Essay Questions

What is the significance of the novel’s title?

The title is mainly a reference to the main character’s dilemma, that is, that he thinks himself to be an actual cockroach rather than a person. The cockroach is also a multifaceted symbol that appears constantly within the novel as an allusion to many ideas that the main character feels strongly about. The main character identifies very strongly with the cockroach because like his namesake he lives largely ignored by humanity and like the insect he lives on the refuse and fringes of humanity. The title is also a reference to his ability to survive most anything, alluding to the cockroach’s mythical ability to survive anything, including nuclear Armageddon.

What does the cockroach symbolize in the novel?

The cockroach symbolizes many things in the novel both negative and positive. The main character likens himself to the titular insect because he too lives in filthy, miserable conditions; he survives on detritus, and is looked down upon and/or ignored as a pest. Conversely though, like the eponymous insect, the mysterious main character has the uncanny ability to survive most any adverse condition: he can tolerate filth, deal with hunger, and he has the near supernatural ability to endure heartache and isolation that would break the normal person. The cockroach, because of this dichotomy of perceptions, also comes to embody the condition of migrants: they too are looked down upon and endure hard living conditions and these factors produce in them a strength of character worthy of creature that is said to be able to live through a nuclear cataclysm: the cockroach.

Would you consider Cockroach a social commentary? Support your answer.

The novel can be appreciated in two ways. First, Cockroach reads like a social commentary in that it deals with racism and the plight of migrants, particularly those coming from distressed areas in the Middle East. It also reads like a messed up personal journal of a man who has gone through loss and pain because it talks about the nameless main character’s heartbreaking journey of how he had encountered very tragic events and how this ultimately broke him.