A Study of Kafka’s Critic of Modernity through Reverse Evolution In The Metamorphosis

Franz Kafka’s metamorphosis falls squarely in the genre of modernist fiction. Kafka wrote it in 1912 and published in 1915. The fate of a lonely travelling salesman Gregor expresses the common modernist concern with the alienating effects of modern society. Kafka’s emphasis on the disintegration of family bonds, and the alienating experience of modern life reverberated strongly with a reading public that had just survived World War I and was on its way to a second world war. Today Kafka’s reputation as one of the most important writers of modern times is undiminished.

Kafka employs the fictional literary elements he constructs to address the very non- fictional, existentialist aspects of society and life. Gregor Samsa is the protagonist of the metamorphosis. By starting out with Gregor's metamorphosis into a bug, The Metamorphosis plays around with some interesting questions as to the significance of transformation. Samsa transforms through reverse evolution. Reverse evolution or backward evolution is the notion that species can change into more "primitive" forms over time.  We're never told exactly how or why Gregor got transformed into a vermin. The Metamorphosis depicts multiple transformations, with the most significant and obvious example being Gregor’s transformation into an insect. His metamorphoses have a rippling effect on the other characters as they modify their own behavior in response to his new form.

Though Gregor’s physical change is complete when the story begins, he also undergoes a related change, a psychological transformation as he adapts to his new body. Grete, his sister experiences her own transformation in the story as she develops from a child into an adult. At the beginning of the work, she is essentially still a girl, but as she begins to take on adult duties, such as caring for Gregor and then getting a job to help support her family, she steadily matures. In the story’s closing scene, her parents realize she has grown into a pretty young woman and think of finding her a husband. The scene signals that she is now an adult emotionally and also physically, as it describes the change her body has undergone and echoes Gregor’s own physical change. The family as a whole also undergoes a transformation as well. Initially, the Samsa family appears hopeless and static but over time they are able to overcome their money problems, and when Gregor finally dies and the family no longer has to deal with his presence, all the family members are reinvigorated. As the story closes, they have completed an emotional transformation and their hope is revitalized.

Modernization brought a series of seemingly indisputable benefits to people. At the same time, there are a number of dark sides too. Many critics point out psychological and moral hazards of modern life - alienation, feeling of rootlessness, loss of strong bonds and common values and so on. Gregor samsa is the perfect embodiment of the alienated modern man. Young Gregor genuinely cares about his family. From the opening of the story, he is shown to be a person who works hard to support his family, even though they do little for themselves. Money shapes the relationship for shamsa’s family. When Gregor morphs into a bug, however, the limits of familial loyalty and empathy are tested and family gradually rejects Samsa. Gregor is enslaved by his family because he is the one who makes money the family seems to treat him not as a member but as a source of income. When Gregor is no longer able to work after his metamorphosis, he is treated with revulsion and neglected. Once the family begins working, they also find difficulty communicating with each other, eating dinner in silence and fighting among themselves. The exhaustion of dehumanizing jobs and the recognition that people are only valuable so long as they earn a salary keeps anyone who works isolated from others and unable to establish human relations with them. Kafka emphasize that the family ties have silently become extinct and care is no longer for loves sake.

The feeling of estrangement is the key problem of modern time. Gregor works as a traveling salesman, his relationships have become superficial and transitory as a result of his constant traveling. There is no mention in the story of any close friends or intimate relationships outside his family. So we can say that the feeling of estrangement actually preceded his transformation. Gregor’s evolution creates psychological distance between Gregor and those around him. Gregor’s change makes him literally and emotionally separate from his family members. Furthermore, he is unable to speak, and consequently he has no way of communicating with other people. Lastly, Gregor’s transformation literally separates him from the human race as it makes him no longer human. Essentially he has become totally isolated from everyone around him, including those people he cares for like Grete and his mother the alienation caused by Gregor’s metamorphosis can be viewed as an extension of the alienation he already felt as a person. And after his metamorphosis, Gregor feels completely alienated from his room and environment and, as a symbol of this, can't even see his street out the window. The Metamorphosis, then, is a powerful indictment of the alienation brought on by the modern social order.

Kafka captures the situation of modernist society through the metamorphosis, where he reduces his protagonist into a primitive being. It is through the attitude of the other characters he reveals where the actual evolution has taken place. Kafka depict a harsh picture of modernist society where personal identity and significance has ceased to exist, where every human being is judged by his contribution to economy, where the family ties have silently become extinct.