Dehumanization and Disability: Kafka’s Metamorphosis

Many writers use absurd storytelling to convey a message or help readers derive meaning from their work in a format that is fun to read or watch, and on face value, most might not even catch the meaning on first viewing. This is especially true of absurd fiction author Franz Kafka, whose stories may seem ridiculous or fantastical at face value, but behind all the absurdity is meaning and thoughtfulness crafted into many of them. What would the absurdist fiction author say about modern social epidemics, and can it be figured out based on their stories, interviews, and academic journals? The answer is yes, at least for the homeless epidemic, based on some of his writings that focus on feelings of isolation and not being able to provide, and his own life experience. Franz Kafka would have written stories about the current homeless and poverty epidemic in America today, and his story, Metamorphosis, already has themes and symbolism that can be translated into today's world.

 Kafka was born on July 3rd, 1883, in Prague, Czechia, where he grew up (Steinhauer, 1983). Kafka attended a German University for a law degree, and afterwards he worked for government-sponsored workers' insurance for a decade until he contracted severe tuberculosis and retired on a pension (Steinhauer, 1983). Kafka eventually formed a lasting friendship with the novelist Max Brod, who became his mentor figure (Steinhauer, 1983). However, before death, Kafka wished to have his unpublished work destroyed, which Max disregarded (Steinhauer, 1983). Kafka sadly passed away at the young age of 40 years old on June 3rd, 1924, in poverty and the care of his partner Dora Diamant, but before his passing in 1915, he was awarded the Fontane Prize for his story “The Stoker” (Steinhauer, 1983). Many of his stories deal with broad themes such as despair and hope, Max Broad said as such himself and is quoted as saying, "is a mixture of nine elements of despair and one of hope" (Steinhauer, 1983).

Kafka already has a story whose symbolism and meaning can be interpreted as a story about isolation, loneliness, and the lack of being able to provide for oneself or others; the story is Metamorphosis. Metamorphosis, published in 1915, follows the story of Gregor Samsa, a traveling salesman who wakes up to find himself turned into a bug, and can no longer provide for his family. On face value it is just an absurd story that is the genre anyway absurd fiction, but if you look layers deeper and into the actually story it is not a man turned into a bug but rather a man who is sick, injured, mentally unwell, or however you percieve it, and how society views people unable to work as a pest or in this case an insect. There is no better example than the line in the story where Gregor’s sister says, “We can’t carry on like this. Maybe you can’t see it, but I can. I don’t want to call this monster my brother; all I can say is, we have to try and get rid of it. We’ve done all that’s humanly possible to look after it and be patient, I don’t think anyone could accuse us of doing anything wrong.” (Kafka, Ch. III). This quote in the last chapter shows how much the family has dehumanized Gregor and his sister no longer views Gregor as a brother but rather an “it” and a “monster” and if you read the story not as Gregor turning into an insect but rather a person with mental or physical ailment keeping them from being productive then it takes a realistically dark turn about how your worth as a person and how many view you as a person is a in part based off how much you make an your ability to work.

Kafka would sympathize with people who are struggling with an illness, whether physical or mental, for those who are struggling and not able to afford day-to-day life. Kafka’s struggle with Tuberculosis is very similar to the theme of Metamorphosis. Kafka did not realize it at the time of writing this story that he would eventually develop what was consider in that era a terminal illness and needing the care of his loved ones around him, thankfully for Kafka there is no evidence to suggest that his partner Dora was growing discontent with having to care for him, but that is not the case for many people out there who might not have a terminal illness but rather a mental illness that makes day to day life a struggle for them and Kafka would of understood the struggle that entails and imagine if Kafka was alive today and had to go through the U.S healthcare system. There are people in the U.S. who do not have someone like Dora on whom they can rely. Kafka knows this because his story of Metamorphosis delves into themes of isolation, feeling a burden. The ending of the story is Gregor overhearing his sister saying they have to get rid of him, which causes him to die of depression alone in his room, and Gregor thought to himself, “He thought back of his family with emotion and love. If it were possible, he felt that he must go away even more strongly than his sister.” ( Kafka, Ch. III). If Kafka were alive today, he would write stories and have a lot of opinions about the homeless and poverty crisis in America today, and potentially the healthcare system's failure. This is based on the themes of his story, Metamorphosis, and the end of his own life, where he was quite sick and relied on the assistance of others. Metamorphosis is not just an absurd story of a man turning into an insect one day, but rather a story of a man who is disabled and can no longer be seen as anything but a pest and something we need to get rid of, Kafka would agree that the homeless are not a pest to be rid of but rather a group of people who did not get the help when they needed it most. Gregor could of had crippling depression in the story rather than a physical ailment and his family did not understand it and he was ostracized, a realistic but dark interpretation. The view of a person based on how much or if they can work has been around forever.

References

Corngold, S. (1988). The Metamorphosis: Metamorphosis of the Metaphor. In Franz Kafka: The Necessity of Form (pp. 47–89). Cornell University Press. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7591/j.ctt207g62q.9

Kafka, F. (n.d.). Metamorphosis. The Project Gutenberg eBook of Metamorphosis, by Franz  Kafka. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/5200/5200-h/5200-h.htm 

Steinhauer, H. (1983). Franz Kafka: A World Built on a Lie. The Antioch Review, 41(4),

390–408. https://doi.org/10.2307/4611280

Straus, N. P. (1989). Transforming Franz Kafka’s “Metamorphosis.” Signs, 14(3), 651–667. 

http://www.jstor.org/stable/3174406