It's a lovely read.. Worth ur money. Anisa Maity Certified Buyer , Haldia. The victimisation of a modern man by his parasitic family is the theme. Absurdity of existence which is determined by the contribution one makes to the society is dealt with in detail. Every modern man can identify himself with Gregor Samsa. The use of autobiographical elements and symbols like apple, which stands for the beginning of exile or suffering make the narrative beautiful.
The novella has a unique flavour. Well, this book was meant to give you horrors and it work Flipkart Customer Certified Buyer , Gwalior. The book is in good condition, looked decent, got it at 67 rupees Sanjoy Saha Certified Buyer , Patulia. Questions and Answers. Q: how many page does it have.
A: exactly pages including intro, preface. Abhijith V. Report Abuse. Q: What we learn from this story? A: from the story you will learn to accept any sudden change in your life. In short you will learn self acceptance. Q: is this an unabridged version? Surabhi Verma. Q: Abridged or unabridged? Q: How many stories does it contain?
A: Only one. Interestingly, the number three plays a repeated role: three parts to the story, three family members, three servants, three bearded lodgers It's debatable what this means, but I tend to think Kafka was referencing the number three's popularity in folk and fairy tales three wishes, three brothers, three billy goats Gruff, etc.
But Kafka, who was Jewish, did use some religious and even Christian symbols. Note the symbolic apple and the crucifixion imagery here: An apple thrown without much force glanced against Gregor's back and slid off without doing any harm. Another one however, immediately following it, hit squarely and lodged in his back; Gregor wanted to drag himself away, as if he could remove the surprising, the incredible pain by changing his position; but he felt as if nailed to the spot and spread himself out, all his senses in confusion.
My main thought after finishing this is that the family relationships being dissected here are incredibly sad, and disturbing. In an essay on The Metamorphosis , Vladimir Nabokov stated that "Gregor is a human being in an insect's disguise; his family are insects disguised as people. They betray him repeatedly, and Gregor always accepts it meekly and even makes excuses to himself for their mistreatment of him. His father stashing away Gregor's wages while Gregor was working at a horrific job to pay off the father's bankruptcy, was awful to read about, and Gregor simply rationalizes it.
It's particularly chilling how in the end they all brush off view spoiler [Gregor's death and cheerfully move on, even blossom hatch from their cocoons, after he's gone hide spoiler ]. Some of the German dialogue and expressions don't translate well into English.
For example, Gregor's boss is called "Herr Prokurist" -- literally, Mr. Manager which was the name used for him in one translation I looked at , but it sounds very lame in English. So I appreciated the additional level of authenticity and even insight that reading parts of this in the original German gave to me. The more I think about this and pick it apart, the more impressed I am with it. There are so many layers to this story. I started out with 3 stars based on my college memories of reading this, upped it to 4 stars when I finished it the other day, and, after spending more time analyzing it for this review, am finally winding up with 5.
I highly recommend taking a look at Vladimir Nabokov's lecture and notes on The Metamorphosis , here at the Kafka Project website. Initial post: I didn't care for this when I studied it in college but I'm hoping it will grow on me this time. So my intention is to try to work through this novella in German.
Wish me luck! See above. View all 47 comments. Jun 24, Lisa rated it it was amazing Shelves: favorites. One morning a young man woke up and decided he didn't want to leave his room. He felt at odds with the world and wished he could opt out of his busy life. He knew he was unlikely to get away with skipping school, so he thought about how to find a perfect excuse.
His eyes fell upon the half-read copy of Kafka's Metamorphosis he had left beside his bed, and was pleased. When his stressed mum banged on the bedroom door and yelled that it was time for breakfast, shower and school, he answered: "I ca One morning a young man woke up and decided he didn't want to leave his room. When his stressed mum banged on the bedroom door and yelled that it was time for breakfast, shower and school, he answered: "I can't!
I mean my legs and legs! Vermin or not, he would socialise and be part of the family. And he would go to school. We care about people here in Sweden, no matter what their personal condition is. If you have a minor insectification problem, so be it. I will write and explain to your teacher that you need certain special education tools, and we can find you a hobby that fits your ability as well.
They will bully me. There is a perfectly functional anti-bullying programme at your school, and you have been working on it yourself! I feel weak! Fresh air is just the right environment for insects! What kind of bug are you anyway?
Shall I go and get one of those nature books, so you can check for yourself? Haven't you got a job to go to? I'll wait here with an action plan until you open your door and come out! I stick by my children, whatever mess they have gotten themselves into! It is impossible to be an isolated, grumpy, neglected insect these days, with all those over-active parents and student care teams buzzing around like annoying flies!
