Reviews with content warning for Suicide - La Métamorphose

Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

La Métamorphose by Franz Kafka

19 reviews

buzzinfly's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.75

A fairly conceptually challenging novella from Kafka. 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

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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

choukou's review against another edition

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dark sad

Flaws of characters a main focus? No

Content Warnings

liviamello's review against another edition

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dark fast-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

kers_tin's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

Content Warnings

perth_is's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad fast-paced

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

3.75

Content Warnings

0juliamar0's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

Content Warnings

valentine_c's review against another edition

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dark reflective sad slow-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? It's complicated

3.5

Content Warnings

herewegoagain's review against another edition

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dark reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

thevampiremars's review against another edition

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dark reflective sad fast-paced

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

3.5

A lot of these stories didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me, and I don’t know if that’s due to the writing style or poor translation. Maybe it’s just the summer humidity making my brain foggy. Interpreting Kafka’s writing feels like deciphering a riddle, and I mean that as both criticism and praise.

Contemplation (1913) – 4.5☆

A beautifully written series of vignettes romanticising the mundane. It’s more like a collection of poems than a sequence of chapters; there’s no narrative structure or throughline connecting each part. It serves as an enticing introduction to Kafka’s writing, like an instrumental opening track.

The Judgement: A Story for F (1913) – 3.5☆

This one felt incomplete, like a chapter from a longer story. I felt I was lacking context. I did a little research and it seems the German version contained some double meanings that got lost in translation, thereby obscuring the metaphor. Still, I didn’t dislike it, and I can appreciate what Kafka was going for.

The Stoker: A Fragment (1913) – 2.5☆

Ironically, this story actually was intended to be the first chapter in a novel, but it didn’t leave me wanting more like The Judgement did. If I had to sum up The Stoker in one word it would be “dull.” I just didn’t care.

Metamorphosis (1915) – 4.0☆

The main event, my reason for buying this book. I liked it and I can definitely see why it’s considered a classic, but I just can’t shake the feeling that I’m missing something.

It strikes me as an allegory for disability. Gregor used to be the breadwinner of the household, and now that he can’t work he’s seen as a burden. His family is ashamed of him, and though they claim to “tolerate” his presence, they do everything they can to hide him away and they avoid him as much as possible. Further, he has become inhuman. He’s a monstrosity, and by the end of the story his mere existence is taken as evidence that he is a threat, and therefore as justification for fatal neglect.

Once again I did some research, and apparently there are many differing interpretations of Gregor’s sorry state. I even saw one theory that

the title actually refers to Grete’s maturation from a carefree girl to a responsible young woman. That would explain the odd shift in focus at the end of the story, but I’m not sure that’s the final piece of the puzzle I was looking for.

It’s a thought-provoking tale, I’ll say that much! There’s a lot to chew on. It’s a fascinating blend of realism and fantasy with a surprising amount of depth.

In the Penal Colony (1919) – 2.5☆

Another dull story.

The torture machine was convoluted and ridiculous so it didn’t have whatever horrifying and/or erotic effect Kafka was going for. I think he was trying to make a point about the criminal justice system, about how those in power are so perversely obsessed with punishment that it doesn’t matter to them whether or not their actions actually constitute any kind of “justice.”

I’d honestly recommend watching the 1985 Doctor Who serial Vengeance on Varos instead of reading this – it plays with a lot of the same ideas, plus more.

A Country Doctor: Short Prose for My Father (1920) – 3.5☆

More poetic vignettes à la Contemplation, with higher highs and lower lows. It’s difficult to rate these collectively. My favourites were definitely Jackals and Arabs, an intriguing story commenting on colonialism and the self-appointed messianic role of Europeans, and A Report to an Academy, which was really poignant in its frank discussion of assimilation as a survival strategy. Some of the other stories were forgettable, impenetrable, sometimes feeling stubbornly pointless (though perhaps that pointlessness was the point, I don’t know). Overall, I think there’s more good than bad in this collection of short prose.

The Hunger-Artist: Four Stories (1924) – 3.5☆

Though listed as “Four Stories” I will review them together because they were grouped together. First Sorrow was simple but effective. My only real complaint is that maybe it’s a little too short; it would have been nice to see more of the trapeze artist’s craft before introducing the problem of travel and the rest of the narrative after that. A Little Woman reminded me of an ex. A Hunger-Artist was an evocative and sympathetic look at performers relying on attention almost literally as a means of sustenance. Josefine, the Singer, or The Mouse People struggled to hold my attention.

Aeroplanes in Brescia (1909) – 3.0☆

A quaint historical snapshot. The romantic descriptions of the little planes in flight makes me think of Porco Rosso even though that’s set a couple of decades later.

Great Noise (1912) – 3.0☆

It doesn’t have much to say and I don’t have much to say about it. It’s only half a page long, though, so it’s not like it overstays its welcome.

The Coal-Scuttle Rider (1921) – 3.5☆

A simple but effective tale of class conflict, of the haves leaving the have-nots to die preventable deaths if they cannot pay for what they need.

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