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Kafka "Metamorphosis"
I'm by no means an academic and honestly have probably read 3 books since leaving college. I've just read a collection of Kafka's stories, and more specifically have been thinking about "The Metamorphosis".
Most people seem to jump to the conclusion about depression or some other ailment being the allegory on display. I think I have a little different take. I think that his transformation into a bug is him being treated as some lowly creature by everyone around him. His work only cares about him if he's on time making them money. His parents only care about him because he was putting a roof over their head and paying his father's debts. Even now as his sister is maturing, she no longer cares for him and also sees him as a burden.
Certainly, the depression is the side effect of this and that is an element of the book. Being locked away in your room feeling more and more alienated, not eating, etc. However I feel like the true meaning is the absurdness and alienation that being used gives you. Being truly no more than a bug.
Also this is what was printed on the back of my book. I feel like this is so far off base it's hilarious and I have no clue why this is the interpretation they are trying to sell the book with:
"Kafka's survey of the insectile situation of young Jews in in- ner Bohemia can hardly be im- proved upon: 'With their pos- terior legs they were still glued to their father's Jewishness and with their wavering an- terior legs they found no new ground.' There is a sense in which Kafka's Jewish question ("What have I in common with Jews?') has become every- body's question, Jewish alien- ation the template for all our doubts. What is Muslimness? What is femaleness? What is Polishness? These days we all find our anterior legs flailing before us. We're all insects, all Ungeziefer, now." -Zadie Smith
#entertainment
source
I'm by no means an academic and honestly have probably read 3 books since leaving college. I've just read a collection of Kafka's stories, and more specifically have been thinking about "The Metamorphosis".
Most people seem to jump to the conclusion about depression or some other ailment being the allegory on display. I think I have a little different take. I think that his transformation into a bug is him being treated as some lowly creature by everyone around him. His work only cares about him if he's on time making them money. His parents only care about him because he was putting a roof over their head and paying his father's debts. Even now as his sister is maturing, she no longer cares for him and also sees him as a burden.
Certainly, the depression is the side effect of this and that is an element of the book. Being locked away in your room feeling more and more alienated, not eating, etc. However I feel like the true meaning is the absurdness and alienation that being used gives you. Being truly no more than a bug.
Also this is what was printed on the back of my book. I feel like this is so far off base it's hilarious and I have no clue why this is the interpretation they are trying to sell the book with:
"Kafka's survey of the insectile situation of young Jews in in- ner Bohemia can hardly be im- proved upon: 'With their pos- terior legs they were still glued to their father's Jewishness and with their wavering an- terior legs they found no new ground.' There is a sense in which Kafka's Jewish question ("What have I in common with Jews?') has become every- body's question, Jewish alien- ation the template for all our doubts. What is Muslimness? What is femaleness? What is Polishness? These days we all find our anterior legs flailing before us. We're all insects, all Ungeziefer, now." -Zadie Smith
#entertainment
source
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