Ever since I came across the term Kafkaesque, I've always wanted to read his books in German to fully understand the Kafka style. I believe the little nuances are possibly lost in translations. But since I couldn't get anywhere near to learning enough German to understand Kafka, I had to do with the English translations in the end. The first one I ever read was Amerika but the ending of that book proved confusing. Realized only a bit later that manuscripts for the final 5 chapters of that book were lost. Metamorphosis is one of the highly rated stories of Franz Kafka and my next book of his contained Metamorphosis and 5 other stories. A brief review of each story below
1. Metamorphosis:
A traveling salesman Gregor Samsa wakes up one day to see himself turn into a beetle. The foreword for the book mentioned that it is possibly Samsa's dream and he'd have avoided all the troubles if only he realized that it was "only a dream". But the first page of the story is contrary to that opinion. This is how the line goes:
What happened to me? he thought. This is no dream.
So I just went with the assumption that Samsa's metamorphosis from a human to beetle is completely real [however dystopian that sounds]. Samsa's family consists of his two parents and a 17-yr old sister Grete. Samsa used to work as a clerk but ever since his father's business collapsed (5 yrs before the story starts), he's forced to earn extra income to repay the debts. As a traveling salesman, he very rarely works from his office and spends most of his time traveling on the purpose of business. He wakes up one day and realizes that he is no longer human and in fact turned into a beetle with great many little legs. His first thought is that he missed his early morning train and while he was wondering how to make up for the lost time and hoping that no one at office would realize his delay, chief clerk from office visits him. Gregor refuses to open his door and his family fear the worst – Gregor, the sole breadwinner losing his job – while the chief clerk assumes that Gregor is simply not turning up for work and in cases like these, his only option is to terminate Gregor from work. While the family, who themselves are spellbound as to why Gregor is refusing to open the door, try to convince the chief clerk that Gregor is unwell and that is the only reason for him not opening the door. When Gregor finally relents and comes out, the chief clerk runs away looking at him. The family are shocked to see their son turn into a beetle. His father forces him back to his room and decides to shun him.
Samsa's mother and sister hope that Gregor's is a temporary illness and he would be back to normal in due course. The family never visit him except Grete bringing him food at meal times. Gregor could listen to what the family is talking and learns that his father joined as a bank messenger, his mother took up stitching while Grete starts learning French and joins as a salesgirl to earn money in the absence of any income from Gregor. To avoid discomfort to Grete, Gregor starts to hide under a sofa in his room whenever Grete brings him food. But the sofa is too small to completely cover him and Gregor, who slowly learns how to work his legs and live as a beetle, struggles for 4 hours to finally cover his visible back under the sofa with a sheet. Gregor even begins to crawl all around his room as a beetle and noticing this, Grete decides to remove all the furniture to let him roam uninhibited. Since she is too frail to do this, she takes the help of the mother to push the furniture. The mother feels that removing all the furniture would make Gregor feel that the family is resigned to losing him and believe he'd never become a normal human again. Her words bring new doubts in Gregor's head. Is he now a human or a beetle? Would he like the furniture in his room to be present exactly how he is used to it, so that he can one day become human again and continue living like he was, forgetting the "little episode". Or would he like to have a completely empty room so that he can crawl around like a beetle without any obstacles? But Grete convinces her mother that keeping the room empty would be beneficial to Gregor. When the two women remove a chest of drawers, Gregor comes out from under the sofa and hangs on to a picture on the wall, which he doesn't like to be removed. When the women see him, Gregor's mother has an attack of asthma and had to be taken to another room to breathe freely. Gregor decides to comfort her saying that everything is normal and comes out of his room. Just then, Gregor's father returns from work and thinking that Gregor is attacking the women, decides to send him back to his room and in that means, injures Gregor by throwing an apple on to his back.
Gregor's family, unable to cope with their cost of living, decides to let out a room to three young men, from whom Gregor is hidden. One day, after the meals, the young men listen to Grete playing violin in another room and initially show an interest to listen to her. Once Grete starts playing in the living room, they shun her and this angers Gregor. So Gregor comes out of his room and when the three men look at him, serve a notice to Gregor's family that they would be leaving and instead of paying the rent they owe, they decide to sue for damages. Gregor's family decide that it is too long a chance for Gregor to turn into human now and to avoid all the troubles they are facing, decide to leave him. But before that, their workmaid (?) kills Gregor and the family leave the house.
I'm not sure whether Kafka intended it, but there is an underlying theme of family bonding in the story. The family are scared of him and shun him initially, but Gregor's mother and Grete hope that he would be back to normal. Only that can explain why Grete keeps feeding him regularly. Though Gregor's father has an irrational hatred towards Gregor after he turned into a beetle, he relents to the pressure and lets Gregor stay in the house, but confined to his room. When the father hurts Gregor, the mother stops her husband from causing any further hurt and we see the maternal love for her son. He may be a beetle, but he's still her son. Grete was loved by Gregor and Gregor has saved money so that he could send Grete to Conservatorium for her to learn violin professionally. Grete does not show any compassion or love towards Gregor ever since he turned into a beetle. We only see Gregor's love towards Grete and not the other way. Even when Grete brings him food, it is not sure whether she thinks it's her duty to do so or if there’s any other motive. In the end, Grete feels he's too much trouble and it's pointless to hope that Gregor would be back to normal. She finally agrees with her father that it is better to get rid of him to save all the troubles. Once the family lets one of their rooms, all the unwanted stuff is thrown into Gregor's room showing their lack of empathy. Well, it's called empathy if they feel that Gregor is still human. What would be the word if they converted it into a store room if they thought he's only a beetle? Just imagine what one would call a bunch of people if they threw all the discarded stuff into their cowshed.
