變形記: 存在主義先驅小說

by Franz Kafka, 法蘭茲·卡夫卡, 管中琪 (Translator)

存在主義先驅小說
在這無意義的世界中，我只想努力做個平凡人
德文直譯 × 名家新譯本 × 經典雙封面

　　★《變形記》是法蘭茲．卡夫卡最著名的中篇代表作
　　★《百年孤寂》馬奎斯讀了開頭便驚嘆：「原來故事可以這麼寫」
　　★村上春樹深受卡夫卡影響，進而寫出《海邊的卡夫卡》一書
　　★《蘿莉塔》納博科夫盛讚：「卡夫卡是這個時代最偉大的德語作家」

　　上帝不要我寫，但是我必須寫。──卡夫卡

　　＊　＊　＊
　　「一日清晨，葛雷高．薩姆沙從擾人不安的夢境醒來，發現躺在床上的自己變成了一隻龐然古怪的蟲……」

　　這不是夢。葛雷高還得趕搭火車上班才行。
　　家裡的父母和妹妹，還必須靠他的薪水過活呢。
　　但蛻變成蟲的他，怎樣也起不了身……

　　＊　＊　＊

　　葛雷高，一個最平凡的業務，卻遭遇最荒誕的經歷。

　　《變形記》這段著名的開場令人印象深刻，為「卡夫卡式」（kafkaesque）風格立下了典範：荒謬、如惡夢般的現實場景。平時習以為常的生活，一夕間竟成了詭譎迷離的迷宮，人如何面對這巨大難解的謎題，為自己的存在找出意義？

　　卡夫卡筆下的葛雷高，成了父母避之唯恐不及的存在&

Genres: Classics, Fiction, Philosophy, Fantasy, Short Stories, Literature, Horror

101 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1915

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 His major novels The Trial, The Castle, and Amerika were left unfinished and unpublished during his lifetime.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

[Fernando · Rating 5 out of 5]

"A pesar de su triste y repugnante forma actual, era un miembro de la familia, a quien no podía tratarse como a un enemigo."

En medio de todos los proyectos literarios que Kafka estaba escribiendo en ese fabuloso momento creativo, se estaba gestando uno más, una idea acerca de un hombre caído en desgracia y puesto a prueba por su propia familia. Tenía el argumento rondando en su mente, pero no terminaba de delinearlo.
Poco a poco, esa idea que sorprendió a Kafka de la misma manera que al héroe de su novela, o sea, en la cama y de mañana (Kafka estaba de mal humor y no tenía ganas de levantarse ese domingo 17 de noviembre de 1912), fue tomando forma y comenzó a escribirla en su cuartito de la casa en la calle Niklastrasse. Era una historia que separaría en tres largos capítulos y que a la postre terminaría siendo una novela corta. La terminó el 7 de diciembre y le puso el título Die Verwandlung, que en español tuvo dos traducciones según el paladar de los traductores o editores que quisieron publicarla: “La metamorfosis” o “La transformación”.
El día 23 de diciembre, ya escrito el texto, le envía una carta a Felice para contarle acerca del nuevo proyecto: «La noche está muy avanzada y acabo de dejar mi pequeña historia, en la que por cierto ya no escribo desde hace dos noches, y que calladamente comienza a transformarse en una historia mayor… sería hermoso leerte esta historia y estar obligado así a tomarte de la mano, pues esta historia es algo tremebunda. Se titula La metamorfosis. Te amedrentaría lo suyo y rehusarías la historia entera, pues miedo es lo que por desgracia te deparo a diario con mis cartas… pero al héroe de mi historia le ha ido bastante mal hoy, y eso que sólo se trata del último relevo de su desgracia, ahora ya continua».
Kafka trabajó sobre el texto de La metamorfosis una y otra vez. Al parecer no eran de su agrado muchos detalles. El 20 de octubre de 1913 le confiesa a su editor Kurt Wolff que «ahora he leído La metamorfosis y la encuentro mala». Más adelante, sobre el 19 de enero de 1914 en la oficina de su trabajo (nótese la gran cantidad de tiempo que estuvo trabajando en las correcciones de su historia) anota en sus Diarios «Gran aversión a La metamorfosis. Final ilegible. Imperfecto casi hasta la médula. Habría salido mucho mejor si el viaje de negocios no me hubiera distraído», pues Kafka debió interrumpir la escritura de La metamorfosis debido a un viaje de trabajo que hizo a Kratzau los días 25 y 26 de noviembre.
Pero siguió puliendo la historia. Tengamos en cuenta que La metamorfosis recién vio la luz como libro en noviembre de 1915. En la Nochebuena de 1915 le envía una postal a Felice contándole que «La metamorfosis ha aparecido como libro. Encuadernado resulta bonito».
Si buscamos el término en el diccionario de la Real Academia Española se define a la palabra metamorfosis como un término (Del lat. metamorphōsis, y este del gr. μεταμόρφωσις metamórphōsis.) que significa “Transformación de algo en otra cosa” o también “Mudanza que hace alguien o algo de un estado a otro, como de la avaricia a la liberalidad o de la pobreza a la riqueza” o incluso “Cambio que experimentan muchos animales durante su desarrollo, y que se manifiesta no solo en la variación de forma, sino también en las funciones y en el género de vida”, mientras que para el término transformación (Del lat. tardío transformatio, –ōnis.) la definición que más se le aproxima es “Acción y efecto de transformar”.
Aunque gran cantidad de expertos sostienen que la novela debe llamarse “La transformación”, a mi entender es la palabra metamorfosis la que explica qué le sucede esa mañana a Gregor Samsa, y por qué sostengo esto: pues porque en el comienzo no existe ninguna acción ni efecto de transformar a Gregor, sino que este ya cumplió su proceso de cambio y queda inmortalizado en uno de los mejores inicios que existen en la historia de la literatura: «Al despertar Gregor Samsa una mañana, tras un sueño intranquilo, se encontró en su cama convertido en un monstruoso insecto».
Existen muchísimos estudios, ensayos, reseñas y críticas literarias que se han realizado a partir de su publicación allá por 1915 y que hizo de La metamorfosis una joya de la literatura mundial.
La metamorfosis puede ser considerado un relato fantástico (el de un hombre convertido en un gigante insecto), una tragedia digna de Las metamorfosis escritas por el poeta latino Ovidio y hasta podríamos aventurar que en cierto modo es una historia de terror (especialmente cuando Gregor, ya convertido en un enorme escarabajo camina por las paredes y el techo de la habitación, o como la reinvención de una criatura surgida del Infierno de Dante que tal vez ni el mismísimo Dante se hubiera puesto a describir.
Se puede abordar la naturaleza del relato desde varias perspectivas, ópticas y puntos de vista que podrían significar una parábola del sufrimiento humano, una crítica a la discriminación y el desarraigo, una aceptación de leyes condenatorias y por supuesto se puede relacionar con a Gregor Samsa (y lo que le pasa) a la dura y sufrida discriminación sufrida a manos de los propios integrantes de su familia, resumida en una frase de Grete, su hermana que tanto intentó cuidarlo finalmente lo condena y discrimina: «¿Cómo puede ser esto Gregor? Si tal fuese, ya hace tiempo que hubiera comprendido que no es posible que unos seres humanos vivan en comunidad con semejante bicho.» Con semejante pasmo y frialdad, Kafka anticipa en un par de situaciones lo que años más tarde conoceremos como el Holocausto judío a manos de los nazis durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial.
A modo personal creo que para leer esta pequeña novela de alrededor de cien páginas hay que hacerlo con los ojos de Kafka. Tenemos que meternos en su piel, en sus contradicciones y sufrimientos y en los vaivenes de su propia experiencia personal, conocer un poco acerca de sus conflictos existenciales y de su complejo de inferioridad. Gran parte de lo que se relata en la novela condice con múltiples aspectos del plano empírico del autor y esto es lo que más nos ayuda a entender la historia.
Al igual que como hiciera con el nombre de su personaje central Georg Bendemann y del relato La condena, Kafka utilizó el mismo ejercicio para el apellido de Gregor: SAMSA, ya que en ese apellido jugó con el suyo propio cambiándole las consonantes mientras que las vocales, que también son A, encajan en el mismo lugar en ambos casos: Samsa=Kafka. Además, el personaje se llama Gregor, cuando su antecesor se llamaba Georg, y puede notarse en el manuscrito original que Kafka aún se encuentra escribiendo “El desaparecido”, porque nombra al personaje Karl en vez de Gregor.
Un detalle a tener en cuenta y que irá acentuándose en su obra es que desde sus primeros escritos hemos visto que los personajes de sus relatos o novelas aún poseen nombres completos (Eduardo Raban en “Preparativos de una boda en el campo”, Karl Rossmann en “El fogonero” y “El desaparecido”), algo que irá reduciéndose en su extensión a partir de las siguientes, puesto que en su novela “El proceso” el personaje principal se llama Josef K., que también es la inicial del apellido del autor, y para la novela “El castillo” despoja toda identidad reduciéndola a esa misma inicial, ya que el personaje del agrimensor es conocido de manera escueta como K.
Cuando Kafka escriba sus relatos posteriores más importantes (“La madriguera”, “Un artista del hambre”, “Un artista del trapecio”), los personajes ni siquiera tendrán un nombre. No sabemos cómo se llaman. Notamos aquí un despojo total de la identidad, una reducción al anonimato y la existencia pequeña, ya desconocida. Pero vayamos al desarrollo de esta terrible historia.
Gregor Samsa vive en un humilde apartamento junto a su familia de clase media y es un viajante de comercio. El hecho de vivir con sus padres (al igual que el propio Kafka tuvo que hacer en una gran porción de su vida), lo lleva a tener una vida anodina, gris y sin ningún aliciente.
Trabaja como viajante de comercio de una de las compañías a las que su padre les debe dinero, una tarea que recuerda al propio trabajo de Kafka en el Instituto de Seguros de Accidentes de Trabajo sumado esto a la convivencia con su familia que le resulta insoportable, asfixiante e innecesaria. Ambos (Kafka y Gregor) deben aportar a la economía del hogar y en cierto modo ser el sostén de la familia.
Es muy interesante lo que expone el escritor ruso Vladimir Nabokov en su impecable y magnífico ensayo “Comentario sobre La metamorfosis” que integra parte de su “Curso de literatura europea”, cuando analiza la cuestión numérica en esta historia, más específicamente respecto del número tres: que la historia se divide en tres par-tes, que tres puertas dan a la habitación de Gregor, que son tres los huéspedes, que aparecen tres criadas durante la novela, que quedan sólo tres personajes al final.
De todas formas, no parece que Kafka haya decidido esto de forma adrede, aunque la coincidencia numérica, que es llamativa, también se da en El fogonero (tres ventanas en el barco, tres autoridades, tres columnas de manifestantes) y también en La condena (El amigo de Georg hace tres años que no viene, Georg escribe tres cartas).
Existe una sorprendente coincidencia más, y es que Kafka nació y murió en un día tres (3 de julio de 1883 – 3 de junio de 1924).
Y si revisamos “El proceso” y “El castillo”, será el número dos el determinante: dos personas detienen a Josef K. en El proceso y dos verdugos lo ejecutan. Dos acompañantes tiene K. en “El castillo”.
Volviendo a La metamorfosis queda claro la significancia que este tremendo relato ha tenido en la literatura mundial, pues sigue dejando interrogantes en los lectores acerca de las intenciones del autor ¿Es la muerte de Gregor Samsa una alegoría sobre el sacrificio de Cristo? Tal vez… Además de su lectura de los libros sagrados del judaísmo, Kafka era un asiduo lector de la Biblia, y sus reflexiones fueron volcadas en sus Aforismos de Zürau. ¿Es el episodio de las manzanas que el señor Samsa le arroja a Gregor un intento fallido de Kafka de recrear otro sacrificio, el de Isaac a manos de Abraham? Por qué no. En literatura todo es válido.
Cuando “La metamorfosis” estaba a punto de ser publicada, Kurt Wolff le propuso a Kafka que el ilustrador Ottomar Starke diseñara la tapa, pero cometió el error de sugerirle dibujar a Gregor en ella, a lo que Kafka le envía el 25 de octubre una carta, aterrado, suplicándole con énfasis: «¡Eso de ninguna manera, por favor! No pretendo coartar su libertad de expresión sino que se lo pido en mi condición de mejor conocedor de la historia. El insecto no debe ser dibujado por ningún motivo, ni siquiera de lejos».
Le llevó mucho tiempo a Kafka digerir su propia historia y de alguna manera se sintió un tanto disconforme con “La metamorfosis”. Como un Frankenstein praguense o un descendiente del Golem escrito por su compatriota Gustav Meyrink; Gregor Samsa causó más espanto y repugnancia en los lectores de su época que la compasión que genera en los de hoy en día y quedó demostrado que ese sentimiento tardó mucho en cambiar.
Lo que sí ha demostrado “La metamorfosis” es que sigue siendo uno de esos claros ejemplos de la literatura en el que realidad y ficción, van de la mano.

