Als Gregor Samsa eines Morgens aus unruhigen Trumen erwachte, fand er sich in seinem Bett zu einem ungeheueren

Ungeziefer verwandelt. Franz Kafka Franz Kafka, the most remarkable author of the 20th century, was a German-speaking Jew born in Prague. In this way, he was very much a double minority though his individualism would never let him associate with any identity at all. He was one of the most influential existentialist writers of contemporary times. His works were not about exotic connections or love relationships. He was rather a spritual questor. And he was totally alienated. The above is the opening line of his most impactful work, The Metamorphosis. Like any good work, this book is also very difficult to translate from German. The above quote has been handled by different translators with different degrees of assumptions. Roughly, it translates to "As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect."This has to be one of the best opening lines in Literature, at least as far I can think of. Another one that comes to my mind is from 'Rebecca' by Daphne du Maurier - "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.". Like all of Kafka's stories, The Metamorphosis too is incessantly material. Like all others, it too, is about emperical surfaces. And like all other stories of his, in this too, there is a vicarious longing, a longing to know something that has been forbidden or a longing to get beyond, beyond that, which is restricted. The most sensible course was to risk everything for the smallest hope of getting away from it. A very striking feature of Kafka's work is that in most of his stories, the protoganist, and the male, has a body which essentially is a shipwreck. Kafka tries to explore the relationship we share with our body and the constraints that this association has. His stories seem to be a commerce between this emperical scheme of matter that we know of and other, which is surreal and perhaps fairy tale like interpretation of soul. In Kafka's stories, anything can happen. Anyone can just wake up one morning and discover himself to be metamorphosized into a giant insect and accept this metamorophosis as a matter-of-fact, without ever questioning it or bothering about it. It is interesting to note that Kafka does not write that Gregor Samsa feels like an insect. Kafka means it literally. Gregor Samsa wakes up and find himself to be an insect. There have been many commentatories on the size and affect of relationships we share with others, including those who are culturally and socially unlike, many have, in fact, also pondered over the bond we may share with the divine or unattainable, however no one has ever written what it feels like to be an insect. That cool reflection, the coolest possible, was much better than desperate resolves. Importantly, Gregor is not much moved by the peril that has suddenly descended upon him. He questions it not, he subjectively accepts. And the first thought that bothers him, after finding himself in that state, is about catching the train to reach his workplace. He worries and worries dramatically for the relentless travesity of his job. Whether it is borne out of a sense of duty or fear or repproach is not hard to tell either. He understands that he has a family to support. And so, no matter how tumultous his work may become and how fatal his state be, he must still report to his office on time and perform his duty. If we extend this idea, we can also discover that the family is not very obliged or grateful towards Gregor. They do not judge his workmanship as a token of his care and concern but accept it rather as a necessary and perfunctory reciprocation of their investment. His family does not just rely upon him, his family, figuratively, feeds on him. And Gregors accepts this respectfully. He does not rue this fact neither is he vindictive towards his family. Instead he greatly cares for their well-being and cherishes a dream to send his sister to a music school as soon as he can manage enough funds for it. Kafka picks on the routine of life and presents it mercilessly. He does not worry about giving us a reason for this predicament of Gregor, he simply focuses on the need to do good on those routines. Gregor Samsa never asks WHY or HOW. And this is where Kafka forces the reader to step in and think for Gregor. Kafka succeeds in transferring a sense of uneasiness that should have pre-occupied Gregor to the reader. And suddently the reader almost starts worrying what if he becomes a bug. The reader tries to understand why Gregor might have become a bug. The reader tries to find if there are any solutions. Through the entire story, the reader waits, in a failing hope, for Gregor to turn back into a human, as bewilderingly as he turned into a bug. They had evidently left the door open, as one does in houses where some great misfortune has happened. Why? There can be many different explanations for Gregor's sudden and tragic metamorphosis. He is a bug because: -- He has always been a bug. He has been going about the routine of his life with such melancholy and rigor that he essentially was an alienated bug already. He hardly existed for his own family, spent majority of his time travelling from city to city and had none of what could be measured as a social life. -- He has been called an artist; he admires the talent that his sister possess which nobody else cares to recognize. He appears to be a sould bitten and burdened