Die Verwandlung (The Metamorphosis). It is Kafka's representative work and a classic of Western modernist literature. As the foundation work of Western modernist literature, "The Metamorphosis" is also one of the important works of Kafka who is also recognized as the originator of modernism, and has had a profound impact on the development of later modernism.

(1) A brief description of "Metamorphosis"

The novel is divided into three parts

In the first part, Gregor finds himself transformed into a "giant beetle", panicked and melancholy. When his father found out, he was furious and drove him back to his bedroom.

In the second part, Gregor has changed and developed the habits of a beetle, but retains his human consciousness. He is unemployed, but he is still concerned about how to pay off his father's debt and send his sister to the conservatory. However, a month later, he became a burden to the family. Father, mother, and sister changed their attitude towards him.

In the third part, in order to survive, the family had to work to earn money, and could not bear the burden of Gregor. My sister finally offered to get my brother away. Hungry and sick, Gregor fell into despair, "he thought of his family with affection and love", "and then his head hung involuntarily on the floor, and the last breath of breath came out of his nostrils", and he died. Father, mother, and sister began to live a new life to support themselves.

Gregor's transformation from a "man" to a "worm" indicates that the little man cannot control his own destiny, and his "metamorphosis" is involuntarily, a symbol of loneliness and sorrow for all inverted characters. After Gregor's "objectification", although he became a "beetle" (i.e. a non-human) physiologically, he still retained the human psyche psychologically, able to observe, judge and think. He knew that he had lost his career and had no money to support his family, which was disgusted by outsiders and disliked by his family, thus causing misfortune to his family. Although he lived in his family, he had no relatives and suffering, and "there was no special feeling of warmth anymore", so that he died of hunger strike in depression and sorrow. Gregor's tragedy symbolizes the universal fact of the alienation of man into "inhuman" in capitalist society, revealing the distortion of human nature, the loss of personality and the pain of existence in the society of that time. It can be seen how deep the meaning is!

In "The Metamorphosis", due to the heavy physical and mental oppression, people lose their essence and become alienated. It describes this sense of loneliness and strangeness between people, that is, between people, the competition is intensified, the feelings are diluted, and the relationship deteriorates, that is to say, the relationship is both absurd and difficult to communicate. The salesman wakes up and finds himself turned into a beetle, although it still has human emotions and psychology, but the appearance of the worm is that he gradually turns into a stranger, and being abandoned by the world after the transformation is his state of mind is extremely sad. After three failed attempts to communicate with his loved ones and the outside world, only death awaited him. From this point of view, his deformation reflects the real state of existence of Westerners at that time. Kafka's novels are not just about facts, but about resisting the world and seeking the perfection of human humanity.

(2) The revelation of various relationships in "Metamorphosis".

Let's first look at the revelation of the relationship between man and society in "The Metamorphosis". The relationship between the individual and society should be one in which the part and the whole complement each other. But since the existence of classes, this relationship has been constantly in friction, conflict, and antagonism; Especially after entering the historical stage of capitalism, with the high development of industry, science and technology, and the continuous accumulation of materials, the relationship between man and society has become more complex, and man is no longer the master of society, but has become a thing, an animal, and a non-human. As Marx defined "alienation": "the domination of things over man, the domination of dead labour over living labour, the domination of products over producers." In The Metamorphosis, the protagonist Gregor becomes a giant beetle overnight, and the underlying cause of the transformation of man into an insect is the harshness of the social environment and the mechanical and heavy labor itself. This environment is concrete, but it is also abstract and universal, and most people face it every day. In such a social environment, people gradually become numb, mechanical, and atrophied, becoming tools and "non-humans". It is an absurd thing for people to become beetles, but it also profoundly and sharply shows a terrible "alienated" relationship between society and people. In this relationship, society is strong, while people are passive and weak.

Look at the description of human relationships in "The Metamorphosis", which is the focus of the novel. When his father's company went bankrupt and the family was in dire straits, Gregor took on the burden of family life by working as a traveling salesman. He is respected and loved at home. When a person is dependent on others, his relationships with others are naturally in a normal state. But Gregor became a beetle, and the relationship between father and son, mother and son, brother and sister suddenly changed 180 degrees, revealing a terrible picture of extreme selfishness, indifference, cruelty, and inability to communicate, and the loss of family and ethics. The tyrannical and irascible father has completely forgotten the father-son relationship in the past, and is afraid that the "family ugliness" will be publicized, so he wants to drive him back to the room and lock him up. Paternal love has vanished in him, revealing extreme egocentrism. The mother's affection for her son seemed to be deeper, she sympathized with his misfortune, she could not accept the fact that he had become a beetle, so she was grief-stricken, but she had already regarded him as a heavy burden in her heart. Even more hateful was her sister Gretel, who cried and begged her father: "We must try to get rid of him" and "He must get out of here". A hysterical cry exposed the selfishness, cunning, and ruthlessness in her heart to the fullest. Gregor was neither surprised nor angry at the family's words and actions, but accepted this fact with a sober, "peaceful" and "contemplative" mind. He died quietly while "remembering his family with affection and affection." His death made Samsha's family feel relieved, and everyone bathed in the spring breeze of March and went out on an outing with ease. Gregor's death did not affect the lives of others. This is the relationship between people in the capitalist world, everyone is an egocentrist, and it is money and interests that maintain interpersonal relationships, and once this bond is broken, there will only be confrontation, conflict, estrangement, suspicion, and murder between people. Kafka used indifferent brushstrokes to paint a picture of the indifferent world.

Finally, let's take a look at the display of the relationship between man and nature, and the relationship between man and self in "The Metamorphosis". In the relationship between man and nature, it also includes the relationship between man and human nature. In human nature, there is both a natural side and a social side, and the combination of the two constitutes a complete human nature. It is at this point that "Metamorphosis" shows the revelation and denial of human nature, in the cold and heavy real world, it is difficult for people to preserve their own nature, people are divided and alienated, even if you still have consciousness, thoughts and emotions, but the body has become an animal, is the person who has become an animal still a person? This is a profound perspective on human nature by modernist writers. In terms of the relationship between man and the self, modernist writers, under the influence of modern psychology, have deep doubts about the stability, reliability, and rationality of the self. He believes that the core of the self is not rationality but instinct (desire) and subconscious, so he expresses the chaos and illusion of the characters' consciousness in his works. The Metamorphosis is absurd, and we can see it as a writer's "nightmare" or a subconscious activity. The novel expresses a common theme in many modernist works: the sorrow of losing oneself and the failure to find oneself. Gregor, under the "tiring errands" and the weight of life, has completely lost himself. He wanted to regain the joy of life and self-worth, but he failed completely and became a big beetle that everyone feared and hated. The beetle is a wonderful artistic symbol, it symbolizes the "alienation" situation of man in real life, it symbolizes a kind of cowardice, escape and closure of the self. The humble little man is powerless to compete with reality, he can only hide in the carapace, endure loneliness, and look at the world coldly.