[s.penkevich [hiatus-will return-miss you all] · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was no dream.

Gregor Samsa awakes one day, changed forever. How unpredictable is life, one moment leading to a new labyrinth of existence where forward is the only motion available, our scars and choices following us in a tuneless parade with few interested spectators. Despite our lives being a personal struggle, it is constantly judged, criticized and appraised by all those whom we encounter. Oh, the injuries we inflict upon one another. We alienate and assume instead of communicate, we fear differences and we yell when we should love. Strange how the ones we love tend to be the ones we hurt, or hurt us the most. Kafka’s classic story The Metamorphosis is an alarming tale of alienation and hurt that seems fantastical on the outside to house a bitter pill of reality that has roots in us all. What is most compelling about Kafka is his ability to construct a tale from personal anxiety and injury that broadcasts as a universal message to all that read it, honing in on the guilt, loneliness and frustration in every heart. Gregor’s terrifying tale of transformation is a powerful rendition of guilt and the failure to succeed in a father’s eyes that utilizes religious imagery and fantastical occurences to drive the knife into the reader’s heart and soul.

Gregor lives a life of solemn servitude to his job and, most importantly, his family. His job is a necessity to support a family whose debts accrued by the now-unemployed father are being repaid by the fruits of Gregor’s labor. While Gregor has provided the family with a modest home which he shares with them, the debt seems an unquenchable burden he can never fulfill. In the original German, the word schuld means both ‘debt’ and ‘guilt’¹, a critical texture to the text ironed away by translation that opens a gateway of understanding Gregor’s father issues. There is the guilt at being unable to satisfy the father, to live up to the father, and the senior Samsa is a quick tempered man. Kafka struggled with a strained relationship with his own abusive father, a struggle that he transformed into a literary theme permeating much of his artistic output. Much of Kafka’s life soaks into this work, much like the constant slamming doors he often complained of in his own household with his family.

Despite his transformation, what initially upsets Gregor most is that he is missing work. I felt this sting deep within myself, being the head of a household and barely making ends meet despite long hours. The burden of the working class is to be so dependant on a job as life-blood creating a system of guilt and depraved necessity that pulls us from bed to work despite any affliction; we must work, we must provide, we must survive. To stumble is to die, yet even staggering onward seems just a slow suicide climbing towards an unattainable surface from our pit of existence. Gregor feels this, the reader feels this, and Kafka’s magic has been unleashed. To fail to work is yet another failure in the eyes of the obdurate father, but also in a society that is built to enrich the upper classes on the blood and sweat of the working class and at their expense. At its very core, this story is a critique of capitalism and the absurdities of upholding such a system.

The father and the Father seem united in the character of the elder Samsa. Kafka himself struggled with his Jewish identity, made plain in his diaries. As Vladimir Nabokov points out in his exquisite lectures on The Metamorphosis², the number three is pivotal to the understanding of the story.

The story is divided into three parts. There are three doors to Gregor’s room. His family consists of three people. Three servants appear in the course of the story. Three lodgers have three beards. Three Samsas write three letters.

Three, of course, representing the Holy Trinity (there are many other important details surrounding three, such as the clock tower striking three after Gregor retreats into his room, or Gregor standing on his three hind legs since the fourth was damaged beyond repair). The rejection and unfulfillment of the father is also Gregor’s failure to be valuable in the eyes of the Father, God, and perhaps this may be the cause of the unexplained (and rather unquestioned for the most part) transformation that has befallen the poor man. The fatal blow pinning Gregor to the ground like a crucified Christ (while this may be a slight stretch, there are other Christ-like references such as the sudden pain in Gregor's side much like the spear in the side while on the cross) is an Edenic apple thrown from the father, rotting and festering in him like our sins until we breath our last.

‘All language is but a poor translation,’ said Kafka, made evident in Gregor’s failure to communicate in his new form. Communication is the cornerstone of understanding others, and being stripped of his voice severs his link to his family and humanity. ‘That was the voice of an animal,’ the office chief exclaims after Gregor attempts to communicate with them through language. With his loss of language, his family slowly ceases to view him as Gregor but as a dumb beast, easing them into letting go of their notions that he is still Gregor. He is now an unproductive, dumb hindrance to their lives and they begin to forget him and move on to a productive life of work and family without him. It is like an invalid aging relative, many continue to care for them out of respect for their memory, but the person slowly becomes a chore or a burden and not a human-being in their minds. Another view of Gregor in his new state is that of a person stricken by crushing depression or other mental or emotional ailments where those around them begin to view them by their illness and not their soul. They forget the person that is still there, the person they know and love, and dwell on the chasm forged between them. It is human nature, it makes it easier to cope. How many people walk away when times get tough, even abandon the ones they love because it is easier to convince yourself they are not the person you loved than it is to fight for them or fight for what was once had. Kafka’s genius is that he took a personal experience and related it as a universal parable with endless interpretations, each unique and equally valid as they blossom within each respective reader.

It is interesting that the story occasionally translates Samsa into a cockroach whereas Vladimir Nabokov has asserted that Samsa is, in fact, a beetle. Kafka prohibited artistic depictions of Samsa and wrote him with an intentional vagueness. ‘Kafka wanted us to see Gregor’s new body and condition with the same hazy focus with which Gregor himself discovers them,’ theorizes translator Susan Bernofsky

Rereading this story was a rewarding experience and I very much connected with it. Gregor was a traveling businessman, and I am a traveling delivery driver. The musings on the plight and unique depression of long hours in strange faraway places hit home, as well as the notion from everyone else that traveling in such a manner is some royal treat. Granted, I greatly enjoy the work and the freedom of being, essentially, a professional vagrant, yet there is a tinge of alienation being a person without an anchor, always on the move, always chasing a horizon. The feelings of guilt, of alienation, the struggles with family, everything range true plucking my heartstrings like a guitar to form a foreboding yet fantastic melody. Kafka is as relevant to the modern reader as he was in his own time with themes that illuminate us with their timeless insight into society and the individual.

4.5/5

I cannot make you understand. I cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside me. I cannot even explain it to myself.

¹ There is an interesting article recently published by the BBC on ‘the German’s debt psyche’ and the cultural relationship between debt and guilt stemming from the word schuld.

² There is a wonderful film adaptation of Nabokov’s lectures with Christopher Plummer as Nabokov. You can watch it here.

[Gaurav Sagar · Rating 5 out of 5]

*edited on 26.04.2024 after reading and in response to Father's Last Escape by Bruno Schulz

The Metamorphosis

Franz Kafka


The Metamorphosis can quite easily be one of Franz Kafka’s best works of literature- one of the best in Existentialist literature. Franz Kafka has been one of my all time favorite authors, he quite effortlessly shows the struggle of human existence- the problem of living in modern society- through the narrator, the world of Kafka is surreal having tinge of fantsay but still a perfect mirror to our real world.


One fine morning, Gregor Samsa wakes in his bed and finds himself metamorphosized into an a mammoth bug- the vermin; as expected, he struggles to comprehend what realily has transpired, for the reality may be stranger than fiction but what has happened is out of proportions, he checks out his little room and though everything looks ordinary to him anyway it gets a peculiar inclination it may not be so. He attempts to turn over and return to stay in bed so that he may do away with the unease of his newly found existence, requests to disregard what has occurred, but the state of strange and recently transformed back limits his mobility to just side to side, as if his degrees of movements have been limited in sync with his existence.

"As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect."


Franz Kafka has a panache to throw the reader off guard, starightaway, through the very direct manner in which the initial lines of the novella relates the odd occasion of Gregor's transformation, the author raises the normal circumstances to abnormal levels to give it a tinge of surrealism and infuses it with commonality of the life to make a preposterous world which is crisp, disorganized as opposed to rational and normal, as we expect it to be; but the Kafka always do what you least expect.

The protagonist of the story, Gregor Samsa agonizingly becomes accustomed to his creepy vermin body and his family takes care of him (mostly an inappropriate things, however they couldn't care less) and expels furniture from his room with the goal that he can uninhibitedly move around and climb the walls. Be that as it may, they would prefer not to see his appalling structure, he is kept to his room, and normally stows away under the couch when his sister enters with his food, to save her sensibilities (as opposed to the pleasantly human creepy crawly Gregor, his sister isn't chivalrous in any way, yet progressively hostile and barbarous); his brutish dad (as Kafka himself had been quite afraid of his father) pursues him back by tossing apples at him when he once comes out. The relatives additionally need to take employments for they can no longer soak up the fruitful child. What's more, the circumstance separates, and the family crumbles.


The problem of alienation is explored to depth in the novella- Gregor become insect and behaviour of his family members change towards him, he may transformed to something unusual at the core he is still the same however he faces problem of acceptance by society due to his transformed appearance, which ridicules his being- his existence- as if he is thrown into the hell of nothingness without any notice. The feebleness of his existence disintegrates his being into nothingness, under the sheer pressure of the society- the 'Other'.

The novella raises some very basic and profound questions of human existence- alienation, identity, being. Kafka questions all our presuppositions of life- success, social position, money, that a healthy life is characterized by a steadily improving standard of living and a socially-acceptable appearance which we think matter most- through Gregor's metamorphosis. These presuppositions of our life pose more serious questions- which are very chilly and which can rip us apart from any sense of our (inauthentic) existence.

The author robs Gregor-the protagonist- of every sense of his inauthentic existence by stealing off all assumptions of his life, now he is striped down to the very core of his existence. The protagonist is encountered with basic problems of human existence- what it takes to be?- which we encounter in our lives- if we once appeared socially acceptable and now have ceased to do so, are we still in fact ourselves? Was the socially-acceptable persona in fact ourselves, or is there more essential self-ness in the being we have now become? Or have we, in fact, been nobody in the first place, and are we nobody still?


