A review by koberreads
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

 
BOOK REVIEW: 
 
I finished this short story in one day of reading (which 1  to 2hrs for me) 
 
I read it out of curiosity because Haruki Murakami wrote a much more fulfilling quirky and less depressing short story based on this story in reverse, there is an insect inside a man's body rather than a man trapped inside an insect. The story is called “Samsa in love” one of the best stories in Murakami’s short story collection “Men without women”
 
Read that story if you felt too depressed after reading this one. Samsa in love is like what happens after the family left the flat at the end of the story 
 
Nonetheless, this story is still great in its own right, and no wonder Haruki Murakami admires Kafka.  (Both of these authors like writing about loneliness, isolation, and estrangement.) 
 
I think you might hate the story because it lacks any obvious moral or the ending is too unfair, depressing, and unjust for our protagonist who is just supporting his family financially and got turned into a bug unexpectedly and left to be mistreated, declined, and die and his family even felt relieved of his death rather than have any source of remorse. They cried out of relief rather than out of great sorrow for losing a family member 
 
But the story has no moral but simply the author's exploration and expression of the great sorrow in loneliness and estrangement a human being could have to the point that other people are repulsed by you as if you become a giant bug one day. 
 
Even though I felt depressed about this story, I respect and love it for the author making me realize loneliness and estrangement, especially the extreme kind not only mine alone. But he and other people as well do feel it. Often even for introverts, feeling that you are the only person feeling this way is one of the most painful kinds of pain a human being can experience. 
This book about loneliness or alienation ironically made me feel less lonely now because all of us want empathy for our sufferings in life. 
 
We should read fiction more so we could empathize with each other and feel that we are not alone especially in our feelings of loneliness 
 
Going to talk to some people now, something an introvert like me rarely does hahaha