Reviews with content warning for Suicide - The Metamorphosis

Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

20 reviews

nawaz's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.0

Content Warnings

buzzinfly's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

A fairly conceptually challenging novella from Kafka, though it's one of his shorter and easier reads. Ha.

The story famously opens up with our protagonist, Gregor Samsa, waking up from "troubled dreams" to discover that he has transformed into a "kind of giant bug" or "monstrous vermin."
This creates an image of something like a beetle, centipede, or cockroach in the reader's mind.

Samsa's first thought, unlike I would have thought, was not how to adapt to his transformation or how to somehow reverse it, but how he is going to manage to get to his work, which, implied by the narrator, Samsa hates. Further into the book, it is also revealed that his father went bankrupt before the events of the story, and Gregor took the role of the breadwinner to support his parents and teenage sister Grete.

After contemplating on his current situation for several hours, Gregor's boss comes to the house in person to either scold Samsa, or - the less likely option - simply to see if he was okay. After panicking, Gregor forces himself out of bed, and uses his teeth to unlock the door. His new appearance surprises his family and boss,

though instead of showing sympathy, his family gradually begin to ungratefully complain that he is a burden, despite the fact that Gregor in fact provided the family with food and a roof under their heads;

he was clearly

struggling with this pressure already,

as implied by the

flashbacks and reminiscing

at the start of the book.

The family begins to rent out rooms in their house to earn more money, and after the charlady neglects to close Gregor's door,

(nobody ever goes in there anymore, and Gregor had been surviving on miniscule amounts of rotten food given to him by his sweet younger sister) Gregor travels to the room where his family are watching Grete play violin. The tenants catch sight of Gregor, and immediately leave, complaining that the house is unsanitary and not fit for them to stay in.

This causes Grete to

lose her patience, and tell her parents to get rid of "it" or they will all be "ruined."

Gregor,

realising he is not wanted, returns to his room

and

commits suicide by starving himself;

he is

dead when the charlady enters his room the next day.

The family

travels to the countryside

after

disposing of Gregor's corpse, and think about moving to a smaller apartment.

The book ends on a

sardonic note, with Mr and Mrs Samsa noticing that Grete has grown into a beautiful young woman, and they must find her a husband.

And what an end to the book that was. Was Gregor's metamorphosis literal, or was it something to be understood much deeper? Was it all a metaphor for work, stress, finance, or something else? Despite the novella's message being quite a mystery, Gregor's burdens and struggles seem to be pretty relatable to most readers.

Content Warnings

sperpe's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Even though I wasn't captivated by the premise of the novel, once the allegory and symbolism became clearer, the story itself became way more captivating. The novel perfectly represents the lack of acceptance of what we consider different from us and the loneliness forced upon the person left behind, alone, closed in a room as a devious beast. Right from the beginning, it shows how the family and the rest of the society portrayed in the story pressure our protagonist to be part of an indistinct mass of workers, stripped of their own identity from their employer and forced to obey the rules for the sake of the family, rather than accept him for the person he turned into. Even though I didn't particularly enjoy the writing style or the imagery used in the novel, I cannot notice how its theme is unfortunately still very relevant to our contemporary society, drenched in people who want to be right and just refuse to listen and accept other people's truth. Even if a big part of our Western society has luckily moved forward, allowing more freedom of expression and learning to celebrate uniqueness, the repression of people's identity to conform to hetero-cis patriarchal standards still happens, especially for young people, leading them to an ending like the one portrayed in the story.

Content Warnings