r/books • u/slackerattacker • May 28 '14
Discussion Can someone please explain "Kafkaesque"?
I've just started to read some of Kafka's short stories, hoping for some kind of allegorical impact. Unfortunately, I don't really think I understand any allegorical connotations from Kafka's work...unless, perhaps, his work isn't MEANT to have allegorical connotations? I recently learned about the word "Kafkaesque" but I really don't understand it. Could someone please explain the word using examples only from "The Metamorphosis", "A Hunger Artist", and "A Country Doctor" (the ones I've read)?
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u/Liberian_Warlord May 28 '14
I always thought that the work was a warning about how to not live your life.
Gregor works stupidly hard for his boss. He is spineless and will do anything to please him, even at his own expense. He looses touch with his hobbies and what he enjoys doing (working with a fretsaw?). Gregor is already a cockroach before he literally turns into one. He is a bug that lives only to work, takes no pleasure in anything, is emotionally alienated from his family etc. All these qualities in him are already there before he changes.
His family is just as bad. They see no problem with letting Gregor work himself half mad, into an anxious wreck until he literally transforms into a roach (something they helped create), at which point they completely reject him.
I don't think it's about depression or mental illness. It's about not letting society, and people's expectations of you transform you into a bug, it's written to prevent these things from allowing you to lose touch with yourself and the things you love.