Religion In Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis

Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis is novella that has been looked and analyzed through many different schools thought. However, it is seldom looked through a lense of Hindu beliefs. These beliefs are present as a theme throughout the novel. Alongside other Hindu beliefs, the Hindu concept of energy can be seen in all the characters of the novel. The link between “Purusha” or man and the “Prakriti” the nature is shown through the transformation of Gregor Samsa, the arguable protagonist of the novel. The most pronounced effect of this belief is through Gregor Samsa. Gregor Samsa exudes negative energy to his society as he feels small and worthless like an insect, and thus, is how society views him. He felt as though he was forced into a job he solely did to support his family financially. As a result, he felt belittled and small and emanated negativity. “Gregor kept reassuring himself”( 86, Kafka) that he was normal and fine, however, his negative energy had not subsided yet. Because he emanates negativity his family also views him as a small worthless insect, “He must go,” cried Gregor’s sister, (101 Kafka). His family eventually disowned him and left him to die. In the novel, Gregor’s pronoun was changed from Him to It as the book progressed to section three.

reality. Truth vs. reality is a moral dilemma that every human must face. Whether to seek the truth and abandon the illusion that is reality or keep living the illusion and never know the harsh truth. In the novel, Gregor Samsa is shown to live in an illusion during the beginning of the novel. He hates his job and continues to live a life without any truth to it. He reflects on his own life as “ the plague of traveling ( 77 Kafka). Finding out the truth can be liberation for most. In Hindu mythology it is described as “breaking out of one 's shell”. Very similar to this belief, Gregor Samsa’s transformation is from his old self to a more liberated and free self. He finds the truth and abandons all reality. He has reached a stage that people in his family can not comprehend. They begin to “ look at him different” ( 82 Kafka). He is now on the journey to find the truth. He abandons all reality and lives a secluded live after section I of the novella. The superficial items in his room that signified reality and the objects we purchase to satisfy our materialistic needs. He no longer required this objects as he was above reality. The search for truth is neither easy nor fruitful for most. It usually results in demise and is often a neverending search that carries on to the afterlife. It proves hard Samsa and he soon fades into the night and is implicitly said to die. However, the search does