Representation of the European society of the twentieth century in metamorphosis
Metamorphosis is a very particular literary work, due to the development it presents, generating great controversy at the time when it was launched to the public and even today;All this thanks to the idea presented by the author Franz Kafka to convert the main character into an insect due to the situations that he was happening in his life. It was a bit absurd and terrifying to imagine as a person of flesh and blood, it can become a bug literally, this being the reason why this book was restricted to a certain audience and countries;But when investigating the writer’s biography, it is understood that this change has a rather psychological background.
This narrative was written during World War I, where all people were discouraged and depressive for the situation, also adding that the majority were employed on exploited due to the little working hand and bad economy. This is clearly reflected in the way in which the characters thought and interact, in such a way we can observe how the protagonist is about exploited by his boss and his family thanks to the fact that it is he who has all the economic responsibility of his home.
On the other hand, it can be mentioned that Kafka’s story also affects a lot in the story, because he had a difficult childhood, with a bad relationship with his parents and had low self – esteem. We can compare this with the story, where the family did not treat their son well, even being he who maintains them;And when he lost his employment, they treated him as a useless and unusable object.
Something that represented the society of the time a lot, was pessimism and hypocrisy so present in the characters, where they really saw everything that could have happened without looking for a solution. On the other hand, it is important to mention that at the time the literary work was published, the family’s treatment was not so shocking for the protagonist because they were in time of reconstruction and if you did not contribute anything, you were practically displaced from thesociety.
At the end of the book, we find Gregorio’s death after isolation for a long time of society. This mentions how people wanted. In conclusion, metamorphosis is a work that introduces certain characteristics of the history and traditions of that time, we must only investigate and analyze in order to understand them.
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