Subconscious Revival in Kafka's Metamorphosis Mitchell Patrick Lewis College

Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, in its continuously dissected and heavily studied narrative, details a transformation from man to creature but hides the true meaning of what it means to change form, both in mind and body. From the onset, it is made clear that something deeper exists beyond that of a strict tale of man becomes beast, cared for from surrounding environment, neglected by said environment, and eventually dying. Gregor Samsa, the would-be protagonist, exists as an anti-human, challenging the roles of family life and fulfilling some latent desire to reverse the role he inhabits. For the duration of the reading and eventual completion of Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, it is important to negate absolutes. Too much time is spent on the end result of an established piece and not enough on the methods, ideas, symbolic features, etc. that make the piece understandable. The reader tends to place too much stock in the author’s ultimate intention rather than the conclusions that can be drawn throughout the reading. Through Kafka’s inclusion of a nonhuman narrator capable of human thought and existing in a world of only upper and lower class, The Metamorphosis succeeds in the narration of a man subconsciously trying to overcome...