Kafka without Greek

At last here is my promised analysis of Kafka's Metamorphosis without using Greek words. It is idiosyncratic (sh... a Greek word !) but here it is nevertheless.

The book can be read at different levels. It can be understood as a science fiction novel a la The Fly: person suddenly turned into monster, and how his family and friends react to it. From sympathy to pity to disgust and finally relief when he dies. At that level it is powerful enough. As a matter of fact there is a PBS special with Christopher Plummer playing a professor delivering a lecture on Kafka that ended up exactly like that, exploring the horrors of a monstrous change.

But there is a deeper level of understanding. The monstrosity here can be understood differently from just the Frankenstein kind. Can a person become a vermin overnight? Yes. Think of the Jews in Germany and then the rest of occupied Europe  at the coming of the Nazis. Suddenly respected human beings become nothing, little more than vermin to be exterminated in camps. These people's neighbors react to them is different ways, including all the the sentiments shown by the insects's family in the book.

It is not only the Jews. Think of a high official of the old government in Vietnam after 75. How the old relationships changed in a reeducation camp setting. Or less dramatically, we have all experienced I am sure colleagues who suddenly lost their jobs. Notice the pall and unease that suddenly descended on them. People find it hard to talk to them and tend to avoid them. These are the kinds of metamorphoses that come to me when I read Kafka.

It is so easy for a human being to turn into  a vermin overnight. Maybe Kafka with his Jewish background had a premonition of the 20th Century. His book nevertheless is a devastating reminder of the human -- or is it the insect -- condition.

That is why Kafka is so disturbing.