Gregor Samsa perhpas makes us to look in to our own abyss, to ponder our own character perhaps showing the horror of our lives, about the fluidity of what we take in our lives as fixed and steady. The Metamorphosis makes us question our identity, our very existence- what it takes to be human, about how we try to behave in an manner pleasing to others, perhpas underlining the bad faith of Sartre. The distrubing aspect of the story is the manner in which Gregor Samsa surrenders himself to the fivolity of his family members, the manner in which he is stripped off the exisetnce he has carved for himself is rather unsettling and speaks about irrationality of life, the horrors and dangers of our own metamorphosis. Kafka gives us that how the conventions of normal society are twisted because of our incompetence to look past the surface to the individual inside.

[هدى يحيى · Rating 5 out of 5]

كم مرة رغب كافكا في الموت؟
كم مرة أراد التلاشي من هذا العالم؟
كم مرة شعر بالغربة حتى عن ذاته؟
إن كان التورية تعرّي فلا تعرية مثل التي وجدناها ‏هنا في هذا العمل الأدبي الفريد ،،الموجع و-ياللغرابة ‏الممتع للغاية



يرسم كافكا العلاقة بين الإنسان ونفسه
يمزق كل المتعارف عليه
يثور ويلقي بكل ما عرفناه سلفًا في النار
يتفرج على الحريق باستمتاع و حزن ‏
وشعور عميق بالذنب لا يفارقه

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

يـا لكلِّ هذا الوجع
يـا لهذا الاغتراب ‏
ويالهذه الروح التي تشهق بينما تجرها أشباح في بذلات أنيقة ونظارات مذهبة الأطر
إلى أعماق ‏بركة آسنة من الانصياع للعرف والتقاليد
ويالهذا المتمرد النازف أبدًا
‏!‏
هذا الحزن الغير معقول الذي ينتابنا عند القراءة
هذا الألم كنصل سكين مغروس في قلبك
وأنت ترى ‏التفاحة اللعينة مغروسة في ظهر جريجور الذي بدأ ‏يحتضر بطيئًا بسبب نزوة غضب سخيفة من أب ‏حقير
تبدأ الدموع تغشاك وهو يزهد في الدنيا ويتقوقع ‏وحده مسكينا تحت الأريكة بلا رغبة في الطعام أو ‏حتى في مجرد تسلق سقف الغرفة وحوائطها كما ‏اعتاد قبلا

تتعفن التفاحة ،، تتصلب أعضاؤك وتشعر بالبرد ‏يغشاك
تغزو روحك الهزيمة وأنت ترى الغبار يتراكم حوله ‏وأرجله تنثني بلا حول تحته ‏
وقبل أن تنفذ العائلة الملعونة خطة "التخلص" منه ‏يكون هو قد أسلم الروح في صمت

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كان كافكا ممن عنوا بشأن البرجوازية وأثارها ‏المحطة من قدر الانسان العادي والتي تقلل من ‏‏‏"إنسانيته" حتى أنه يتحول مع خضوعه المستمر ‏للقوانين لحشرة بينما تفتقر العائلة التي طحنتها ‏‏الحاجة إلى المشاعر الآدمية

فالخضوع للقوانين غير الأخلاقية (في هذه الحالة الاستبداد بكل أشكاله) يعني انهيار كل ما ‏هو ‏انساني بداخل الفرد
أما عدم الخضوع لكل ذلك فيعني ببساطة الموت

حاول جريجور قدر ما حاول أن يتبع القوانين
أن يكون ولدًا مهذبًا
أن يساعد عائلته وأن يفنى نفسه لإعالتها
أن يكون "عقلانيًا" كما وصفه مديره بالعمل

وبين كل هذه المحاولات الصادقة نجده فقد نفسه تمامًأ ‏
فيعيش أزمة وجود كوميدية وحزينة ومثيرة للعجب



إن ذات جريجو��"تغترب" عنه
تنقسم
ترحل بعيدًا ‏
تترك له هذا الكائن المسكين المثير لتقزز البشر

فهل كان جريجور "يتحول" حقًا أم أنه "انقسم" ذاتيا تاركا جزءًا "أصيلًا" منه في الغرفة وفي ‏الحياة؟

إن عقلانية جريجور تتخذ أكثر أشكال العبثية في صدمة أدبية فريدة من نوعها

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

العقلاني واللاعقلاني دوما ما يتداخلان في أدب كافكا ‏وبينما يتجلى اللاعقلاني حول الشخصيات ‏في أدب ‏آخر ينقل كافكا اللاعقلانية "بداخل" الشخصية بحيث ‏ينبع منها ويتجسم و"يتحول" إلى ‏غرائب وعجائب ‏لا نجدها في يومنا ال"عادي"‏

رأى المفكر روجيه جارودي أن كافكا خلق عالمه الخاص ‏بمو��د عالمنا نحن ولكن مع إعادة ترتيبها وفقاً لقوانين "أخرى" ‏تماماً

كان كافكا يصنع الصدمة بطريقة خاصة به وحده
فقبل نقطة نهاية الجملة الأولى ‏
يصدمك تماما بالكلمة ‏التي جاءت ببساطة "حشرة" أو "مسخ"‏

هكذا بطريقة كوميدية ساخرة صادمة تمامًا قد عرفت ‏أننا في قصة تتحداك من السطر الأول

وفي الرواية بقى السرير بدلالاته العديدة مولد هذه الأفكار ‏العبثية ‏
فبدلا من أن يصحو جريجور "من" الكابوس يصحو ‏ليجد نفسه "بداخله" فعلا
ربما كان كابوس جريجور أنه "بقى" آدميًا في هذا ‏العالم المقزز ولم "يتحول"‏
من يدري حقًا بماذا حلم جريجور في هذا اليوم ‏العجيب؟

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

إن سامسا ‏هو كافكا
لا فقط في كل إحالة من الرواية لحياته الشخصية كقسوة الأب والعلاقة الحميمة الواهنة باخته ‏التي اعتنت به في فترة إصابته بالأرق ‏
بل أيضا في اللفظة نفسها
إن نطقت سامسا ستجدها مطابقة لكلمة كافكا في الحركات والسكون كذلك

هيرمان كافكا- فرانز كافكا‏

علاقة كافكا بأبيه الجزار(القصّاب) الشرس تتجسد ‏في كثير من أعماله الأدبية ‏
فمثلا في قصة الحكم نجد ‏الحوار بين الاثنين ينتهي بركض الابن مرسعًا ليقتل نفسه ،، ‏لقد ‏أصدر الوالد الحكم وما عليه سوى التنفيذ
وهذه القسوة الرهيبة التي يحملها الأب دومًا ويعامل ‏بها ابنه تبدو غير مبررة ‏،،حيوانية،،لاعقلانية ‏وعبثية تماما
وهناك شعوران أساسيان يتضافران معا
فبينما يبدو كافكا مغمورا في شعوره بالذنب ‏والخطيئة –كونه وُلد أساسا أو تواجد بهذه الحياة
نجد دوما هذا العقاب والانتقام والحرب الباردة التي ‏يشنها كافكا على والده ‏
فهو ينتقم منه على الورق
يحيله وحشا بأنياب ويجلده مرة بعد أخرى
إن الانتقام جنبا إلى جنب مع الشعور الرهيب بالذنب ‏كانا أساس كل ما كتبه كافكا عن والده مرة ‏بعد مرة


صورة مجمعة لأبوي كافكا

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

الطريف أنه في الوقت الذي كُتبت فيه هذه النوفيلا البديعة لم تكن ‏تعني كلمة حشرة التي نستخدمها الآن حرفيا سوى ‏
حيوان غير نظيف لا يصح استخدامه كأضحية" ‏"
"ungeheures Ungeziefer"
أي أن كافكا اختار مصطلحا غامضا ليبني عليه قصته

وبالتالي ستجد في الترجمات العالمية جميعها أنواعا ‏لا تحصى من الحشرات ومثيلاتها ‏
حتى بالعربية نجد من سماها بالمسخ وغيره ممن ‏سماها بالدودة العملاقة

أما فلاديمير نوباكوف الروائي الشهير فكان يرى أن ‏سامسا تحول لخنفساء مستندا على سطور معينة ‏بالرواية

اقرأوا-كافكا#

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gregor waking up one morning as a bug was a hilarious analogy of the effects an illness can have on someone, as well as on those who are close to him. Though the underlying story behind the hilarity of the analogy was anything but funny. I took it as more of a warning of what NOT to do when a loved-one is afflicted by some unfortunate disease or circumstance. I found his resistance of acknowledging to himself that he had become a bug in the beginning of the story to be very interesting. When he couldn't ignore his state any longer, he looked to others' reactions as to how he would look at his own condition. As he was trying to unlock his bedroom door to let his parents and supervisor in, he thought,

"If they took fright, then Gregor would have no further responsibility and could rest in peace. But if they took it all calmly, then he had no reason to get excited either and he could, if he hurried, actually be at the station by eight."

The reaction of those around him, and most importantly, those of his closest loved-ones, is what influenced his own attitude towards himself and his own state. He became completely ashamed of himself, striving to completely hide himself from view, though it took great effort and pain on his part to do so. His imprisonment, or rather, his confinement from the company of others, had a devastating affect upon his mental well-being and in turn, affected his physical well-being. Such a sad story and the fact that his family didn't feel remorse for their actions, but relief for themselves at his death... I don't believe Kafka was trying to say this is how humans are indubitably, even though most of them try to put on a show of galantry and higher morals. But that humans certainly can become some of the most self-serving, self-centered creatures on Earth. It serves as a warning to us all that while it is good to allow others to serve us from time to time, it is far better to always serve others. Gregor's family had all become accustomed to being taken care of by him. They didn't even mind that he was held in servitude to pay off their debts. This was made evident when the fact was made known that Gregor's father had been saving up extra money earned by Gregor, when it could have been used to pay for his freedom much sooner. Gregor, on the other hand, had been serving his family and loved them purely because of it. His first thought was not of himself, but of the hardship his condition would cause his family.

So lest we fall into such an ugly state of existence, let us guard ourselves by serving those we love, thus loving more those we serve.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gregor Samsa wakes up one morning to discover he's been transformed into a giant beetle-like creature. Can he and his family adjust to his new form?

The Metamorphosis is one of those books that a lot of people get dragooned into reading during high school and therefore are predisposed to loath. I managed to escape this fate and I'm glad. The Metamorphosis is quite a strange little book.

Translated from German, The Metamorphosis is the story of how Gregor Samsa's transformation tears his family apart. I feel like there are hidden meanings that are just beyond my grasp. I suspect it's a commentary about how capitalism devours its workers when they're unable to work or possibly about how the people who deviate from the norm are isolated. However, I mostly notice how Samsa's a big frickin' beetle and his family pretends he doesn't exist.

There's some absurdist humor at the beginning. Samsa's first thoughts upon finding out he's a beetle is how he's going to miss work. Now, I'm as dedicated to my job as most people but if I woke up to find myself a giant beetle, I don't think I'd have to mull over the decision to take a personal day or two.

Aside from that, the main thing that sticks out is what a bunch of bastards Samsa's family is. He's been supporting all of them for years in his soul-crushing traveling salesman job and now they're pissed that they have to carry the workload. Poor things. It's not like Gregor's sitting on the couch drinking beer while they're working. He's a giant damn beetle! Cut him some slack.

All kidding aside, the ending is pretty sad. I'll bet Mr. Samsa felt like a prick later. The Metamorphosis gets four stars, primarily for being so strange and also because it's the ancestor of many weird or bizarro tales that came afterwords. It's definitely worth an hour or two of your time.

