Marxism In The Metamorphosis

From the word go, the main character Gregor is given a proletarian role where he is made the sole breadwinner of the family, trifling to beat the debt his family owed (Minute Book Report, 2013). He worked as a clerk at a local firm and was strategically placed among the class of modern wage laborers, having no other means of self emolument than the sale of labor for a livelihood.

Kafka creates a nameless manager to whom Gregor has to answer to. In this case, the nameless manager is the representation of the Bourgeoisie. He is described to sit on a desk from where he talks down from those heights to his staffers (Reese, 2004). He gains his superiority by virtue of economic position. From his description, he is presented as more monstrous than the man-sized beetle Gregor had turned into.

Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis “ brings out Marxist resolve that a person’s worth is as much as the value he can be exchanged into. The metamorphosis of Gregor into a beetle renders him useless as a normal laborers. Therefore, this leads to a chain of events that led to his eventual demise. First, the manager abandons him for he fled from the site never to return after seeing what Gregor had become. Being of no financial help to the family, Gregor is abandoned by his own kin especially after he had scared off renters who ought to have brought more money to the family, leading to his unfortunate death in beetle form. Grete even says to her father, “It has to go.” Gregor had ceased to be Grete's brother the moment he became a non-working man-sized beetle. (Reese, 2004)

The manager, who is the bourgeoisie in the text has a lot of time in his hands to travel to Gregor Samsa's home to look for him. The economic power he has over the rest in the workplace had him go to Gregor's house to scold him for being late few hours despite being on time for five years. To him, the value of Gregor was as a laborer and not as a person. (Reese, 2004)

Works cited

Reese, R. J. 2004. Marxist Theory in The Metamorphosis. Retrieved from https://robertjamesreese.com/essays/marxist-theory-in-the-metamorphosis

Minute Book Report, 2013. Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka (Summary and Review). Retrieved from https://youtu.be/l-hD-6Qxj_E