came home to his family, and hadn't called in sick to work in the five years he'd been with the company. He turns into a bug and is forced to appreciate the smaller things in life, no matter how terrible his situation has turned. Even though I always dislike his family by the end of this, I can't see myself differentiating from the path they took if this was my family member. (Unless my family is reading this, than, well, you'd be my favorite lil bug.) And as much as I dislike them, I like that the ending makes them all hopeful for the life ttey will continue to live.

NOTES IN THE MARGINZ FACTS

Book number: 12

Books left: 327

Amount of time taken to read: 2 days (which is bad since it's a short story)

Books by Franz Kafka for NiTM: 2