[Petra X · Rating 5 out of 5]

A paraphrase. When my (ex)husband went out one evening from unsettling dreams of how faraway his wife was, he went out drinking and whoring. Next morning he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin. A cockroach. Much he knew it though. None of his friends recognised it, in fact they preferred the cockroach to the person he had been and he had a great time. When it was time for him to come home, armour-plated as he was he crushed his wife underfoot (well fists and kicks, but same thing).

Unlike Kafka's poor cockroach whom no one could come to terms with and is destroyed by their ultimate hatred of creepy, crawly insects that roam the house, my ex was embraced by all and became the most popular party person. Although at one stage I did have to fight off a woman who was swinging her handbag at me and tell a Spanish prostitute that my husband's unwanted attentions were no business of mine.

The moral of the story is that there is more than one type of human cockroach and Kafka only wrote about one. It's all in the shell, if you are ugly, big, brown and with six legs you are hated. But handsome, big, brown and with only two, you are adored.

Read this book back in 1999 and loved it. Social isolation for visible or invisible characterists reverberated with me, as did the cold gang mentality that rules once each has identified themselves as a sympathetic member.

5 star book
2 star ex husband (I did get my son so he gets a star for that).

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

I once used my copy to kill a beetle.
Thereby combining my two passions: irony and slaughter.

*wields*

[Jessica ❁ ➳ Silverbow ➳ ❁ · Rating 1 out of 5]

Any day you wake up as a cockroach is a shit day.

[Tobi ﾄﾋﾞ · Rating 5 out of 5]

“would you still love me if i was a worm?” except it’s a whole book

[jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

there was a trend going around on tiktok for a while where girls would ask their boyfriends, ‘if i were a worm, would you still date me?’ those girls are literally this MC, except gregor samsas tiktok would be him asking his family, ‘if i were an insect, would you still love me?’ and the answer is a hard NO.

at face value, i found this to be a rather weird and super depressing story. and this book is a perfect example of why i have such a love/hate relationship with stories that are considered classics. i read for entertainment, so i generally prefer not having to analyse the text in order to get a full understanding of the story. and this is one that requires deep analysis. gosh, any reader could spend hours trying to interpret this novella. religiously, psychologically, socially - all are different interpretations this story could take. not to mention the influence of different translations. but i found that i just didnt care enough about the story to put in all that effort.

maybe one day i will take the time to figure out what it all truly means. if i do, i have no doubt i will be able to appreciate this story more, like many other readers. but as of right now, im just not in the mood.

↠ 2.5 stars

[فايز غازي Fayez Ghazi · Rating 5 out of 5]

- "التحول"، افضل ترجمة ممكنة لهذه الرواية، اقرب بكثير من "المسخ" او "الدودة" او غيرها من الترجمات لأنها تضرب صلب الرواية مباشرة: فهذه الرواية ليست فانتازيا ولا خيال علمي ولا كوميك بل هي في صلب فلسفة كافكا للعلاقات الإنسانية، تباينها، تحولها وتغرّبها...

- "جريجور" الشاب المثابر، النشيط، البار والمعيل لعائلته، الذي لا يكل ولا يمل في سبيلهم (ام واب واخت) والذي لديه تطلعات لحياة كريمة يعيشونها.. يستيقظ فإذ به قد تحول الى "حشرة" او "مسخ"، فيصطدم بنفور اهله واحد مسؤولي عمله، فيقبع في غرفته، في الظلام، تحت الكنبة وتبدأ القصة والمعاناة والإهمال والتنصّل من المشاعر، واللامبالاة فالإستغناء فتمني العدم من اجل اكمال الحياة (ال��هل) فالنهاية الأليمة والمتوقعة....

- هل نحن بحاجة لنتحول لحشرات كي ندرك ما كتبه كافكا؟! بالتأكيد لا، فالإنسان بطبعه ناكر للجميل ومتكيّف مع المتغيرات الا ما رحم ربي، فالأب الذي يرميه ابناؤه على الطريق بعد ان كد وتعب طوال عمره هو هذه الحشرة، والأم التي ترمى اكراماً لزوجة هي تلك الحشرة، والأخت والأخ....

- سلّط كافكا الضوء على ما نريد ان نفعله ولا يمكننا فعله، او لا تخولنا قدراتنا الجسدية من فعله، وهذا ربما ما يتوافق مع المثل العربي (العين بصيرة واليد قصيرة)

- وجّه كافكا النقد ايضاً للنظام الرأسمالي الذي لا يهمه سوى العمل والعمل، بغض النظر عن صحة العامل ورأيه وتعبه، كما سلّط الضوء على المجتمع الرأسمالي والعلاقات المبنية على المنفعة، وكيف تنقطع العلاقة بسقوط المنفعة.

النقطة الرائعة التي وجدتها هي محاولة "جريجور" التعلق بإنسانيته ومنع امه من انتزاع صورته عن الحائط كمحاولة لإبقاء الرابط ما بينه وما بين الإنسانية رغم عبثية هذا الرابط... وهذا الرابط يمكن ان نعاينه بتعلق كبار السن بماضيهم او تعلق الجندي ببزته العسكرية بعد التقاعد او او ...

- اخيراً، لماذا اختار كافكا الدودة التي تتحول لفراشة؟ لما لم يختر حشرة اخرى! اهو للقول بتحرر الروح وانطلاق الفراشة!؟ ام للقول برغم المآسي فقد يأتي الجميل من القبيح... لا ادري

[Adina ( back from Vacay…slowly recovering) · Rating 5 out of 5]

4* for the novella + 1* for Benedict Cumberbatch narration ( I adore his voice).

A family (mother, father and sister) are forced to become responsible and find jobs when the son, the sole provider of the family, has a sort of a disease and cannot work anymore. As he becomes useless he is marginalized and despised. I almost forgot, the disease is that the son wakes up in the morning as a cockroach.

Methamorphosis is considered one of the best books ever written which is quite remarkable considering its size. To succeed to have such an impact in a few pages is an accomplishment. At a first glance it is the story of Gregor Samsa, who wakes up transformed as a vermin and becomes treated like one by the family. As with great literature, and with Kafka in particular, there is more than meets the eye.

Some of the themes that come to my mind (and some that I read in other reviews) are:
- What happens when a person is no longer sociable acceptable and it becomes marginalized
- The novel can be seen as a critic of discrimination or
- Kafka’s own existential suffering and his alienation from the world ( I think some reading about Kafka’s life is needed to better understand his work).
- A fable of Jews’ condition

For a better and more in depth analysis of the novella please check Vladimir Nabokov’s contribution: http://www.kafka.org/index.php?id=191...

[Glenn Russell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kafka’s classic tale written in 1912 is about the changes that can come about in our lives. Up until the very end, the entire tale takes place in an apartment of a mother, father, son and daughter. The son is unfortunately unable to continue to perform his job as a traveling salesman and support his family financially. This abrupt change forces the father, mother and daughter to exert more energy in their lives and take steps to earn money. Here is a word about each member of the family:

The Father – At the beginning of the tale he is too worn out to even stand up straight and walk across the apartment without pausing. At the end, he stands up straight, combs his white hair neatly, wears a uniform smartly in his new job working for a bank and can take charge of family situations and challenges with authority.

The Mother – At the outset, she is weak and helpless. At the end, she does the household cooking and helps support her family through taking in sewing.

The Daughter – A wan stay-at-home at the beginning and a healthy out-in-the-world worker at the end. At the very end, this 17 year-old blossoms into an attractive young lady, a real catch for some lucky guy.

This Kafka tale is, in some important ways, the forerunner of such books as How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Of course, what I've written above is tongue-in-cheek. Not to be taken seriously!

Review of The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka ---- Take 2

If I didn’t write this ‘Take 2’ I suspect my book review would be the first in nearly 100 years not to mention Gregor wakes up transformed into an enormous bug. Since there already so many reviews posted, I’d like to offer several brief observations:

• What is it about our attempt to maintain the status quo? Gregor is transformed into a monstrous verminous bug and all he and his mother and father and sister can ask is: ‘How can we change things back to how they were?’.

• The objective 3rd person narrator lets us know directly that although Gregor’s body has transformed, he still has his human mind with its memories. Why does his family assume Gregor lost his human mind? If they wanted, they could simply ask him questions to find out. For example, ‘Gregor, if you can understand what I am saying, move over to the right side of your room’. This speaks volumes about how people are too narrow in their thinking to deal with life creatively and with imagination.

• What adds to the eeriness of Kafka tale is Gregor’s metamorphosis is in stark contrast to the humdrum regularity of the family in their apartment. The possible exception is the absurdist scene at the beginning where Gregor’s manager knocks on the door and insists on knowing why Gregor missed the early morning train. This combination of these opposites is a stroke of genius.

• The most insightful review of this Kafka tale I’ve read is from Vladimir Nabokov ------ http://www.kafka.org/index.php?id=191.... Nabokov adjudged Kafka’s tale the greatest novel of the 20th century behind Joyce’s Ulysses.

[shanayaa · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book has altered my brain chemistry 😭🤌🏻

[Vit Babenco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some modern personal transformations are no less dramatic than those immortalized by Ovid…

One morning, when Gregor Samsa woke from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin. He lay on his armour-like back, and if he lifted his head a little he could see his brown belly, slightly domed and divided by arches into stiff sections. The bedding was hardly able to cover it and seemed ready to slide off any moment. His many legs, pitifully thin compared with the size of the rest of him, waved about helplessly as he looked.

On turning into the loathsome insect, Gregor Samsa actually acquired his authentic essential nature – his body just had come into accordance with his inner insectival self. In his new shape, his parents had no sympathy for him and for his sister he has become a kind of a pet.
Strange may it seem but Gregor’s metamorphosis had set his family free – everyone became more independent and his kin began to feel that they have some obligations.

Gregor drew his head back from the door and lifted it to look at his father. Truly, this was not the father he had imagined to himself; admittedly he had been too absorbed of late in his new recreation of crawling over the ceiling to take the same interest as before in what was happening elsewhere in the flat, and he ought really to be prepared for some changes. And yet, and yet, could that be his father? The man who used to lie wearily sunk in bed whenever Gregor set out on a business journey; who welcomed him back of an evening lying in a long chair in a dressing gown; who could not really rise to his feet but only lifted his arms in greeting, and on the rare occasions when he did go out with his family, on one or two Sundays a year and on high holidays, walked between Gregor and his mother, who were slow walkers anyhow, even more slowly than they did, muffled in his old greatcoat, shuffling laboriously forward with the help of his crook-handled stick which he set down most cautiously at every step and, whenever he wanted to say anything, nearly always came to a full stop and gathered his escort around him? Now he was standing there in fine shape; dressed in a smart blue uniform with gold buttons, such as bank messengers wear; his strong double chin bulged over the stiff high collar of his jacket; from under his bushy eyebrows his black eyes darted fresh and penetrating glances; his onetime tangled white hair had been combed flat on either side of a shining and carefully exact parting.

Nonentity’s tragedy was just his own tragedy and when he disappeared, everyone could breathe easy.
It makes me wonder how many paltry insects are really hiding behind human masks.

[Carolyn Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, this was brilliant!

(I wasn’t surprised to learn that one of Kafka’s greatest influences was Fyodor Dostoyevsky)

[Mohammed Ali · Rating 5 out of 5]

القراءة الثانية لهذه القصة الرائعة .


