How I got to know about Metamorphosis

It's amazing how books sometimes work like dominos. I was reading this book called Show Your Work, and discovered this thing called picture "Kurt Vonnegut's Story Graphs":

Show Your Work, Austin Kleon

The graph, as it must have been clear by now, shows how different stories can be plotted against an axis telling something about the "fortune" of the protagonist or the story.

In the above screenshot from the page, I have underlined with blue Kafka's "Metamorphosis" - and this, on the graph, was the most unique thing - a story which goes only worse and worse as it goes towards the end. I really wanted to read this story, researched about it online, found that it was a very short novella, merely of fifty-something pages, and downloaded an e-book. I finished it in a few readings.

What's Metamorphosis about?

Metamorphosis is the story of a salesman called Gregor Samsa, who wakes up one day to find that he has turned into a bug. Keep in mind, Metamorphosis is a translated book, originally written by Franz Kafka in German, and so the variations of "bug" exist - some translators write vermin, other write cockroach. The one I read was translated by David Wyllie, and it used the word vermin. But I think you get the idea.

The 50-page story narrates the ordeals of Gregor, how he was treated by family, neighbors and employers after his metamorphosis. It is a heartbreaking tale, showing how time slowly changes our attitudes towards the suffering and bizarre. As far as I have come to discover, Metamorphosis is very popular among psychologists due to the themes it touches.

My Immediate thoughts were

By the time you reach the end, you start getting sad at Gregor's state. More than that, you start getting sad at how he's started being treated. His sister, who takes care of his food and hygiene initially, starts referring to him as "it", which rips your heart.

Well, my thoughts for Metamorphosis were many, which I believe can be put to words in some bulleted points:

• The state of being a bug is obviously a metaphor. But for exactly what, views vary. Obvious explanations lead us to think of bugdom as sickness, disease or inability. When you sit to think more, you can come up with ideas like a sudden change in a person's behavior. I've often personally seen people who suddenly decide to do something different with their lives, and "metamorph" into something that to others appears bizarre. The person who has turned into the bug can not explain his state, and taken to the extreme level, fails to communicate with people that surround him at every level. It's about metamorphosis. Metamorphosis can be into anything.
• Something that kept annoying me always was how "evil" Gregor's family was. That's what you think when you're seeing things from Gregor's eyes. But then you imagine yourself being in his family's shoes. You remember how much they have tried to care for him for many months. They could have expelled him the first day, but they didn't, and instead chose to tend to his needs, however much disgust it gave rise to. Whether his father, his mother, or his sister, all had their personalities, and tried their best to be "friendly". But then there comes time. I believe it is nothing more than human nature to start thinking that something that is not giving any concrete results is taking futile effort. That's the concept of being "fed up of praying, because He's not going to listen anyway". Time - that's what's evil, and not the people.
• I'm reminded of the quote which says that no "villain" thinks he is a "villain". Another quote says that people with extreme sense of righteousness make the most villainous villains. Another one says that you either die a hero, or live long enough to become a villain. I am tempted to think what if the story was stopped just where Gregor's sister has been taking care of him. I would have gone away with the happy idea that how kind she was, and she was an merciful, generous, selfless angel. But no, that's not where the story stops: it goes on until she is fed up and gives up, and we close the book with bad thoughts for her. The same idea being repeated here in another fashion: time.
• Last year I joined an online course called "Moral Foundations of Political Theory", and in it I got to study about the concept of Utilitarianism. A utilitarian person tries to take decisions that maximize "utility" or satisfaction. I am tempted to think: is it in everyone's benefit to just really get rid of Gregor, something that his sister really says in this quote. It will relieve Gregor of his miserable life, and give some freedom to his family. In that the sense, the end should really be seen as a perfectly happy ending!

Highlights

There were too many highlights, and when I sat to paste some selected ones here, I got myself covered since I found none that I could skip - each sentence of this book is a gem, even though translated from its original language.

So I have taken the unconventional route by pasting here all of them, but for general convenience, I am arranging them under some heads. Enjoy.