Metamorphosis
(Franz Kafka)
Metamorphosis, a short story by Franz Kafka, develops a theme that is fundamental in the author's all works (written in German). It is the relation between an individual and the surrounding world which is usually portrayed as hermetic institution of higher instance, but in Metamorphosis it is focused within the space of an anonymous (this is characteristically Kafkesque) family. The author poses such questions as, What is an individual? How can an individual beesteemed andvalued within an indifferent or even hostile world? And although there are no straight and easy answers, the terrifyingconclusion that one is led to isthat the individual has absolutely no value. A human existence has significance provided it results incalculable profits for the government institutions. But these institutions can at any moment decide to eliminate a given individualwithout taking trouble togive any explanations. This condemns human existence to degradation and, finally, destruction. A human being is in fact an unnecessary, hideous insect. The protagonist of Metamorphosis wakes up one ordinary and, as always, blank morning and he discovers that he has been transformed into an insect. The course of events that follow is permeated with intensified absurd and unimaginable grotesque. It turns out that the protagonist's family simply come to terms with this inexplicable transformation. Life goes on as if nothing extraordinary happened until it is revealed that one just cannot live with an enormous insect in one's house. The individual being has been shamed. Now he is a superfluous, unnecessary object that should be condemned. It brings shame to the whole family: what will the neighbours say? The individual ceases to be a subject and becomes an object of aggression. He must be destroyed and eliminated...crushedunder one's feet like an insect.
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