تقرير من إحدى الجرائد :

في الساعة الثانية من يوم الخميس الماضي و جد العاملون في أحد المناجم الخاصة لإستخراج الفحم جثة متعفنة، و بعد استخراجها بصعوبة و سط الروائح النتنة المتجمعة في ذلك المكان تحت سطح الأرض و نقلها خارج المنجم تعرف أحد العاملين على الجثة. و هي تعود للعامل رقم 536 المدعو (....) من (....) .و هو شخص في الأربعينيات من عمره . صرح أحد العاملين على أن هذه الحوادث و الوفيات تحدث باستمرار ..لأن الملاك ينظرون إلى العاملين على أنهم.. حشرات ..خلقت لتستغل


محاولة انتحار فاشلة :


شهدت دار المسنين أو ما يسمى بالمركز الوطني للتكفل بالعجائز و الشيوخ حادثة غريبة .. حيث قام أحد المسنين بعملية انتحار عبر شنق نفسه، و لكن العملية فشلت بعد التدخل السريع من طرف أحد عمال النظافة . و يروي صديق هذا العجوز أن المدعو (....) كان يعاني من ضغوط نفسية رهيبة جراء إلتحاقه بهذا المركز .. فهو في الماضي كان رجلا نشيطا .. غنيا نوعا ما .. فعالا في مجتمعه .. لا يتوقف عن الحركة .. و لكنّه وجد نفسه في آخر عمره منبوذا داخل هذا النوع من المراكز .و أضاف العجوز على أن صديقه كان يعتقد بأنه.. حشرة منبوذة .. حشرة استغني عنها عند أول إشارة ضعف .. حشرة قدمت الغالي و النفيس لمجتمعها و لكن قابلها المجتمع بالنبذ و الإبعاد .

مقطع من فيلم صرخة نملة :

- انا نمله إتخلقت علشان كل واحد يدوس عليها..
- نغير الهتاف من تسقط الحكومه الي " إحنا النمل فين السكر"
- رجل الأمن ينصح : تعيش نمله تاكل سكر

تقرير من المنظمة العالمية لحقوق الإنسان :

أفادت إحدى الدراسات الحديثة عن تأثير الحروب على الإنسان ليس جسديا أو نفسيا فقط .. بل هو أعمق من هذا بكثير، فهو
يؤثر على الروح و يلامسها، تلك الروح التي تشعر في زمن الحروب باللاجدوى الناتجة عن حب الحياة و التمسك بها .. فالنقيض يولد النقيض أحيانا . كما أفادت هذه الدراسات على أن الجنود .. أي الطبقة الأخيرة و الدرجة السفلى من سلم المراتب في الجيش تكثر فيهم ظاهرة الإنتحار، نتيجة شعورهم بأنهم بيادق في أيدي كبار القواد , حشرات يزج بها في حروب لا ناقة لهم فيها و لا جمل .

مقتطفات من إحدى الخطب :

إن الوضع العربي الراهن انتقل من مرحلة الخرفان و النعاج أي كما قال أنشتاين " لكي يتمكن المرء من أن يكون عضوا مثاليا في قطيع الغنم، فإن عليه أن يكون على الأقل نعجة " إلى مرحلة الحشرات.. نعم إننا اليوم حشرات تداس بالأقدام و تستهدف بالنعال .. إننا اليوم حشرات وجودها ضار بالنسبة لهم .. فهم يتمنون منا أن نسحق و نبيد عن آخرنا .

إقتباس من رواية :

حين أفاق غريغور سامسا ذات صباح من أحلام مزعجة، وجد نفسه و قد تحول في فراشه إلى حشرة ضخمة

ملاحظة و إستنتاج :


حين أفاق عامل المنجم .. حين أفاق المسن .. حين أفاق الجندي .. حين أفاق المواطن العربي .. حين أفاق الخادم في المنزل .. حين أفاق الفقير المعوز.. ذات صباح و جدوا أنفسهم و قد تحولوا في فراشهم إلى حشرات ضخمة .

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الإنسان الحشرة..الموضوع واحد في العالم كله


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تحس فجأة أنك تلقيت ضربة على الرأس بعد قراءة هذه القصة .. لا .. لم تعد كما كنت .. لست أنت .. لم تعد أنت..هنالك شيئ ما تغير..لا أدري ربما نظرة..ربما إحساس .. شعور .. وجهة نظر .. تعريف..لا أدري و لن تدري .. هذا هو كافكا و كتاباته التي هزت العالم .



" آه يا إلهي إنها وظيفة منهكة، الطواف في البلاد يوما بعد يوم .إن إزعاجات هذا العمل أكبر من إزعاجات العمل في المحل الأصلي، و فوق كل ذلك فرض علي عناء السفر و هناك الخوف من عدم اللحاق بالقطارات، و هناك وجبات الطعام الرديئة و الغير منتظمة، و الإتصالات الإنسانية المتبدلة دائما، غير متواصلة أبدا، و التي لا تصبح ودية قط فليأخذ ( الشيطان ) ذلك كله "


" علي أن أجمع المال .. كي أسدد له دين الوالدين، أعلم أن هذا يستغرق خمس أو ست سنوات أخرى حتى أقوم بذلك على أي حال "


" بالرغم أن غريغور أصبح فيما بعد يكسب من المال ما جعله يتحمل نفقات الأسرة بكاملها، و تحملها أيضا . و قد اعتادوا ذلك، غريغور و الأسرة كان هو يعطي المال بسرور، و هم يقبلونه بعرفان، و لكن شعوراخاصا بالدفء لم يشأ أن ينشأ لحد الآن . "


استلقى غريغور على سريره منهكا .. متألما من كثرة المشي .. يعاني من ألم في بطنه بسبب وجبة رديئة .. استلقى و هو يفكر في كل تلك الأمور .. الدين .. العمل .. موعد القطارات الصباحية .. المبيعات .. حال الأسرة .. الخوف من التقلبات .. التعب .. الطعام .. التحاق اخته بمعهد الفنون .. الناس .. و بينما هو في تلك الحالة و ذلك العالم .. عالم ما قبل النوم ..تصور نفسه كحشرة ضخمة .. تؤدي عملها الروتيني اليومي دون مشاعر .. نام .. و عندما استيقظ وجد نفسه و قد تحول إلى حشرة أو وجد نفسه كما يعرفها جيدا حشرة ضخمة .
حين ندخل إلى ذات أنفسنا، للقاء معها، ما يبقى خارجنا هو الحيوان: جملة أعضاء الدابة التي تمشي تحتنا دون أن تكون نحن فحين ننام نحن نترك أجسادنا خارجنا. ولا نحمل معنا شيئًا إلى الداخل، غير ذواتنا.



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حشرة في عالم إنساني .. أم إنسان في عالم الحشرات أضحى غريغور و أصبح بعد استيقاظه ؟؟
بين جدران غرفته يغترب وحده .. و لكن ما الجديد في ذلك و ما الغرفة و العالم أجمع سوى حدود وهمية .. فهو قبل هذا كان وحيدا تماما في الشارع في المحطة .. في الفنادق الرخيصة .. في العمل .




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يجب أن نتخلص منه .. هكذا صرخت الأخت وانتحبت .. من منا قادر على الإهتمام به.. أنا لا أستطيع الإحتمال و أنت يا أمي لا تستطعين الإحتمال و أنت يا أبت لا تستطيع الإحتمال .. كلنا لا نستطيع الإحتمال..نحن أسرة منهكة .. فقيرة ..
من منا قادر على الإهتمام بغريغور اهتماما يزيد ولو ذرة واحدة على المقدار الضروري ؟



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مات غريغور.. كما ماتت مشاعر الآخرين اتجاهه .. كما ماتت عاطفتهم و صبرهم .. كما ماتت إنسانيتهم .

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مات غريغور.. أو .. لم يمت لأنه مازال حيا في أسر كثيرة في هذا العالم..
لأن الموضوع واحد في العالم كله



غريغور سامسا لم يمت..بل مازال حيا في أسر كثيرة من هذا العالم..بل هو موجود داخلنا و إن اختلفت درجات وجوده ووضوحها..غريغور سامسا ما هو إلا أنا و أنت .




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كافكا واحد من أعظم الكتاب في العالم .

[Fergus, Weaver of Autistic Webs · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ll never forget that winter night at Christmas break when I read this one, during the transition phase into high school senior year.

What struck me Most the first read-through was the image of the pitched Apple that had pierced and penetrated into the soft, gooey underbelly of this hapless giant caterpillar.

That was so me, back then, in 1967! An outsider at school, my soft belly was routinely pierced by the fierce verbal slurs of the more outgoing members of the collegiate in-crowd.

I formed no alliances at high school except with friends I really loved. A nutty literary nerd.

Ah, those lost teen years!

And Gregor Samsa? How to explain his ugly transmogrification? And whatever can he do next?

First off, his case is a classic of Postructuralism. You see, his raging father (the dreaded Other - and the origin of Gregor’s faceless, Lacanian Dread) has turned Gregor, by the subtle reversal occasioned by his identity crisis, into the brutal and ugly Other itself. His father is no longer the demonic one: Gregor is.

Gregor must have been recently “cured,” and shriven of his acute neurosis, if that sounds familiar, guys! It’s a common medical tool…

But enough armchchair psychotherapy!

Imagine, if you will, a dust- and perhaps carpet-concealed trap door in his fatefully transforming room - leading into his parents’ dark basement... (This little story is one possible personal continuation of Gregor’s story in honor of Kafka’s febrile imagination.)

Well, when Gregor the Caterpillar lands on the dark root cellar floor, he gets up, dusts off his damaged exoskeleton, and notices a secret door in the wall that says to him, “open me!”

He does, finding himself in an ancient dark wood. But he doesn’t crawl far, before he is stopped dead in his tracks by three hungry mammals: the in-crowd leaders.

He is trapped.

A spirit guide (his literary hero) then appears and rescues him, telling him he must descend more deeply through these subterranean shadows to find Peace.

He does... All the way down to a first, ultimate revelation in the primordial sludge of Original Sin at the Bottom of his Luck.

And then back, All the Way Up (many months later) to his reward: Stable Peace of Mind.

Such, then, was Kafka’s, Dante’s - and my own quest from the outside in. And all three of us FOUND our peace at the end of it:

Kafka had found Peace when he wrote Amerika.

Dante had found Peace when he wrote Paradiso.

And I?

I found Peace just recently, after following my spirit guide Dante as a minor bit player through a long, battered life.

I meandered woefully through the Hell of otherness.

I stumbled through the Purgatorial cleansing of acting as a working and dutiful husband and breadwinner.

And in the Old Age of Later Retirement Years I know the Peace of a personal practicality, sustained by the Old Rugged Cross:

That has instructed, nourished, and led me safely to the End of my Quest -

A time of New Beginnings -

Fifty Years after falling into the Darkness, as the outsider, Gregor Samsa.

[Dave Maddock · Rating 5 out of 5]

I suspect interpreting Kafka says more about the reader than the author so here's some insight into my psyche:

Gregor's family are losers. Gregor takes over the "bread winner" position after his father's business fails and provides enough money for the family to live as well as help to pay down the large debt his father's business incurred. The rest of them are fine to let him and sit on their asses. Gregor's father is perfectly healthy, but is happy to mooch too. Then, we find out that his father has been squirreling away Gregor's money on the side to boot.

Gregor works for five years in this manner, never missing a day of work, and the first day he is ill they are jerks. Yet, when the vermin dies and they are employed, they all sit down quick to write letters of excuse for themselves. When the vermin's alive it's an excuse to not leave the house; when he dies they can't work.

