Until now, I hadn’t realized how active my senses were during the read of Kafka’s The Metamorphosis. I had subconsciously pictured each scene as I read it although I wouldn’t be able to explain why I pictured each scene the way I did because I truly don’t know. First of all, I envision the entire story in black and white, so the story completely lacked color for me. That might be because the mood that I perceived was gloomy, because of the constant rain and a certain grayness Gregor saw every time he looked out of his window. This also made Gregor’s room seem more like a hospital cell than an actual boy’s room. Aside from some furniture and one painting the room felt extremely generic and not very personalized, meaning anyone could live there.
Zooming in on Gregor himself, it was never entirely clear about what kind of bug he turned into but I never really envisioned a cockroach, mostly because I associate cockroaches as gross, repulsive insects that I just want to get rid of. With Gregor, I had to keep reminding myself that he wasn’t human, just because his thoughts were so humanlike and normal. Especially in the beginning scene when he realizes he has overslept and is struggling to get out of bed. It’s almost impossible for him to do so and he gets more and more desperate as he watches the clock hands go by, indicating more and more time passing. He’s quick to give into his body, which doesn’t allow him to move with ease, so he ends up staying in bed much longer than he anticipated. I felt myself being able to relate to this particular scene. I definitely experience that type of anxiety every morning when I turn my alarm off in my sleep and end up oversleeping. Even after that I watch the minutes go by, but am too exhausted to get up. However, in my head I am freaking out about how late I am, so I completely understand Gregor’s anxiety. Although, if I had woken up as a bug I don’t think I would be too anxious about being late for school, I would most definitely be anxious about other, more important things, like why am I a bug now.
Lastly, I want to address something I think everyone can agree upon. The smell in the story is extremely clear, and no one can miss that rotten scent Kafka describes that is created in Gregor’s room. I associated that smell with walking past the garbage outside that has not been collected yet and getting hit with the extremely strong stench. It’s an unfortunate sensory experience, but a very strong and distinct one for sure.
