The Metamorphosis

Gregor Samsa woke up one day to find himself inexplicably transformed into a giant bug.  Prior to this dreaded day, Gregor was a traveling salesman who hated his job.  He was the sole breadwinner in the family that was composed of a slouching, defeated father, a physically and constitutionally weak mother, and an adoring and devoted younger sister.  His transformation into a giant insect left the totally economically dependent family in disarray.

After the transformation, his younger sister took on the sole responsibility for his care.  His father, a loser, whose business failure sapped his vitality,  despised Gregor and his current condition as he was no longer of utility to the family. His mother, although she loved him, could not bear the sight of her son in bug form, as its effect on her health was  terrible.

To survive,  his  family had to find work. His father found a work in bank and this helped him restore his faith and confidence in himself. His sister found a work in a store, while his mother was sewing piecework and doing the chores, as the servant had been let go.

One night, when his asthmatic mother accidentally caught sight of him crawling on the wall, she collapsed in shock.  This triggered his father’s wrath and at last, he began to pelt Gregor with apples. One penetrated Gregor’s back, producing excruciating pain that weakened him and eventually reduced him to invalidity. No one had the nerve to remove the apple from his back, but consequentially, he was no longer treated as an enemy.

Time passed by with each one attending to his/her duties, hence,  no one had much time or energy to worry about Gregor.  The family gave up hope that Gregor would  “come back” to them. Consigned to oblivion, unwanted, covered in dust, and now barely able to move,  Gregor, not wanting to cause anymore burden to the family,  willed himself to die.

End of the story

Gregor Samsa was a character created by Franz Kafka, a Czech existential writer who lived in the first quarter of the 20^th century,   in a novel “ The Metamorphosis”.

There have been countless attempts at interpreting this allegorical novel. I would venture putting my own before you now.

Gregor’s transformation into a bug can be seen both as a blessing or a curse to the family, depending on the reader’s perspective.  His transformation and eventual death triggered the transformation of his family and paved the way for the onset of a new phase of life in them.  With his death, “the great burden” that held the family hostage for sometime was finally lifted. With his death, the  liberation of their spirits occurred,  self-respect truly bloomed, and the future became  a bearable thought. Transformation is a reality in our daily life and they come in all sizes and packages.  Generally, change can give us an unsettling feeling thereby making us initially reactive to it. But if it is viewed as a  chance  to go through another phase of life, then we would probably welcome it with open arms. But of course taking that perspective never comes that easy, but with practice, we can become better.

“What the caterpillar calls an end, the butterfly calls a beginning”. “Death” is a chance to move to a higher state of existence, and it does not matter whether you are a leper leaving a cord or coat or a scourge when you die, or a  leopard leaving the same or becoming a goat upon its  death, or a man leaving his name when he dies. One thing I believe is certain though, that the “death” of something, is the beginning of another thing in a higher plane of being and existence.

As people of  this contemporary time, we are faced with a bigger challenge to continuously transform ourselves into fully-functioning individuals, otherwise,  we would be considered a misfit, maladujsted, and may be rendered obsolete after some time.  Upon accomplishment of one goal, we move forward to attaining another and the cycle goes on. Life takes  on a spiral cycle continuously  until the end of our earthly existence. In our life, we are called and challenged to metamorphose.  It is up to us to respond when but if I may say so, I would say ‘The time is now”.

Let  us all embrace metamorphosis in our lives!!!