In the evening, he finished reading Kafka. The story could be true. View all 57 comments. Any day you wake up as a cockroach is a shit day. View all 21 comments. 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. However, when that backbone is removed the unit adapts; it carries on and finds new means of survival.
The most important me Surreal, inexplicable and unusual, Kafka explores the futility of human existence. The most important member of the family is swept aside, forgotten about and life continues as it always must.
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. 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. 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. View all 9 comments. Rather than waving his legs and antennae in the air, screaming, "Omigod! His family, by way of contrast, are a selfish, unpleasant bunch and mer "I am constantly trying to communicate something incommunicable.
His family, by way of contrast, are a selfish, unpleasant bunch and merely see Gregor as vermin. It has oft been said that angsty Kafka might well have been channelling his own real-life feelings of worthlessness i. That being so, this poignant story is ostensibly one of alienation and guilt.
His writing is a little laboured at times, but this might have more to do with my reading of a translation, rather than his original. Overall, from its genius premise to its allegorical ending, Metamorphosis is an entertaining, pity-inducing, thought-provoking read. Despite its dark exoskeleton, this anthro-podcast has a soft abdomen and is a whole lot of fun!
View all 46 comments. 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 I use quotes here because I did not so much come out as stop tip-toeing around this aspect of my life.
I can return home for a visit, provided I travel alone and never speak of my personal life, otherwise I am not invited. It begins with the image of a locked door. Manager…the young man has nothing in his head except business. What is wrong with you?
But being inside the locked room, you know these answers will destroy your family relationship. Not in optimism—is he communicating with us?
Something they do not want shared with third parties. Something they would rather not think about themselves. 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.
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? 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.
I have my own sister who I imagine very much views me as a hideous bug; a blight on the family. On the phone, I occasionally push boundaries. So far the reaction has not changed. Or maybe I do it for me.
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. 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. This occurs when queer individuals begin to view themselves as abhorrent because that is how others view them. This internalized homophobia climaxes, as it often does for queer persons, in death. Even Mr. 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. 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. Furthermore, to once again cement religion as an issue, Mr.
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. 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. 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. 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? 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. 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.
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. 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. 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? Maybe, probably not.
Furthermore, the art of masterpieces is often found in their ability to warrant many interpretations. As it turns out, there are some clues which may readily validate a queer interpretation. It is true that Kafka never married, despite finding himself engaged to a number of attractive, eligible women. 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.
The methodology seeming to be that once you try heterosexuality you will like it. If you thought of yourself as a crawling, creeping cockroach, what extremes would you go to for a cure?
This detail is hardly revealing, except that The Metamorphosis possibly alludes to porn. 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. Of course there are other interpretations. This is not a fault of the novel, but rather one of its touchstone achievements. 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.
View all 14 comments. So, this business man wakes up one morning to discover that he has somehow mysteriously morphed into a disgusting, putrid, orangey cockroach. No, this isn't Donald Trump's autobiography Kafka's Metamorphosis played as much to my subconscious anxieties as it did to my conscious ones, like those nightmares most of us have about our teeth falling out, or our home falling apart.
Maybe I liked it because it can be exhilarating to face one's fears, like skydiving, or bungee jumping, or marriage? View all 35 comments. Aug 07, James rated it really liked it Shelves: 1-fiction. I think most people are familiar with the premise of this book, and rather than do a normal review, I thought maybe I'd question how on earth Kafka came up with this one? It was such a great way to tell the story and teach a lesson The answer is A: Grete is playing the violin and Gregor wants to tell her how beautiful it sounds.
The Metamorphosis , written by Franz Kafka is a prime example of magic realism. Magic realism is a fictional technique that combines fantasy with raw, physical or social reality in a search for truth beyond that available from the surface of everyday life. Why does Gregor finally decide to reveal himself to the chief clerk and his parents? He is desperate to stop the chief clerk from leaving and, thus, fire him.
He wants to see his family's reaction: if they will be there for him even though he can no longer provide for the family. Where does Gregor feel most comfortable? In his bed. On his back. In the parlor. Under the sofa. Kafka's Metamorphosis is a magical realist, allegorical tale that touches on the theme most central to us all—that of struggling to find and express one's own identity in a world of ever-present, all-consuming obligations. Up until his metamorphosis, Gregor was the sole breadwinner for the family , which consisted of his parents, his sister, and himself.
Gregor's father was both demanding and demeaning, expecting Gregor to pay off his debts and support the family , even though it is traditionally the father's role to be the provider. One last translation problem in the story is the title itself. As a title for this rich, complex story, it strikes me as the most luminous, suggestive choice.
Reprinted with permission of the publisher, W. More: Books. Enter your e-mail address.
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