They deplore the fact that the vermin cannot understand them despite evidence to the contrary when he hears them talk and follows their instructions (eg. to get back in the room, etc.). Furthermore, they make no effort to communicate with him. I'd like to think if a loved one turned into an insect and I decided to keep them alive in a bedroom of my house, I would get around to trying the blatantly obvious "Hiss one for yes, two for no" routine.

In short, f--- you Gregor's family. You suck.

[Henry Avila · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gregor Samsa awakes from a bad dream, into a mad nightmare, as he struggles, stuck in his own bed this weary, young traveling salesman, has overnight been miraculously transformed... incredibly Gregor is now a hideous bug, a dung beetle , or even a cockroach does it really matter what ? He has missed his train in more ways than one, but Samsa, is a real trooper, still thinks he can catch the locomotive and make that vile business trip, eventually getting off the bed with great difficulty, just a slight crash, in truth, opening the locked door somehow and moving around on the floor, in his many, new, ugly little legs the parents and sister are greatly shocked, at his new repulsive appearance. And when the office manager arrives to see what happened , big mistake, he spots Samsa and is out the door without a word spoken (twitching a little). Now the "Bug" becomes a burden to his lazy, ungrateful family after years of Gregor supporting them, all by himself (a job he hated, with a big passion), they much embarrassed , hide him in his modest quiet room, feeding the "monstrous vermin", leftover garbage from their table scraps, a menu the bug implausibly prefers...Months pass and it becomes obvious something has to give, the reader will decide is Samsa a real dung beetle, or is he mentally ill? But to some, the gist of the fable is, how much does your family love you? A brutal depiction of a family in tremendous turmoil...expediency triumphs.

[Justin Tate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gregor’s transformation into a bug is no ordinary plight, and yet the fallout of this event is bitterly recognizable. Relatable, even. In fact, I associate myself with Gregor so exactly that it is almost as if Kafka had been writing—in his veiled, symbolic way—about my queer anxieties, just as they are today, in this summer of 2021.

For context, let me briefly address what’s going on in my life before getting into the novel.

I am a thirty-two year old gay man who recently “came out” to his deeply religious family. I use quotes here because I did not so much come out as stop tip-toeing around this aspect of my life. For several years my family has known about my boyfriend and yet believes any recognition of my relationship will “condone” the abominable act. So they pretend he doesn’t exist. Whenever my boyfriend’s name comes up, they turn to ice, go completely silent until the topic moves on to something else. I can return home for a visit, provided I travel alone and never speak of my personal life, otherwise I am not invited.

Having finally grown exhausted of this game, I informed my parents and siblings that if I could not see them with my boyfriend by my side, I simply couldn’t see them anymore. The response was flat “then I guess we won’t see each other for a while.” And by “for a while” the subtext is, until I’m not gay—or at least until I’m not openly gay.

With this dilemma bubbling around in my head, I found it shocking that every detail in Kafka’s bizarre 1915 novel served as a parable for my experience, and indeed many other queer experiences which I haven’t personally encountered. It begins with the image of a locked door.

Gregor’s titular metamorphosis occurs behind closed doors, with his entire family “knock[ing] lightly” from both the main entrance and a side door leading to Gregor’s room. The family understands something is wrong, Gregor is usually quite punctual for work, and his mother makes excuses on his behalf: “‘He is not well, believe me, Mr. Manager…the young man has nothing in his head except business. I’m almost angry that he never goes out at night.”

Meanwhile, the sister goes so far as to “beg” him to come out. The irony is, of course, that once the family gains access to Gregor (and thus Gregor’s secret) they are appalled and close the door again. Such probing accusations—“‘What is wrong? You barricade yourself in your room, give us no more than yes or no for an answer, you are causing serious and unnecessary concern to your parents…’”—have a familiar echo to my own experiences. These translate in my head as “Why are you so quiet? Why don’t you ever pursue that cute girl? What is wrong with you?”

To those on the outside, these seem like ordinary questions capable of ordinary answers. But being inside the locked room, you know these answers will destroy your family relationship. Even slight hints at the truth—such as when Gregor hits his insect head against the door and makes a “small sound”—have the chilling effect of “silenc[ing] everyone.” That queer sound alone is enough for the family to freeze in horror. Not in optimism—is he communicating with us?—but revulsion. Something they do not want shared with third parties. Something they would rather not think about themselves.

The phrase “coming out of the closet” has long been used for revealing one’s sexuality, with some evidence that similar comparisons were used in Kafka’s time. In any case, the closet metaphor serves well because the image of a tightly-spaced room, typically with no light source, accurately represents the stifling, oppressive feeling queer persons feel while hiding from a heterocentric society. The social recuperations of being “seen” are too great a risk.

Existing in a dark space, one is used to eavesdropping, of analyzing how much light can be seen through the keyhole, of vast hope whenever someone accidentally leaves the door open—are they signaling acceptance? Is it safe to come out now?

Gregor similarly finds himself “pressed upright against the door and listening” to his family talk about him to gauge how much he matters to them in his present form. He reads into everything he hears, hoping for signs that he is still part of the family, a “friendly word.”

There's a fleeting moment when the sister enters his room to tidy up and provide food. Feeling optimistic, Gregor makes himself seen—slightly—to test her level of acceptance. Her revulsion assures him the timing is not right, however, so he reverts deeper into his hiding place under the sofa—a closet within a closet. He goes so far as to spend “four hours” “drag[ging] a sheet” over the couch so that his sister does not have to endure seeing “small parts of his body” which “stuck out.”

As a queer person with an unaccepting family, this dance is yet again all too familiar. I have my own sister who I imagine very much views me as a hideous bug; a blight on the family. As time goes on I imagine she will change, that even if my “bugginess” continues to bother her she will choose to accept a bug as family. On the phone, I occasionally push boundaries. When she asks “What did you do this weekend?” I might daringly respond “Me and Ryan went to the movies” to see what happens. So far the reaction has not changed. She still turns to ice, letting the dead silence linger on the line until I inevitably say “What did you do?” so that she can promptly change the subject.

Like Gregor below the sofa, I usually limit my speech to “Nothing really,” or something sufficiently vague, as a courtesy to her so that she doesn’t have to be exposed to the grotesque details of my ordinary life. Or maybe I do it for me. It’s not worth hearing her disgust in that long, hate-filled silence. Either way, I’m a bug hiding beneath a sofa with a sheet draped over it.

That Gregor continues to love his sister, even after she becomes increasingly cruel, is not surprising—I too continue to love my obstinate sister—because there is so much textual evidence to show that the Samsa siblings were particularly close prior to the metamorphosis.

Gregor worked relentless hours to keep his family financially stable. He even set aside extra wages so he could “send [his sister] to the conservatory.” Today we could compare this to paying for her college tuition. Additionally, their names—Gregor and Grete—have a similar ring to them and imply the two are a well-suited pair. Till the bitter end, even after she spearheads a plan to kill him, his sister is the one he trusts and admires most.

Another reason Gregor never condemns his sister’s cruelty is the common queer experience of internalized homophobia. This occurs when queer individuals begin to view themselves as abhorrent because that is how others view them. Lines such as “there was, of course, no question of her ever becoming fully used to the situation” and “[it is] a requirement of family duty to suppress one’s aversion and to endure – nothing else, just endure” and “his mother…was perhaps near death, thanks to him” show a growing ideology that Gregor sees himself as a problem which, in the best of circumstances, can be begrudgingly tolerated and at worst is killing his family.

This internalized homophobia climaxes, as it often does for queer persons, in death. As he lay dying, with “pains throughout his entire body,” Gregor feels “relatively content,” with “deep feelings of love” for his family. Most telling is the line: “his own thought that he had to disappear was, if possible, even more decisive than his sister’s.”

After seeing himself as a burden on his family for so long, the reason for their unhappiness and the hideous creature they see in him, he is ready for his life to end because he feels it will be for the greater good.

Gregor’s death is not a suicide—though his relief in death can certainly be viewed as suicide-esque—but rather the result of a festering wound from an apple that his enraged father threw at him after Gregor un-hid himself in front of his mother, causing her great distress. The “festering wound” is one of the finest symbolic moments to illustrate that Gregor’s death is the result of lingering insult that sticks to the skin (or exoskeleton) long after the initial confrontation. Even Mr. Samsa’s fruit of choice carries the symbolic weight that particularly resonates with my experience growing up in a deeply religious household.

Gregor’s father hurls from a “fruit bowl” and yet, if the bowl contains a variety of fruits, it is only apples used for ammunition. Indeed, “It was an apple” is one of the shortest sentences of the novel, drawing particular attention to itself.

Apples are, of course, most famously associated with original sin in the Garden of Eden. Thus it is impossible for someone like me, whose own father is a Baptist minister, to miss the interpretation that Mr. Samsa’s apple-hurling is effectively calling Gregor’s existence a crime against God. These accusations, common in the queer experience, are also the most “sticky” and hardest to ignore. One can brush off homophobic friends and even, with more difficulty, family, but the belief that your life is an affront to God is—at least for the religious—the wound least likely to heal.

In case the religious implications of the apples are missed, Kafka includes crucifixion imagery in the same scene. After being “bombarded” by apples, Gregor describes feeling “as if he was nailed in place and lay stretched out.” The word choice here is almost certainly an allusion to Jesus hanging on the cross. Furthermore, to once again cement religion as an issue, Mr. Samsa’s reaction to his son’s death is “‘Well…now we can give thanks to God.’”

These references to God at such critical moments stand out like a banner within a queer interpretation. It is so easy to imagine a homophobic family thrilled by such a convenient conclusion to their social problem. For the Samsas, at least, that relief is immediate and apparent.

The blight hidden in their apartment, the thing which hurt them financially and tormented their religious beliefs, is, “thank God,” finally gone. There is no period of mourning, only an immediate desire to “pass that day resting and going for a stroll.” Out in the “open air” and “warm sun” they congratulate themselves on securing alternative sources of income without Gregor and are eager to blot out any memory of his existence.

Again, Kafka breaks my heart with a depiction that is all too familiar to me personally, and queer reality in a broad sense. Some form of disownment continues to be a reality for queer persons from unsupportive families. This is why, out of 1.6 million homeless youth, it is reported that a staggering 40% will identify as LGBT. Though I am independent and cannot be thrown out of doors, my family works hard to “erase” me in other ways, such as tucking away pictures, home movies and other artifacts that may remind my young nephew of my existence. If the family shows any level of support for a gay person, they fear, it could reverse his installed belief that homosexuality is a sin against God.

At this moment, it is worth backtracking to discuss the issue of how we should interpret Gregor in his insect form. I’ve wrote a lot about viewing Gregor as a queer person, but how should we deal with the fictional reality of his being an insect? Should we only see his bug exterior as a metaphor for the queer experience? Or should we ever take the story at face value? That is, that he has literally transformed into a bug? Based on Kafka’s careful word choice, the answer seems to be a bit of both.

Kafka includes many examples where Gregor moves his tiny limbs, creeps about the ceiling, or eats rotten food to assure us that he has, indeed, become a bug. There should be no doubting the reality of that. And yet, it is also interesting that his insect form does not overwhelm the novel. Gregor does not linger on how this metamorphosis happened. At first he thinks he’s dreaming, but after waking up there is scarcely a wonder how this came to be. If I transformed into a bug, I would do nothing but wonder how this happened and how it might be fixed. What did I eat last? What chemicals was I exposed to? Did a witch curse me?

