Barbara’s Reviews > The Metamorphosis & Other Stories > Status Update

Josephine the Singer, or the Mousefolk:

Hard to read without picturing the American Tail movies. (lol)

More seriously: One of my favorites of the stories in this collection. It's a story of a misunderstood, unappreciated artist told from the perspective of the misunderstanding, unappreciative audience. Not hard to think of what Kafka's inspiration likely was.

It's really hard to not imagine the American Tail movies reading "Josephine the Singer, or the Mousefolk"

First Sorrow: This one I liked. To me it seems to be about growing up and realizing you want more from life, while also realizing you might never be satisfied.

A Little Woman: Like with "Rejection" in the Meditations section, eye rolling. Standard misogyny exacerbated by whatever Kafka had going on mentally.

So like with "A Country Doctor", this section is just named for one story within it ("A Hunger Artist" in this case). I didn't see any connection between the stories within the section named for "A Country Doctor", so who knows if I'll see one here.

In the Penal Colony:

I liked this one a lot! I interpret it as being about traditions and society at large, and how even those who happily uphold an oppressive system may eventually be crushed by it.

A Report to an Academy:

This one was an interesting read too, I have a couple different interpretations.

Both "A Country Doctor" and "A Dream" feel like anxiety dreams I've had before

The Metamorphosis:

There's a lot of ways to interpret the meaning behind this one, and I think approaching it with different meanings in mind makes it a slightly different reading experience each time.