Why You Can’t Trust Good People | Kafka's Metamorphosis 

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The whole book was just Kafka's answer to the question "would you still love me if I was a insect" lol

Sounds like when someone experiences trauma, and discover that they were valued for their role and not themselves when they are now an inconvenience

Kafka wrote a 50 page letter to his father about how poorly his father had treated him. You can't really understand Kafka or Metamorphosis, without understanding that he was raised by people who never loved him.

I think anyone who has suffered from illness and disability, especially when it happens “over night”, can understand what this story is about. The way you are treated when you’re no longer the person of perceived value you once were.

One of the most depressing things about the book is the fact that if it were to be that something like that would happen to you or something that is seen as "negative", your family and closest friends have the possibility of shunning you away just because you are the root of their fear, therefore rejoice if you are gone. Not all families or friends are this way, however, emotionally inmature families and friends would do this.

I went through this after a breakup. Had my identity and sense of purpose taken away. Family and friends went quiet. Feelings of shame and abandonment. One day though, you wake up as a human again.

As Iroh himself has said "Pride is not the opposite of shame, it is the source of it."

I read „Die Verwandlung“ (Metamorphosis) when I was in a madhouse. It described exactly what was going on in my life at that time. Family members were turning away from me because I no longer was who I used to be. (Sorry for my bad english, I'm german)

This sheds light on the ever present feeling of why it's so hard to truly trust anyone. Even when people treat you nicely, there's this underlying tone of it being very conditional (at least by the majority). And therefore, how much is this love worth...

Kafka’s stories show that most of ppl’s “good will” are merrily for image than actually being a good person. And that’s what I fear the most. if nobody was looking, if there was never any ridicaule, “good ppl” will commit the greatest sins just bc of no real negative reinforcement.

"Would you still love me if i was a worm?" Answer: no

when women ask about whether or not you'd still love them when they became a cockroach, no one bats an eye, when a man asks it, suddenly it became one of the greatest pieces of literature edit: the reply section has been semi-necessary yap

As depressing as this book is, it's kinda funny in a way. Instead of being like "holy shit! Im a giant cockroach!" He was worried about getting to work on time, what would his boss think, how he's gonna pay the bills, etc. Even his family, after getting over the shock, worried about the same things. No one was like how the hell did this happen or try to contact anyone smart to try to make sense of it. They were just complaining about how hes such a burden to them.

First time I read this book I was actually in tears at the end. Thanks to a disorder I have, I have a chronic suspicion that people who apparently liked me deep down only tolerated my existence. To make matters worse, abandonment is unbearably painful. It's borderline personality disorder in case anyone is curious, and Metamorphosis is the worst nightmare of anyone who has it. Finally feeling the relief of having a family that loves you only to have our worst fears confirmed thanks to something we can't control

'The Metamorphosis' will always be a reflection of any society to some degree, but while watching this excellent video, I was mainly reminded of the last several years, especially the political climate where I live (U.S.), the Covid responses across the world, and the amplification of everything through the media. It seemed like everything changed overnight. People awoke one morning and only saw dung beetles, not other human beings. Respectful disagreement or debate became impossible, and we all became vermin in each other's eyes. There were contant, gruesome battles between personal integrity and public shame. Sometimes you're Gregor, sometimes you're his father, his mother, his sister, or someone with yet another perspective. I haven't read 'The Metamorphosis" since high school, but this video has inspired me to check it out again.

As an evil person, I would love to hook my bug Gregor up with a comfortable space to live in and some paints so he can at least make art to pass the time. Plus, I'm always forgetting about food in the fridge until it goes bad, so being able to feed it to him would be a win/win.

Shame is a weapon wielded by those who have none.

Growing from a child to a teenager, then adult, had a similar effect on my own parents, who no longer love me the same way they once did. Nobody tells you love disappears when you get older, or that it transfers to younger siblings. It all feels like a lie now.

More thoughts... an interesting aspect of the situation is that, contrary to the family's perception, Gregor is not universally feared and hated. Some people react fearfully, but not all. For instance, the cleaner shows no fear or aggression (though she has no respect for him; she too thinks he is a mindless animal). The tenants also did not react negatively; in fact, they smiled when they saw him. However, the family projected their own feelings onto everyone else, and thought everyone would be repulsed. It is strongly implied that it was the father's behaviour, not Gregor, that caused the tenants to leave, even though the family later blamed Gregor for it.