That Gregor does not question this only further illustrates that is aware he is queer and, frankly, always has been. Now the exterior only matches the interior, and the dilemma is in handling that reality.

Neither does Gregor’s family go to any length to uncover the mystery of the metamorphosis. They do not ask, for example, “How did this happen?” or offer any medical assistance—despite there being a hospital right across the street, visible from Gregor’s window. Instead, their primary concerns are getting third parties out of the house so that rumor does not get around.

Kafka further blends the insect issue by making it unclear precisely what bug Gregor has transformed into. Why avoid a line which plainly states “he was a cockroach!” or “he was a ladybug!” — why not make it easier for the reader to picture the protagonist as a specific type of bug? This seems fairly obvious, that Kafka wants the reader to view Gregor as an outcast more than a bug. He wants the reader to read Gregor as a brother and a son, as someone who has been alienated by his own family. There can be some doubt on whether or not Kafka intended the queer implications of his novel—more on that later—but the ambiguous language is certainly meant to make the reader view Gregor as human as possible in his bug form.

Miraculously, Kafka does name a specific type of insect in relation to Gregor, but that insect is so full of innuendo that could also be used as a human insult. The maid, using a tone that “she probably considered friendly” taunts Gregor with such phrases as “‘come on then, you old dung-beetle!’” and “‘Look at the old dung-beetle there!’”

For the queer reader, the interpretation of this scene is a familiar affront of homophobic slurs. Regardless of the maid's tone, she uses the equivalent of such phrases as “fudge-packer” or “poop dick” when she calls him a dung beetle. In her mind she might consider this address as an actual way to build a connection, a way of saying I know what you are, and it’s disgusting, but I’m trying to be your friend. Gregor, of course, like every gay person who’s experienced the exact same thing, does not find this hostility as an effective way to build bridges. So he reverts more, deeper still into his closet within a closet.

By now I hope my argument is convincing that The Metamorphosis can be read as a parable for the queer experience. This naturally leads to the question of authorial intent.

Did Kafka intend to write about the gay experience? Is this the “true” interpretation of the novel that a century of scholars have yet to identify? Maybe, probably not. In truth, it doesn’t matter. It’s certainly possible for a heterosexual to write a canonical queer novel without intending to. Furthermore, the art of masterpieces is often found in their ability to warrant many interpretations.

But textual evidence is so overwhelming, so seemingly personal, that I can’t not dig into Kafka’s life. As it turns out, there are some clues which may readily validate a queer interpretation.

“Kafka had homosexual fantasies, but everyone does,” writes Reiner Stach, one of Kafka's most dedicated biographers. He goes on to argue that it was Kafka’s ability to tap into these subconscious desires which make him such an enduring and brilliant writer.

Max Brod, a close friend of Kafka and the recipient of his estate, described his companion as “tortured by his sexual desires” though he did not clarify if those desires were same-sex.

It is true that Kafka never married, despite finding himself engaged to a number of attractive, eligible women. Yet another Kafka scholar, Saul Friedländer, concluded that the famous author led these women on for social acceptance while he secretly fantasized about men.

It would have been almost cliché for a gay man in the early 1900s to be repeatedly engaged to women before breaking off the wedding last minute. This stereotype alone does not, of course, prove anything. But on the flip side, the knowledge that Kafka attended brothels, presumably for their female entertainment, likewise does not prove an exclusive interest in women. Investing in prostitutes is, in fact, a common “treatment” for homosexuality even today. The methodology seeming to be that once you try heterosexuality you will like it. Perhaps Kafka, riddled with a sense of self-loathing, went to brothels to “fix” himself so he could finally marry one of his many female companions? If you thought of yourself as a crawling, creeping cockroach, what extremes would you go to for a cure?

Recent research into Kafka’s private life has found he subscribed to pornography. This detail is hardly revealing, except that The Metamorphosis possibly alludes to porn. In the memorable scene where Gregor’s family is removing all furnishings from his room, he, in a last ditch effort to preserve at least one personal artifact, crawls upon the wall and presses himself against the picture of “a woman dressed in nothing but fur.” An act which, it is worth noting the sexual phrasing here, “made his hot abdomen feel good.”

One interpretation is that this portrait is merely art, a token of his prior life, however Kafka makes it clear that the removal of furnishings is symbolic of giving up hope on his condition. Mrs. Samsa goes so far as to speak this out loud: “‘…by taking the furniture away, won’t it seem like we’re showing that we’ve given up all hope of improvement and we’re abandoning him to cope for himself?’”

Since this line is spoken it has the ability to influence Gregor’s thinking. The nude art is the thing he chooses to save possibly because he views it as the item most likely bring him back to normal. Again, for the gay man seeking to “change” his sexual orientation, pornographic depictions of women might be seen as medicine.

Of course there are other interpretations. Indeed almost anyone who has ever felt alienated from society, misunderstood, abused, or suffered from some ailment which the rest of the world doesn’t seem to understand, can imprint themselves on Gregor’s situation. This is not a fault of the novel, but rather one of its touchstone achievements.

Still, whether intended or not, Kafka’s tragic tableau tells the story of homophobia in society and within the home. As more queer readers respond to this novel and share their personal connections to it, I suspect there will be more recognition of its relevance as a queer literary landmark.

[فؤاد · Rating 4 out of 5]

مسخ رو معمولاً به عنوان يه اثر فلسفى-اجتماعى ميشناسن، و همين كافيه كه همه ى خصوصيات داستان فراموش بشن و همه ى منتقدها به جای داستان، به مفاهيم پشت داستان توجه كنن. يعنى همه ى زحمات نويسنده براى ساختن پیکره ی داستان فراموش بشه و بر باد بره.
حتماً حتماً "درباره ى مسخ" ناباكوف رو بخونيد، واقعاً ديد جديدى ميده به آدم در زمينه ى نقد ادبى.

وحشت
داستان بى ترديد در ژانر وحشت طبقه بندى ميشه. فضاى كابوس وار قصه هاى كافكا، محشرن. اين كه يه كابوس مسلّم رو، مياره توى زندگى هر روزه ى ما و با ديدى واقع گرايانه بهش نگاه ميكنه، كه باعث وحشتناك تر شدن قصه ميشه. از اين جهت شايد بشه گفت مبدع "رئاليسم جادويى" به نحوى كافكا بوده؛ خود گابريل گارسيا ماركز، بزرگ ترين نويسنده ى رئاليسم جادويى، ميگه "من با خوندن كافكا فهميدم ميشه جور ديگه اى هم نوشت."

طنز
اما مهمه كه بدونيم كافكا، خودش به داستان هاى خودش به عنوان داستان وحشت نگاه نمى كرده. بله، مسخ در نظر كافكا يه داستان "طنز" بوده. وقتى براى ديگران ميخونده يا راجع بهش صحبت مى كرده، بر جنبه هاى طنز داستانش تأكيد داشته. مثل تقلايى كه سوسك قصه، براى به موقع رسيدن به سر كار ميكنه، يا تلاشش براى توضيح علت تأخيرش به مأمور اداره ش يا...
همه ى اين ها، نوعى آميختگى طنز و وحشت ايجاد ميكنه. سوژه ى اصلى وحشته، اما واکنش شخصيت ها و تناقض شديد این واکنش با انتظار ما، پهلو به طنز ميزنه. نه الزاماً طنزى كه قهقهه بزنيد، بلكه ترجيحاً طنزى كه مو رو بر بدنتون سيخ مى كنه. شايد بشه اسمش رو گذاشت "گروتسك" يا "طنز سياه".

[Mohammed Arabey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Arabic/English Review
First read I got the impression; pretty disgusted yet very sad
قرائتي الأولي لها شعرت بشئ من الحزن والكثير من القرف والاشمئزاز

Second read,more emotional & sympathy for Kafka Samsa
القراءة الثانية شعرت بمشاعر حزن أكثر..وتعاطف مع كافكا,أقصد سامسا

READ..FEEL..RE-READ
هي قصة تقرأها..تشعر به..وتعيد قرائتها
لذا قرأتها لمرة ثالثة وأخيرة وكم شعرت بالحزن والاكتئاب

تخيل أنك كنت العائل الوحيد لأسرتك، ثم أصبحت عاجزا وعبئا علي تلك الأسرة
لمجرد انك صرت بحالة جعلتك...غريب الأطوار
تشتاق للجلوس معهم في الجلسات الاسرية الدافئة الحميمة والتي كان يمنعك عنها دائما عملك وتجوالك لكسب لقمة العيش...والان ومع عجزك وملازمتك المنزل, يمنعك عجزك ومرضك وغرابة اطوارك من نفس الجلسات الاسرية التي افتقدها وانت لست بالمنزل
لأن , تخيل, ان مرضك هذا يجعلك منفرا لهم..كالمسخ

ضع نفسك مكان كافكا ,عذرا, سامسا وانت تقرأ تلك القصة..فهو ايضا كان عمله يجعله بعيدا عن البيت كثيرا لدرجه انه في مذكراته قال ان سفريات عمله منعته من جعل تلك الرواية افضل , أقصد هنا كافكا بالفعل
وكذلك تلك العلاقة المعقدة بينه وبين ابيه من العوامل المشتركة بين كافكا وسامسا بطل الرواية لتشعر انهما فعلا ..واحد

كما ان هناك بعض الأجزاء التي توضح ان غرابته هذه جعلته شخصا افضل نوعا ما, فمثلا هو في النهاية بدأ يتذوق جمال الموسيقي بالرغم من انه لم يكن يجب الموسيقي كثيرا قبل ذلك كما اعترف وهو يفكر بارسال اخته الي الكونسرفتوار

مما يجعلك تشعر انه نوع من انواع المرض النفسي , ربما الأكتئاب من الواقع المظلم والرغبة في مستقبل أكثر جمالا..ومن منا لم يشعر بهذا الأكتئاب وهذه الرغبة؟
هذه الرغبة قد تجعلك فعلا..غريب الأطوار في مثل ذلك العالم المظلم
العمل الشاق الذي ييجرد انسانيتك ويجعلك كمجرد حشرة تسعي للرزق

فحتي الأغلفة التي ظهرت للرواية والتي أشرف عليها كافكا لم يكن بها حتي صورة للحشرة, وإنما للعائلة أو لشخص يخفي وجهه


عاما كل تلك المشاعر شعرت بصدق كتابتها ووجعها وألمها
يجب ان تقرأ بالفعل
بالنسبة للنهاية فعلا شعرت بانها غريبة,كان يمكن ان تكون افضل كما اعترف كافكا نفسه ولكنها تظل ملائمة ورمزية..ويكفي انه شعر باحاسيسه كل من قرأ الرواية..وشعر بمعاناة كافكا


Third read was after all that rant in my edition which I only liked a few of it all- It didn't tell me more than I already 'felt' about the story, some articles add more deep understanding to what I've already understand..but some was OVER-Analyze..may be away of what Kafka wanted to tell...

It's very sad story indeed, imagine that you become a burden on your family for unknowing, incurable sickness ,after you've been the sole support for your family....how you've been 'killing' yourself for bread winning to them..now they even can't look at you probably.

I've read Kafka's letters ,and with some of his real life sad story, He is a Metamorphosis himself...I felt it's not necessary a True Bug, it may be a sickness of the long time traveling and full time working, it may be just nervous breakdown or some other psychological illness..Who knows..It's a story about Feeling for me..that's why by my second reading I've felt more like the second picture I've add at the review..