by the tormenting details of a material world that his material body must siffer such fate in a revolt. Maybe all artists have to bear such a fate in this mateiral society. -- He is a Christ-like sacrificial figure. His life is given away in order that other may find a meaning and purpose to their existence. He may, in all, have died for the rejuvination of his family members. he may have died because of their apathy, their indifference. Do we own our body? Our bodies evolve in mechanical way, often an unwanted and unstoppable way. Holy texts of major religions subscribe to the body's being nothing but an agency in the purpose of the soul. Body becomes the carrier of the soul. And the soul must get rid of this carrier only to adopt a better or worse one one day. A corrolary to this fact is that any damage to the body may not be a damage to the soul. Plus, nourishment to the body might not be a nourishment to the soul. Bodies are alien, we do not choose our bodied. We are simply born into it, pushed into it. We do not get to chose our parents and much as Heidegger would say- we are thrown into this world. Along with that, we do not have any control on the duration until which we can occupy this body. Our bodies are in constant process of relentless modifications. There are continuous hormonal and physical changes taking place in it and its state keeps changing from what it was moments ago. We control very little of our own body or bodily functions. Body has its own internal logic and reaction; it leads us, rather than ours leading the way. Popping up of a simple pimple fortifies how unwanted these reactions or logics can be. Thus, in effect, we are at mercy of our bodies. We have to feed it, bathe it and fulfil its carnal desires. We are servants to our bodies. And tragically, this master will not be forever. The soul will, one day, depart this body and it, then, would become a lifeless piece of emperical mass. Co-relation with Vedic Philosophy Vedic philosophy is abreast with novelty that we should serve our soul, instead of serving our bodies. Body, in Vedic philosphy is treated as nashwar, while the soul is treated to be a part of the super-soul, which is immortal. According to Vedic philosophy, the destiny of the soul or Paramatma, is to, one day, become one with the Supersoul or the Supreme Personality of Godhead. A major emphasis of Vedic philosohy is to find the right nourishment for the soul. This is a spiritual quest eveident in Kafka's writings too. When, in the final stages of his existence, Gregor, in the body of a vermin, comes to appreciate the music played by his sister like no other human present in that room would, he evokes how the tenets of nourishment are different for the body and the mind or the body and the soul. There is an abandonment of all bodily desires (Gregor eventually dies, in part, because of starvation) instead there is a longing for nourishment of the soul. Was he an animal, that music had such an effect upon him? He felt as if the way were opening before him to the unknown nourishment he craved. Kafka's relationship with his father The Metamorphosis in some instances hints at a conflicting relationship that a son shares with his father. This one relationship, for Kafka, is competetive and insecure. The death of Gregor, in part, comes because of the apple that was lodged at him by his angry father. That strike had nailed him to the spot which

becomes a figure of crucification. This blow does not heal or is forgotton. Gregor carries the rotten apple that had sunk into his back throughout his existence. This can be a refernce to the indeliable impact that domestic violence can deliver. Another interesting thing to note is that, post Gregor's predicament, his otherwise resigned father becomes rejuvinated. And this rejuvination takes place not just in his occupation but also in his physicality and maybe in his virility too. For there is a scene, where Gregor's mother runs to his father with her clothes slowly shredding off and she eventually collapses in his arms and falls unconscious. In this story, the father is having a kind of revenge, a peculiar one. Kafka finds a form of self-assertion in writing about a sacrificial victim. The father figure rejuvinates while the son's influence and strength declines. The dominance of the father is restored. Metamorphoses This is not a story of metamorphosis of Gregor into an insect. It is also one where everyone changes or transforms or is metamorphosized. His father redifnes himself and regains his place of influence and power in the family. His sister transforms into a nubile young woman who becomes the lead decision maker in the family. Interestingly, prior to these events, she was not given much of a voice. Nobody, except for Gregor, wanted her to take her music seriously or pursue it. And she did not have the say to convince them either. Everyone undergoes a transformation, which generally happens when an adversity of tragic nature befalls on any family. This adversity brings out a character in the family members that is genreally shrouded in the comfort of security. No doubts this is a remarkable book, with many different messages to convey. And no doubts it is a very hard one to understand as well. For when the existentialist in Kafka prevails everything and anything becomes a gig or a prop. And this everything or anything is then subjected to as many altercations as Kafka's quest would suffice. <photo id="1" />