This video hit home for me... not close to home. Just home. Several years ago my father started showing signs of what we all thought to be skin cancer on the side of his nose. Sparing details that would make this story longer than it needs to be, he never went to get it looked at. A few years of not getting it looked at and it was obvious that something was horribly wrong. It had spread - visibly - down to his upper lip and up the rest of his nose, caused constant profuse nosebleeds, smelled like death... it was horrible. Through this time, he never once refused to help people with anything if they needed it. He never said no to anyone. Not once, ever. My car broke down on the side of the road, and it was during peak covid, so I called my brother, he couldn't come pick me up since the tow truck driver wasn't allowed to take passengers in his cab... called my Dad and he came right out even though he felt miserable and was sleeping. However he had "friends" who were taking advantage of him which he never told anybody about. Remember that part. We finally convinced him that he needed to go to a doctor or he would die, and finally he listened. Turned out he was fired, forced to retire, or otherwise let go from his job shortly before the cancer began to develop... he never told us why, it was a touchy subject to him. But he didn't want to sign up for state medical insurance because he was afraid that they would take his severance. Severance that we found out he more or less gave away to somebody who was using him for drugs and rent money. So we finally convinced him to get set up for state medical insurance once the money was all gone and his "friends" abandoned him. He went to a doctor, and they told him in no uncertain terms that unless they performed surgery on him right away he would die very soon. The cancer had spread from his skin into his sinuses, and into the bone structure that made up his face. So he underwent surgery. He was transformed completely. Totally unrecognizable. His entire nose was gone, most of his upper lip gone, part of his palat gone... in their place a puffy skin graft. He could hardly communicate at all, and the psychological impact was... noticeable. It didn't help that my maternal grandmother died while he was in hospital, and when we told him it was a massive blow to his morale... he respected her a lot. For a while he lived with his mother taking care of her, and I would visit every day for ten months to hook him to a feeding pump that fed him directly through a tube going into his stomach. He slept in the dining room and his living conditions were disgusting because he refused to do even the bare minimum to take care of himself. He would urinate in a flower vase to avoid pausing the food pump, then spill it on the floor or dump it in the kitchen sink, get blood and mucus on everything... I would have to clean up after him because nobody else would, not to mention there were bed bugs upstairs in the bedroom he wasn't using. Then I had to administer his medications, and during this time my mother, his ex-wife died, followed shortly thereafter by his mother. Since the house went to his brother, it was to be sold, and considering how well he treated the house he was staying in, I was understandably fearful of bringing him into my home which I inherited with my brother from my maternal grandmother. So instead we tried to get him to find an apartment... we tried to help him with that, but there were no vacancies. I didn't want to just throw him into hospice, and so I brought him into my home. When I told him he could come, it was the first time I'd seen him act excited in a long, long time. My apprehension was growing, and my brother, his fiance, and my girlfriend at the time all told me not to take him in, and he would make the house a disgusting, unsanitary, biohazard. I pushed on and told them I couldn't just abandon him. Well... after a few months living with us... having gone through the exact process described in this video... I finally gave in and told him he had to go. He went to live with the ones who were taking advantage of him, hopping from one cheap run down hotel to the next until finally, and I'm not kidding when I say this... until finally on my birthday last year, he died. I felt regret for pushing him away, and in retrospect now I feel shame for kicking him out. Everybody tries to comfort me by saying I did what was best for me, and my mental health, but... I mean... he was my father. He never, not once ever said no to me when I needed him. I was his last hope for being able to at least live out his last days in relative comfort and instead I threw him out onto the streets like refuse. He died in abject misery in some shitty run down inner city motel surrounded by people who didn't care about him. Easily the biggest regret in my entire life... and to add insult to injury, the girlfriend who convinced me to push him away eventually ended up being no good anyway.

I made the same "your mom" joke to a girl at work once whose mom had recently died of cancer. She made this shocked/hurt face but just ignored it. I wasn't even thinking about it. It just came out. I still think about it from time to time and feel shame still. That happened about 17-18 years ago so yeah... i know exactly how you feel

As someone who turned from being a "gifted child", the one who "is born to have great success in life", to having a disability: I feel it.

This sounded more like an analogy for a family member developing a debilitating mental illness like schizophrenia or dementia to me. One day he wakes up and finds himself unable to work, leave the house, or even clean his own room, he feels incredible shame, a desire to feel noticed and valued by his family, and his mind eventually begins to slip heavily, while his family has to find new jobs and work harder in his absence. The family is immensely concerned and worried for him at first, then grows to fear him, in the book because he's a beetle and a human/beetle hybrid would be scary, irl because people with schizophrenia and dementia can develop violent tendencies that can be difficult to predict, then they grow annoyed and eventually angry with him because of the burden he places on them by his very existence, though it's obviously not his fault or choice, it seems to be human nature assign blame, even if deliberately trying not to do so your mind will trend towards building frustration and anger with someone or something, eventually boiling over if you don't work through it in a healthier manner. I've known people who've had dementia and knew the people that had to care for them for some time before placing them in a permanent living situation. The person who developed dementia was a really close friend to the people that cared for them prior to sending them away, but by the time they placed him in a nursing home they were just relieved to have him out of the house because a burden had been lifted. In a way, the friend died the moment they got the diagnosis, and the care and compassion showed to them afterwards was more to be humane and to honor the prior friendship then anything else. While I don't think this is a good thing, I don't think that feeling burdened by someone who's slowly morphing into someone you don't even know anymore as well as putting an enormous amount of stress on you and your family is an unnatural thing or a condemnation of your character. It's not your fault or the fault of the person that falls ill, it's just a cruel aspect of life that, at the very, very least, allows you to feel some relief when losing a family member instead of exclusively sorrow and grief.