And note that the original 1916 early edition's cover there's no an Actual Bug ,as well as most of the early ones.
*
It's a Story about feelings and differences..I won't spoil it for you But read it and try to put yourself in the position of Samsa, and that's very easy since Kafka's writing style here is very easy yet very classic well written.

I felt how much he'd been longing for warm time with the family that hard work always kept him away of that...and then being sick..

I felt how hard for his family to accept him..how they can't stand look at him and felt sorry for them..it's human nature after all..

I felt how this "metamorphosis" progress even made him a bit better from inside, As when he learn how to taste the music -while he mention he didn't like it before- ...how it made him feel more responsible for his family, but can't do a thing now...

I felt very sad for the family..and of course more sorry for him...Samsa / Kafka..

And the rating is up from 3.5 to 4 just because Kafka's admitting -at the extra in this edition- that:

I am now reading The Metamorphosis at jome and find it bad.
"from The Diaries of Franz Kafka. Oct.20, 1913

Well,first read for me I felt it can be better,although I still felt very sad..but I also hate how was the ending at all,the last 4 or 5 pages after the death,not the death itself I get it but it really can be better..well,his admitting that at his diaries made my rating higher.

Great antipathy to "Metamorphosis." Unreadable ending.
Imperfect almost to the foundation. It would have turned out much better if I had not been interrupted at the time by the business trip.
"from The Diaries of Franz Kafka. Jan.19, 1914

Well,Rest in Peace Kafka, your work has been felt by millions of people..
May God Bless your soul.


Mohammed Arabey
From May 31 2014
To June 13 2014

PS : Since I've read a 200 pages edition of a 50 pages only novella, I Know how it feels to read long rant about a novel, It's Kinda boring.. So I've tried to make my review short...but couldn't :) sorry

[BookHunter M ُH َM َD · Rating 4 out of 5]

يقال ان جاذبية الفراش في الصباح تكون عشرة أضعاف الجاذبية الأرضية. فسواء كنت طالبا أو عاملا أو حتي ربة منزل فلسوف تفعل كل ما تستطيع لتأجيل لحظة مغادرة الفراش صباحا سيما و ان وجدت مفاجأة غير سارة تتمثل في كونك ترقد على ظهرك و ترفص قوائمك الكثيرة المتعلقة في الهواء و ايقنت انك تحولت إلى حشرة عملاقة لها وعيك الإنساني و لكن بمظهرها المنفر للآخرين.



يقول العقاد عن الوظيفة أنها عبودية القرن العشرين و قد كان جريجور بالفعل عبدا للوظيفة رغم أنفه. اضطرته الظروف و هو المستشعر للفنون الحالم بالموسيقى أن يعمل في التجارة ليعول عائلته التي يلتصق ربها بالأريكه و تعاني عميدتها من المرض العضال بينما تحلم صغيرتها بالتحليق في أجواء السعادة و المرح. لم يجد مفر من أن يتدرع بالحمل فوق ظهره كالخنفسه ضاربا بقوائمه الأرض ليبيع الوهم للأخرين و يشتري رفاهية أسرته و لكنه في وعيه الحقيقي و عقله الباطن يكتشف أنه يبيع نفسه بالفعل فيتحول إلى هذا المسخ اللعين لتتطابق الصورة مع المعنى في تناغم نبهنا إليه العبقري كافكا قبل الثورة البلشفية بعدة سنوات و قبل اليوم بأكثر من مائة عام



إذا كانت البدايات تعيسه فالنهايات بالضرورة ليست سعيدة. و في عالم غير سوي و غير عادل و لا منصف نصطدم دائما بالحقيقة عقب كل تمرد و يكون جزاء جريجور هو تنكر الجميع له شيئا فشيئا حتى تغيب لذة الحياة تمهيدا لغياب الحياة نفسها.

[Luís · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 1915, this novel defied time and had not aged a bit. The narration is slow, oppressive, and repetitive, supporting the surreal dimension of Gregor's condition. The immobility to which he has forced nails us to the ground. Everything occurs behind closed doors in his room, and the feeling of suffocation is intense.
The major metamorphosis is not of Gregor but the Samsa family in the face of their son and brother's degraded state. Their alienation does not surprise anyone at what happens to Gregor. The rejection reaction is primarily due to the changes in their own lives.
In a simple and accessible language, with a touch of irony, this story opens several doors for reflection on Kafkaesque themes, including dependence, work, a ruthless world, social relationships, family, and the meaning of life.

[Piyangie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Metamorphosis by Kafka is a complex work that explores multiple themes. I read it, however, as a work that exposes an ugly and painful side of society, where its members are generally cast aside, neglected, degraded, and ultimately destroyed when they have ceased to be of use. In the small societal unit of a family, there is no exception. The people we love, adore, and respect can become hateful and loathsome to us with changed circumstances.

In the story, Gregor Samsa suddenly finds himself transformed into an insect. In his human life, he had been the sole provider for his parents and sister. So, he had been well loved and respected. However, this unexpected misfortune that befalls him draws a barricade between him and his family. The story deals with the sufferings and indignation that both sides endure as a result. Kafka has deliberately chosen this surreal story to convey his message more powerfully. It is a painful reminder for us of how we can become socially alienated and a castoff once we are of no use or importance to society. It also shows how fragile and inadequate our status is in society, that it can sorely change with circumstances.

With this, Kafka returns to his famous themes of isolation and the absurdity of life. He questions the purpose of our existence, what its meaning is. Why do we drag through this journey called life, if its purpose is that we'd be used and then be cast off as a nonentity? Can we live for ourselves, all alone, alienated from society? Gregor's ultimate death questions whether we can survive such alienation. Gregor's metamorphosis also raises the question of identity. It looks like our social identity is a fleeting one, depending on what we can do for others.

The Metamorphosis, to some extent, can be read as autobiographical. In the story, Gregor becomes insignificant in his father's eyes when his human form is changed to an insect. Kafka is said to have received the same treatment from his overbearing father. They had a strained relationship. Kafka always felt that he was inadequate and insignificant in his father's eyes. Did he really think his father saw him as insignificant as an insect?

It was a good read. The story is both humorous and tragic. The psychological portrayal of the characters was particularly interesting. Kafka's stories are quite out of the ordinary. And The Metamorphosis is a good example for that.

More of my reviews can be found at http://piyangiejay.com/

[Carlos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Recuerdo que no entendí nada cuando lo leí por primera vez hace muchos años, cuando estaba en secundaria. Lo leí otra vez, luego de leer una biografía de Kafka y ahora lo entiendo todo. ¡Ahora puedo decir con propiedad que esto es una obra de arte! Este es un buen ejemplo de la vida de Kafka, como era la relación con su familia, especialmente la relación con su padre. Él nunca recibió ningún apoyo de su familia, sólo de su hermana, y eso se ve reflejado en este libro. Lástima que no se entiendan tanto sus libros porque creo que de alguna manera, Kafka no es tan valorado como se merece.
Sencillamente genial. Ahora que lo volví a leer, lo amé.

[Sean Barrs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surreal, inexplicable and unusual, Kafka explores the futility of human existence. Or does he?

Gregor Sansa is turned into a bug and through the process he realises just how insignificant he is, how insignificant we all, ultimately, are in the greater scheme of things. He was his family’s backbone, holding them up, supporting them financially whist they took the easy path. However, when that backbone is removed the unit adapts; it carries on and finds new means of survival. The most important member of the family is swept aside, forgotten about and life continues as it always must. I guess he wasn’t that important after all.

There are so many designs that can be put onto this story, so many interpretations. And this is what Kafka does so well. He leaves you with absolutely nothing, no answers or explanations, only a simple case of this happened and it ended like this. We as readers look for meaning within the narrative because that is how narrative traditionally works. There has to be a point to it all, right? But perhaps that is the point: there is no point. Perhaps by looking too hard we miss what Kafka is trying to say, or not say, with his passive writing.

There are certainly elements of alienation in here, even in the recollections Gregor has before he was turned into a bug. As per the modernist mode, he was isolated from his peers and the world at large. Powerlessness is also another theme that runs through the story. Gregor’s family, and Gregor, cannot stop what is happening. They just have to go on with it and hope to make it through to the other side. A suggestion that no matter how hard we work in life, how much love or success we appear to have, we can be struck down at any moment. Forced into a situation we cannot control, we perish. Such is life.

It would be easy to talk about elements of Kafka’s own biography here, and consider the work’s relevance to events that would eventually happen later in the century, but I think that would be to put too much of a design on the book. His personal feelings about life obviously helped to propel much of his writing. He wrote many strange stories, though Metamorphosis is the most renowned of his work. Utterly compelling, yet bewildering, this isn’t a story that will ever leave the reader. It’s haunting and told with realistic mundanity.

“One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that in his bed he had been changed into a monstrous bug…”

[Ahmad Ebaid · Rating 4 out of 5]

He is fool by spending his life to them; nobody would care if he became an ugly Metamorphosis!!

إنه أحمق عندما ينفق حياته على أحد؛ فلن يهتموا به أبداً عندما يصبح مسخاً !!

ولأقولها صريحة، فكل علاقة ينقصها التكافؤ، ستتآكل بالتقادم حتما. سواء كانت الرابطة حب أم صداقة، فمصيرها الزوال بتلاشي احتياجهم لك ولخدماتك. الحب والارتباط هي مجرد مشاعر تعكس رغبات واحتياجات دفينة قد لا نعي بكينونتها بداخلنا.. يعطي الناس معاني مخادعة لاحتياجاتهم المخجلة!.
ولتتعظ ببطل الرواية "جريجور سامسا"، الذي ظل فردا من العائلة حتى أصابه العجز وانقطع عن العمل والكسب، فأصبح بعدها مسخا كالحشرة، وأصبح وجوده مزعجا مقززا..
ربما شعرت الأخت بالمسؤولية والالتزام نحوه؛ "فالعِشرة لا تهون إلا على أولاد الحرام"، ولكن إلى متى؟ إلى متى ستجبر نفسها على خدمته، رغم تقززها ورغم "قلة حيلته"؟
صديقي، إلى متى ستقبل ببناء علاقتك بهم على أساس شفقتهم وبعض مشاعر الالتزام المؤقتة؟!..
صديقي، أنا لا أرتضي لك مثل هذه العلاقة البائسة، فلا ترتضيها أنت لنفسك. ولنتعظ جميعنا من وقائع المسخ "جريجور سامسا"..

Let's declare it directly honestly; that each relationship lacks of equality, would be definitely eroded as time goes by. Whether the bound was LOVE or FRIENDSHIP, its destiny would be a demise as they don't need you anymore. LOVE and ENGAGEMENT are merely feelings that reflect hidden needs and desires we might don't aware of its existence inside us.
People give their impressive needs a trickery terms.

Take a lesson from novel's main character "Gregor Samsa". he was part of the family until he is poor and incapable of working and earning, therefore he became a metamorphosis like a beetle, which is annoying to be exist with them.

May be his sister took responsibility and commitment to him, as they say "Intimacy doesn't be ignored except by sons of Prostitution". but how long? for how long she will force herself to serve him, despite she is disgusted of him and of his deficiency?!!.

My friend, how long will you accept building your relationship with them on their sympathy and kindness, and on their temporary feel of commitment?
My friend, I don't satisfy with such a poor relationship for you, so please, don't be okay with that for yourself.
and let's get a moral of Chronicles of "Gregor Samsa".