And then Gregor – what does he think he is? A human or a beetle? His thoughts venture both ways. When Grete brings him food, he doesn't like any parts which are considered fit for human consumption. When he was a normal human, he hated milk but after turning into a beetle, he seemed to like it. When he listened to the family's discussions in the living room, he thought of telling them that it's only a temporary phenomenon, that he'd be back to supporting them. He wanted to tell the plans of repaying father's debt and sending Grete to Conservatorium. When Grete and her mother discuss about whether to remove furniture in Gregor's room, his thoughts keep changing. He wanted free space to crawl around freely like a beetle, but he also clung on to a picture on the wall he really liked. Finally, is it really a dream or is the metamorphosis real? Going back to the opening line I mentioned, when Gregor thinks "this is no dream", is he thinking inside his dream? The ending of the story doesn't mention whether Samsa wakes up from his dream after getting killed. [That's what happens as per Nolan’s Inception right?]
2. The Great Wall of China
Compared to Metamorphosis, this is a really short story not more than 20 pages. The Great Wall of China is built on the northern border of the country to stop attacks from the evil outsiders lying beyond. The Wall is not built continuously (space; not time) but is built is several pockets. The story is written in the view point of someone from south east of the country. The southerners didn't have to bother with the attacks on the northern side of the country. Even if there were attacks, it would take too much time and effort for the outsiders to cross the vast lands and launch attack on the southerners. So, what keeps the southerners from joining the mission to build the wall, leaving their ailing parents, loving wives and tender children to travel far across the land and work in the north? Why is the wall built in several pockets all over the north instead of doing it over continuous stretch? (again, it's space; not time)
Considering that it takes five years to build a five hundred yard stretch and the whole northern border stretches over thousands of miles, how are the engineers motivated to work on the mission? Surely, it is not a project to be completed in one's lifetime. All the questions are credibly answered by the narrator. There is also an interesting discussion of whether the loyalty of people is to the Emperor or the Empire. The southerners never see the Emperor. They are hardly kept in touch with what is happening in the Emperor's hall. Even if the Emperor sends emissaries and messengers to relay the news, the news would have become obsolete by the time they reached the far borders of the Empire. So, how does the Emperor manage unwavering loyalty? Or are the people from the southern borders show apathy towards Emperor's doings? It's a nice little story.
3. Investigations of a Dog
The story is written completely in the view point of an adult dog. For this dog, every other living thing is a type of dog. People playing music? Dog musicians. Birds in the air? Hovering dogs. Animal kingdom? No, there's only dogdom. Some of the paragraphs stretch over a few pages (no paragraph break for 4 pages!) and this style is perhaps borrowed from Fyodor Dostoevsky. I might well be wrong regarding that. The story encompasses all the thoughts of the dog ranging on various topics. From the complete surprise at other dogs (actually, people) not caring for its questions or views to the utter reproach at the way dogs (people) walk on hind legs or leave the comfort of the earth to hover in the air (birds). If the dogs are continuously hovering in the air, how do they propagate with such feeble bodies? What makes the dogs take to the air? Is it some technical accomplishment? No, both propagation and voluntary transition for them to become hovering dogs are unthinkable.
The story also has a status-worthy line: [in the context of the dog learning about the world on its own]
Premature independence is inimical to systematic learning.
A couple of interesting thoughts from dog’s pov:
- 'Whence does the earth procure this food?' The dog sees that food is produced from the earth. But how does the earth produce it? There is of course a scientific method. The food is in two parts – the ground food and the food from the sky (rain). One follows the other. And how is the food from sky produced? Frequently by the incantation, music and dance of other dogs (people). Is the food from sky (rain) fit for consumption? No. Then why not focus on the food from the earth? Is it enough to produce food if the dog digs a hole into the ground, puts its nose in it and performs incantation and music? This is merely not so. The food from the sky is required as well. But why?
- There is a surprise and marvel at the way the knowledge has increased through the ages. But this is not actually praiseworthy. The increase of knowledge is similar to how one starts young and grows old – a natural and ugly process, but nothing to be marveled at. It is not as if the older generations are worse than us. Or that they are better because they are younger than us. Merely a natural progression from one state to another without any need for extrinsic intervention (for the lack of a better phrase)
It's a very interesting story with dog's perspective on various worldly things it encounters.
As the foreword mentions, Kafka's style is similar to Walser's – a story doesn't actually need to have a story. It can be a collection of thoughts, however mundane or extraordinary. It can range from a few words to several pages. There doesn't need to be a "proper" conclusion. Do the thoughts always end in a meaningful way? Similarly, a story can start at a random place and end abruptly. People who try to look for a theme or a story in Kafka's stories are evidently disappointed (or confused). A story can just be a linguistic experiment. I think I've finally started to understand the Kafkaesque style. I cannot imagine any other author to write stories with such varied view points. It is known that the author/writer has to enter a character's mind while narrating the character's views. In the first story, Kafka has to show us the views of a beetle. In the second, he is an engineer/builder working on the Great Wall of China. In the third, Kafka looks at various things (people, birds, rain, food, neighbors, scientific process, ageing, propagation of knowledge through centuries) through the eyes of a dog.
What a marvelous writer!
Part II (review of 3 other short stories) will be written later in a separate post. Give yourself a Seven pointed star if you reach this point.
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