Six legs or Two?
In 1915 Franz Kafka wrote a sureal short Novella entitled “The Metamorphosis”. The mere fact that you are currently checking out a literature blog suggests that this is not news to you. In this story Gregor Samsa wakes one morning and finds that he has been transformed into the likeness of a “giant insect”. His legs extend over the side of his bed, and he is a substantial beast. Kafka offers no explanation as to why this happened, so it’s not a sci-fi story. Nothing good comes of this transformation, so it isn’t Fantasy literature.
No, this is a deeply veiled cultural satire. Gregor is a travelling salesman, firmly embedded with the waning middle-class. The fact that he has become an insect is horrifying to Gregor’s family, not due to the terrible ramifications this has for Gregor, but for what this could mean to their position in society, should word get out.
What I find most interesting in this story is the corelation between Gregor’s station within his family when compared to his size as an insect. In the beginning some notice is taken of Gregor. He misses work, so his boss stops by, and Gregor is able to make excuses for himself. But as the story progresses he ceases to speak to in any human language and begins to just hiss and squeak like a cockroach. Gregor is locked in his room, begins eating scraps of food and waste from around the house that would have previously been scorned. Essentially he becomes the cockroach, not the man. And all throughout his stature decreases.
In the end the housekeeper finds Gregor dead on his back, and sweeps him up. He is very small in the end, and is deposited unceremoniously into the wastebin.
What makes this memorable? What is there to glean from this fairly simple story, you may ask?
Remember that Kafka is writing this in 1915. The Great war has just begun, young men are enlisting left, right and centre, and letters outlining just how horrible warfare had become are just starting to reach home. Modern thought, that vein of understanding that said that human reasoning and scientific advancement really could save us all, is on its way out. Post-Modern destructuralism is on the rise. The fabric of society is dyed red, and has come undone at the seams.
In the new school of thought the individual is brought into question. The ability for one person to articulate an abstract idea to another, and to be understood in the same context in which they are speaking has been thrown out the window. The Author has been shot, and the reader reigns, interpretting all text through their own filters.
In this new world, both geopolitcally, and academically, there is no importance in the individual. Gregor Samsa cannot influence, communicate with, or be understood by anyone. He is insignifigant to family and peer alike. Just like the average person in Kafka’s day.
Were people turning into insects in their beds? Hardly. But they were dehumanized by the way war was being fought in those times. They were made smaller and less signifigant all the time by the new school of thought.
In a way we all woke up collectively in our beds and discovered that we had become giant insects. The risk is that we will continue like this, and grow less and less important in our own eyes. We each have a choice I suppose. Six legs or two?
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