A sizable part of my identity and what defines me is my religion. Throughout Kafka’s Metamorphosis I found myself comparing Gregor’s newfound identity as a cockroach to that of the Jews during his time. I was specifically reminded of the life of my grandparents who were very young children in Eastern Europe when Metamorphosis was published and grew up in the same society that Kafka conveys through his stories. My grandparents would later go on to suffer through the horrors and hell of the Holocaust, endure starving nights and inhumane conditions. They later found their solace in Israel where their voices were finally heard but not without the scars on their backs that were stuck there and rotted away throughout their entire lives. As I read about Gregor’s inability to communicate to the outside world I was reminded of my grandparents when they became displaced persons with Jews from all of Europe. These Jews all had something in common yet struggled to communicate due to their adverse backgrounds. I was reminded of the death marches they endured, where their lives depended on following orders, many of which they didn’t understand. Jews weren’t allowed to talk back, let alone voice their opinion, as was Gregor’s struggle as a cockroach. During Hitler’s reign Jews were literally referred to as vermin and were treated like pests and insects. As I read metamorphosis the sight of the gas chambers of the Nazi regime kept on reappearing in my head. I was reminded that Europeans who hid Jews were excommunicated, as was Gregor’s family when the three tenants discovered Gregor in his cockroach manifestation. Although the holocaust didn’t happen until 20 years after Metamorphosis was published, Kafka’s recant of life, as a detested insect is a foreboding tale of his sense of what is to come.
Pictured below are my grandparents immediately after the war…
Being that i am Jewish, I can also relate to this. I definitely see where you are coming from, with the author being Jewish and writing about the struggles during his time. He must have faced some isolation and depression. Additionally, almost the whole world turned their heads to the disastrous holocaust, just like many did to Gregor. He was left helpless, lonely, and sad. No one seemed to care about him after a while.
Reading your post opened up a new way of thinking about “Metamorphosis”. While we did analyze Kafka’s personal history and its similarities to Gregor’s life, I think your post also brought valid historical context to his narrative. I also especially drawn to the comparison you made between the national excommunications and Gregor’s own family. In both instances, the families are sheltering someone else from harm with disregard to the implications it could bring to their own person. For instance, Gregor’s father could have lost his new job and Grete could have lost respectability and marriage proposals. The way Kafka uses the symbolic image of a vermin reminds me directly of the way Nazis regarded those not of the Aryan race. The inhumane acts, the Samsa family consider resorting to, show how the capacity to act cruelly may reside in all of us. In the beginning, I certainly wouldn’t have expected Grete to be the one to eventually support the literal extermination of Gregor. But when just enough events fall into place, the sister who Gregor regarded as understanding and compassionate was, in the end, the person who necessitated his death.
Very interesting comparison; I am Jewish and while I read the story the Holocaust or the Jews in Europe did not cross my mind once. That may be because I did not know Franz Kafka was a Jew or living in Europe in the early 1900s. After reading your post, I now feel there is a similarity between Gregor being a cockroach and how the Jews were treated in Europe. It makes more sense why Kafka would write such a story with the family abandoning Gregor and treating him like vermin. The Jews were abandoned and treated dreadfully in Europe in Kafka’s time just like Gregor.