Familiarizing Kafka and His Metamorphosis

Familiarizing Kafka and His Metamorphosis

Historical Context

The Metamorphosis is a modernistic short story written by Franz Kafka. Kafka was a relatively unknown literary genius of his time, whose modernistic work has had a major impact on readers throughout the world. Kafka lived in some of the most industrializing times of the world, from 1883 to 1924. Overtime his name has become associated with the essence of modernism (Alder 1).His chief works, which were published after his death by his longtime friend Max Brod, are filled with creative magic realism elements and many modern ideas. Steady themes of isolation, nightmarish scenarios, faulty family units, and sorrowful society structures permeate his writings. Indeed Kafka's fame has created an adjective to describe his type of work: "Kafkaesque" (Alder 3).His work was impressively influenced by his life experiences, most notably by his relationship with his father. His genius is present in the way he conveys his deepest feelings into the characters in his stories (Pitt).

Kafka was born of Jewish ancestry (Brod 3). He wrote almost exclusively in German, although he was fluent in Czech. Kafka struggled throughout his life with his relationship with his father. His father was described as an "ill tempered domestic tyrant" (Kafka-online). He frequently wrote in his diary of his struggle with the emotional abuse from his father. His relationship with his father was evident in many of his greatest works. Kafka, himself, said in a famous letter to his father, "My writing was all about you; all I did there, after all, was to bemoan what I could not bemoan upon your breast" (Alder 6).

Franz's father was a self made Jewish merchant (Pitt). He did not support Franz's interest in literature. Franz was enrolled in German schools, which is a consequence of his father's push toward greater social advancements. Franz excelled in school and eventually studied law. While attending Charles Ferdinand University, he made friends who stuck with him the rest of his life. Max Brod and Felix Weltsch remained in Franz's life and supported his literary achievements (Kafka-online). Franz worked at an insurance company shortly after law school. This work was less adventurous, but provided Franz with a better schedule to work on his writings (Pitt).

Kafka wrote The Metamorphosis in the fall of 1912 in the back drop of the Austro Hungarian Empire. The population spoke mostly Czech which caused the German speaking Kafka to feel some alienation. Kafka potentially felt further isolation because of his family (as well as his own) disconnect from the Jewish religion (Brod 185). The early 1900s featured intense industrialization. The result of much of this industrialization was a larger increase in wealth for the elite, and a further poverty plummet for the lower classes. Kafka expresses many of these discouraging economic themes in The Metamorphosis. He writes of a character isolated by working conditions transformed into a venomous creature that is then isolated by his working family. Kafka writes about the impact on the modern society on the family (Brod 37). These critical views are much more important when taken in the context of a world inventing, becoming richer, and heading, almost prophetically, to a series of world wars.

Shortly before his death Kafka sent all his literary works to Max Brod. Brod was told to not publish any of them, but rather to have them burned (Brod 239). Brod did not do what Franz asked him to do, but rather published his works after he died. Many of Kafka's writings involve a shy character confronting a much larger, dominating character, or a character that is overcome with hopelessness,