As I was reading The Metamorphosis, I had some questions about what sort of a social system Kafka would have thought would be ideal.
Capitalism? On the surface, certainly not. He portrays Gregor as the one who works, and Gregor is absolutely dehumanized in his treatment, beyond simply the fact that he has been turned into a giant cockroach. Yet Gregor is not one of the working class. He is not one of the hardworking dregs of capitalist society. He is not someone who can provide barely a hovel, working 12-hour shifts, with scraps on the table. Instead, his family seems to be living in relative luxury, with a maid in a nice apartment. So maybe Kafka would like capitalism, except for one thing.
It seems almost as if Kafka's criticism of society in this book is not so much that he does not like the working system of capitalism, but that he does not like some of the character traits it breeds. He dislikes the arrangement of the man trying to support the family alone. In a sense, Gregor's "fatal flaw" as the tragic hero is hubris, the all-time favorite. Gregor plans to get his family completely out of debt alone, give them a wonderful apartment (it must be noted that the apartment was one "which Gregor had picked for" the family (42)), and give his sister a university music education. And all this working as a salesperson! Anyone would be skeptical, and wish Gregor luck. And yet, from the first sentence of the book, Gregor is a cockroach. As a cockroach, he continues to have these aspirations. The aspirations are absolutely surreal, along with his bodily form, and yet we as readers can't help but wonder if he just might have been successful in all that he reaches for if her were not a giant insect.
Kafka seems to point out a flaw of socialism. In a socialist system, one is distributed goods by the quantity and quality of work performed. Yet Gregor would always be sneaking his family things that he had earned, in a socialist system, because he loves them and feels bad for them, whether or not they deserve it.
Similarly, Kafka points out a flaw of communism. In a communist system, one is distributed goods and services based on need. In The Metamorphosis, how do we define need? It seems that Gregor is living in a one-man communist dictatorship, run by his family and the maid. He is powerless to make decisions himself (for example, he cannot convince his family to stop removing his furniture). So his whole life is run by other people, and what he gets is based solely on what they think he needs. He is powerless to gain items for himself, to work for what he can earn. He is distributed food on a need-based basis; the quality is lacking. And when his family neglects to clean his room, what can he do about it? Thus, Kafka may actually be showing an example of how communism does not work. Another way he shows that "need" is not necessarily an easy measure is through Gregor's father. When Gregor can work, we can assume that he wants to act as needy as he can, in order to maximize the amount of money that Gregor will bring home. We learn that there were more savings than Gregor had thought, and that the general fiscal situation is better than he expected, and he is happy about this. But this means that the family was hiding this information from him, making themselves seem more needy. Herein is another reason why communism would not work, from Kafka.
Is there any existing system that would answer Kafka's plea in The Metamorphosis? It would be interesting to know what his true political and social views were.
2 comments:
This is a very interesting and engrossing blog post! I never quite considered The Metamorphosis as a work of political criticism, but given what we have learned about Kafka, it seems likely that he would have taken this chance to express his complaints against the society that disgusted him.
Rather than seeing as the society, whether it is socialist or capitalist, as a misfit for Gregor, can we not see Gregor as a mistake of society? His entire life has been devoted to his parents, to his work, and to his sister. These are common traits among a population and it can't be only Gregor who feels bitter about his responsibilities, but the rest of us carry on. We have moments of indignation, but we can move on. Gregor cannot, and Kafka arguably cannot either.
Very interesting stuff.
Kafka is certainly more often read in terms of psychology than organized politics--your line about Gregor living in a "one-man communist dictatorship" is very suggestive in this direction--as his protagonists and their situations are so idiosyncratic, it's difficult to draw any clear sense of what kind of social/political system he would prefer. But it's certainly plausible to read "The Metamorphosis" as a critique of what a particular system of late-industrial capitalism *does to* an individual psychology (and it's significant that Gregor's labor doesn't *produce* anything; he's a traveling salesman--a quintessential late-capitalist profession). And it's not only with his parents that he's "insect-like"--the figure of the office manager, intruding into Gregor's private space and criticizing his work performance (even though he hasn't missed a day in five years, and he's *clearly* driven to get there on time every day, to the point of memorizing train timetables!), presents a nightmarish view of the alienation of modern labor. Gregor is made aware how utterly *dispensable* he is; and once he's unable to work (this is a story of disability), he's quite literally useless to everyone in his life.
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