Metamorphosis By Franz Kafka

Kafka includes many complex ideas which influenced art and literature in the early 20th century such as expressionism, surrealism, existentialism and freudianism. Kafka incorporates expressionism, which is the release of emotions depicted in art, into the novella more than any other technique. As a child, Kafka was sickly and timid and that is how he portrayed Gregor. Both had domineering fathers who tried to control their lives and futures. “Gregor froze in shock; there was no longer any point in running as his father decided to bombard him”(24). At one point they both succumbed to the intense pressure and demanding expectations. Kafka managed to escape his reality by releasing his emotions through expressionism writing. Surrealism, the use

Kafka continues this theme literally, by continuing to describe Gregor as a realistically human-size beetle. Existentialism, the existence of the individual, is intricately displayed by Gregor’s thoughts after he assimilated to his life as an insect. He ruminates about his decisions in life so far by saying, “If I didn’t hold back for my parents’ sake, I would’ve quit ages ago. I would’ve gone to the boss and told him just what I think from the bottom of my heart”(14). After his transmutation, Gregor finally realizes that he had been living for everyone around him and that that was the cause of his misery. The last concept Kafka includes in his work is the idea of freudianism, which is the concept of having layered levels of conscious, from the id and ego to the super-ego, is also depicted in The Metamorphosis. At one point or another, the characters all reveal what is really on their conscious and begin to comprehend and accept concepts around them. The most tragic realization made by Gregor was that “he was the boss’s minion without a backbone or