Another Way of Looking at Kafka

After today’s panel presentation about seeing The Metamorphosis through the lens of ageing, I decided to write my Kafka blog post on my own (admittedly stretched) possible interpretation of the novella.
Reading Kafka’s story, I couldn’t help but envision Gregor’s transformation as an analogy for mental illness and the way it was dealt with during Kafka’s time. Mental illness in general could definitely fit Gregor’s narrative, but autism makes even more sense. I did some research and found that there’s a smattering of people who agree, so bear with me.
The biggest evidence to support this analogy is Gregor’s inability to communicate with anyone else, and the lack of effort to communicate on the family’s part. Think of a child with autism in the 20th century. There wasn’t much knowledge about autism during this time period, and nobody really knew how to communicate with autistic people, so they often didn’t try to communicate at all. On the other hand, autism often renders a person unable to speak, and even those who can speak usually can’t communicate well. The inability to communicate creates a divide between someone with autism and those close to them. Compare this to Gregor. His family doesn’t even make an effort to communicate with him, and he’s not able to communicate with them. Even though the family could have easily worked out a means of simple communication, they just assume that Gregor’s no longer human and can’t understand them. This creates a disconnect between them and Gregor, and he is no longer a true part of the family.
In addition to communication, I find the surrealness of Kafka’s writing to be further proof of a

metaphor for autism. The world of The Metamorphosis is familiar, yet dreamlike. I could definitely

see Kafka’s surrealism as analogous to looking at the world from an autistic point of view. There are

a lot of other parts of the novella that could support the autism idea, but the point of a blog post is that

it’s short. So what do you think? Are there other things that support this? Things that dispute this

theory?

Comments

  1. tina wayneOctober 14, 2017 at 6:53 PM

    Augusta, I appreciate that you brought up mental illness. Especially when you discuss how Kafka's surrealism represents the slightly skewed view of the world those with mental illness see. I think we should also consider the importance of Gregor as an autistic character. If he truly is, then Kafka would be one of the first writers to both portray non-stigmatized autism as and portray in a way which doesn't define the autistic character solely by their autism nor make them the punchline of a joke. I really like this post, great job!

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  2. MitchellOctober 15, 2017 at 9:45 AM

    I don't think this interpretation is a "stretch" at all. As we discussed in class, the insect-transformation presents a pretty wide-open and flexible metaphor, that could be seen through a range of lenses. None of these interpretations necessarily rules out another--it can be useful to think about the transformation as a metaphor for anxiety around aging, chronic illness and disease (as was presented in 5th period on Friday), AND mental illness or autism specifically. The sense of shame with which the family treats Gregor's condition, the context of waking up suddenly unable to fulfill one's "duties" because one no longer feels at home in one's body or one's life, and crucially the inability to communicate that experience, all make a lot of sense in this context. Like dreams, which this narrative resembles so much, the potential symbolism can be interpreted productively in a range of ways. This one makes a lot of sense to me.

    ReplyDelete
  3. isabella solisOctober 15, 2017 at 10:11 AM

    I agree with this interpretation, and I hadn't thought of it that way before. I think you could write a long piece of literary criticism about this, because there's lots of material there. For example, Grete and Herr Sanaa's desire to get rid of Gregor could be seen as a family wanting to put a family member in a group home, or something like that, seen through the eyes of the person with the illness (though it's not always a bad thing for people to live in group homes).

    ReplyDelete
  4. Nina GalvezOctober 19, 2017 at 1:40 PM

    I really liked this post and agree with the points you made! I also thought that the connection to mental illness was a very smart one. While reading your post, I was trying to think of how mental illness relates to the fact that one-day Gregor wakes up and without explanation, is a bug. Maybe the idea that mental illness could happen to anyone? Or possibly that mental illnesses could have a sudden onset (like depression for example)? I also found it interesting that Gregor changes to adapt to his new conditions. Maybe this relates to how people could change from their illness (like their views and maybe even personality). I think the whole idea of mental illness could very easily relate to almost every aspect of this story.

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