Metamorphosis

Author: Franz Kafka [Austria]
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-10-01
Features: One morning, Gregor Samsa wakes up from an uneasy sleep to find himself lying in bed transformed into a giant insect. Lying on his back, his hard, iron-like backplate presses against the bed. With a slight raise of his head, he sees his dome-shaped brown belly divided into many arched, hard plates, and the blanket almost slips off the tip of his abdomen. Compared to his enormous body, his numerous legs appear pitifully thin, all dancing helplessly before him. The small clerk Gregor Samsa, who suddenly transforms into an insect one morning, loses his job and, as the family's pillar, becomes a burden overnight. The family's attitude towards him changes, and he dies a miserable death in loneliness and isolation. The novel profoundly and vividly reveals the indifference in human relationships and depicts the phenomenon of "alienation" in capitalist society. The key to appreciating this story lies in the absurd plot, the realistic details, and the artistic effects of psychological description. It is essential to understand the unfamiliar language of the translation and the artistic techniques that do not conform to our national aesthetic habits through repeated reading, thereby entering the realm of foreign literature.