The Metamorphosis

The Metamorphosis:

As part of my school's summer reading assignment, I read Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis. A story about a traveling salesman named Gregor Samsa and his unexplained transformation from a working man to a bug.

After his transformation the story focuses on his observations and experiences with his family as they attempt to cope with Gregor's change from being the breadwinner of the household to the potential downfall of everyone else he used to provide for. At my school, during the holiday season, my classmates and I read Charles Dickens's A Christmas Choral, while reading through the work we attempted to determine what is Christmas according to Mr. Dickens and what that has to do with what some call the Industrial Era virtues, or simply modern virtues. These includes the ideas of timeliness, efficiency, productivity, etc.

As I read The Metamorphosis I noticed the examination of these modern virtues by Kafka. Gregor, a traveling salesman is well in-tuned to the schedules of arriving and departing trains. The transformation of Gregor occurs in the morning, when he must leave to begin working. The fact he is late seems disastrous to his family, because of his transformation he now longer can exhibit the virtue of timeliness. Gregor's transformation into a bug also makes him slow and clumsy also taking away the virtue of efficiency and productivity.

Anyway, the point is this. Kafka's work seems partly to be about the problems and potential outcomes of upholding modern/ industrial era virtues and relying on one man to provide and exhibit all of them.