The Metamorphosis: The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

by Franz Kafka, Zenith Crescent Moon Press

📚 Enter the surreal and thought-provoking world of "The Franz Kafka"! 🪳 Discover the poignant tale of Gregor Samsa, a traveling salesman who inexplicably awakens one morning to find himself transformed into a monstrous insect. 🐞

In this Kafkaesque novella, you'll be captivated by the blend of absurdity and existential dread as Gregor navigates his new reality. 💼🍂 Witness the impact of his transformation on his family and his struggle to retain his humanity in a world that no longer recognizes him. 😔 Through Kafka's masterful storytelling, explore themes of alienation, identity, and the relentless pressures of modern society. 🌍

Highly regarded as one of the most influential works of the 20th century, The Metamorphosis continues to resonate with readers worldwide. 🌟 Dive into a narrative that transcends time, offering a profound reflection on the human condition. 🖤

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77 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 4, 2025

About the author

Franz Kafka was a German-speaking writer from Prague whose work became one of the foundations of modern literature, even though he published only a small part of his writing during his lifetime. Born into a middle-class Jewish family in Prague, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Kafka grew up amid German, Czech, and Jewish cultural influences that shaped his sense of displacement and linguistic precision. His difficult relationship with his authoritarian father left a lasting mark, fostering feelings of guilt, anxiety, and inadequacy that became central themes in his fiction and personal writings.
Kafka studied law at the German University in Prague, earning a doctorate in 1906. He chose law for practical reasons rather than personal inclination, a compromise that troubled him throughout his life. After university, he worked for several insurance institutions, most notably the Workers Accident Insurance Institute for the Kingdom of Bohemia. His duties included assessing industrial accidents and drafting legal reports, work he carried out competently and responsibly. Nevertheless, Kafka regarded his professional life as an obstacle to his true vocation, and most of his writing was done at night or during periods of illness and leave. Kafka began publishing short prose pieces in his early adulthood, later collected in volumes such as Contemplation and A Country Doctor. These works attracted little attention at the time but already displayed the hallmarks of his mature style, including precise language, emotional restraint, and the application of calm logic to deeply unsettling situations. His major novels The Trial, The Castle, and Amerika were left unfinished and unpublished during his lifetime. They depict protagonists trapped within opaque systems of authority, facing accusations, rules, or hierarchies that remain unexplained and unreachable. Themes of alienation, guilt, bureaucracy, law, and punishment run throughout Kafka’s work. His characters often respond to absurd or terrifying circumstances with obedience or resignation, reflecting his own conflicted relationship with authority and obligation. Kafka’s prose avoids overt symbolism, yet his narratives function as powerful metaphors through structure, repetition, and tone. Ordinary environments gradually become nightmarish without losing their internal coherence. Kafka’s personal life was marked by emotional conflict, chronic self-doubt, and recurring illness. He formed intense but troubled romantic relationships, including engagements that he repeatedly broke off, fearing that marriage would interfere with his writing. His extensive correspondence and diaries reveal a relentless self-critic, deeply concerned with morality, spirituality, and the demands of artistic integrity. In his later years, Kafka’s health deteriorated due to tuberculosis, forcing him to withdraw from work and spend long periods in sanatoriums. Despite his illness, he continued writing when possible. He died young, leaving behind a large body of unpublished manuscripts. Before his death, he instructed his close friend Max Brod to destroy all of his remaining work. Brod ignored this request and instead edited and published Kafka’s novels, stories, and diaries, ensuring his posthumous reputation.
The publication of Kafka’s work after his death established him as one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century. The term Kafkaesque entered common usage to describe situations marked by oppressive bureaucracy, absurd logic, and existential anxiety. His writing has been interpreted through existential, religious, psychological, and political perspectives, though Kafka himself resisted definitive meanings. His enduring power lies in his ability to articulate modern anxiety with clarity and restraint.

Reviews

[Inas · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story was told using metaphor, so after reading this book feels like I must put myself in the same shoes with Gregor —the main character who transformed into an insect.

Gregor was in military then worked as a traveling salesman that was expected to have a stable income for the future. He provided his family which consisted of a father, mother, and a little sister. After becoming an insect, the family started to neglect him because he couldn’t support the family financially. His sister was the only who still took care of him; tidied up his room and prepared for his foods. But, at the end, he was abandoned by the family including his caring sister.

To be Gregor, indeed it’s confusing. Why nobody cares when you’re at your lowest…? In fact, you’re the one who mostly contributed in the family; providing money and protecting them. I read some reviews from internet, it’s said that this book shows a bonding issue within the family. The one who contributed more would be the one who got the most appreciation.

Maybe I need to read the book comprehensively to get the whole points. Yet, the points I can take that:
1. There are some families are not good in bonding. That’s why a child can be so hardworking, meanwhile the other just need to be there, cling to what they want. It’s pictured in the book that Grete —Gregor’s sister, became closer to Gregor as he willingly support Grete to be focus in her music. But when Gregor couldn’t support her anymore, at the end, Grete was the one who provoked all the people in the house that “Maybe the insect is not Gregor.” Otherwise, the insect was able to speak (even though unclearly) that it was him —Gregor.

2. A weak bonding of a family leads to weaken of the individuality within the house.
When there were three gentlemen who rent the house, Gregor’s father never leave Gregor’s room open, so the gentlemen wouldn’t know that there’s an insect there. One day, Gregor was curious when his sister playing music with the gentlemen. He slowly walked to the room where his sister played violin and the situation was getting chaotic. His father wasn’t unhinged so he took a wrong step to shove Gregor back to his room.

I mean, why don’t just the father tell the gentlemen honestly that there was an insect and he would handle it well? Or just being honest that the insect was his son and he’s not dangerous…? It triggered the curiosity of the gentlemen because they were chill at Gregor’s appearance.

This wrong step leads to another wrongdoing in the next where Gregor’s father lead the maid killed Gregor.

These 2 points are just a preference of mine who read the 75 pages of the story. Is it recommended? Probably yes, if you want to read some abstract story for your spare time.

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this, though I found it hard to read I think because of the translation? The metaphors were great and the surreal scenes made it ultra creepy. Poor Gregor got real fucked up.