When I was reading Metamorphosis it was as clear as day that metamorphosis is a metaphor for someone suddenly becoming disabled, whether physically or mentally. Every disabled person knows what it's like to "become a burden" and start seeing resentment in the family's eyes. The same thing can be said about rapidly ageing family members

Good people are good. Those are just people who act like they are good, but when that filter is removed, light shines on their true self.

To give the devil his due: Imagine just living with a bug

This is why I prefer HONEST people over ''good people'' in life.

We assessed this book in my literature class. One person actually said Gregor's transformation was karma for "shunning his family at dinner every day." I was stunned and compelled to point out that he wasn't shunning them at all. He simply had nothing left to give at the end of each day after expending all his energy and humanity taking care of them completely on his own. Introverts need solitude to recharge and he was already giving them everything he had.

This book is about disability; it shows how people are typically treated by their families once they become disabled. It's profoundly honest and realistic despite using this metaphor of transformation instead of depicting an actual accident or a health breakdown. EVERYTHING is so tru in the family dynamics: how the family members initially feel the duty to take care of Gregor, but just can't fight their disgust; how Gregor, despite his own suffering and being mistreated, initially empathises with his family for being burdened with his new disgusting self; how one disabled person in the family casts a shadow on all the family members' reputation; how empathy and disgust just can't coexist in one person's psyche - one has to eventually supress the other. One of the most reslistic pieces of literature ever written, despite using a completely unreslistic event as a premise.

Fear tranforms into anger...we can understand a lot about politics in just those 4 words. How much potential for greatness is crushed by that aspect of human psychology? How much evil is enabled?

My experience with self-proclaimed “good” people is they will abandon you the moment you express a “bad” quality, rather than helping you overcome it Edit: looks like I struck a nerve with the 13 year old Tate fans who think they have everything figured out. To be clear, im not saying it is their responsibility to **FIX** you, thats on you, but it is their duty as friends to help you along and guide you to the right path, not just abandon you because you might shatter their illusion of satisfaction, by that I mean these people aren’t actually happy or good, they are just lying to themselves about it

No sadness at all, conquest and spiritual victory. To accept the role, to preserve your own compassion in spite of seeing and receiving the worst is a master's victory. Triumph over the mortal human state, to see its ugliness in the rear view mirror. The shame should be for those existing comfortably within Society, a lesson yet to be learned.

You deserve way more subs, the editing quality and the depth of analysis in your videos are something I would expect from someone who has 300-500k subs

People must keep in mind, good person doesn’t mean they won’t mess up. No one is perfect and you can’t expect a good person to always be perfect. They’re human just like you. We’re all human.

You can’t trust, good people, but you sure as hell can’t trust the bad ones, so don’t trust anyone

I think context matters A LOT !! There are so many manipulative people who are good at concealing their toxic acts under a blanket of sweet attitude and do all the things that an actual good person does. And then comes a good person, becoming good consists innate capability along with conscious efforts and choices that can align with right direction they want to move in which doesn’t mean they won’t have the bad in them. Some toxic manipulative abusers literally can break such good people apart, provoke them and then also have the audacity to call their abrasive reaction as their true reality as if you are too dumb to understand that you reap what you sow. Because they’re good only until they take their stand. Some people literally don’t know how to understand human beings as human beings. If people think being good means they won’t be harsh towards bad people and will entertain any bullshit are absolutely delusional because it’s not the ‘good’ that they are expecting out of a person it’s literally them asking for people to be ‘nice’ 24/7 and supress their reactions that can enable toxic behaviour without any discomfort for manipulative people. Being good is also knowing when to stand against the bullshit even if it includes giving a reality check like a tight slap

Correction: You can't trust bad people pretending they're good.

"Me? I'm dishonest, and a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest. Honestly. It's the honest ones you want to watch out for ..."

I felt my heart sinking into my chest every time you mentioned the family celebrsting Gregor's death. The thought, of my family members, celebrsting, cheering my passing, It makes me feel an utterly horrific feeling within me. I. 16 years old. I feel close to being like Gregor. As I'm in a role. A role as the only man in the house. I must do chores. I must study. I must help at my mother's work. If my mind was right, I would do this and even far more. But I have fallen into a crippling depression. A crippling depression that I have been victim of, for months to an end. This video makes me feel a fight or flight response. I either become useful. Or have a feast, of pork and wine, over my own grave, one that won't be mourned upon.

If you have kids or will have them in the future, make sure to never have fights with your spouse in front of them. My parents had a very turbulent marriage when I was a kid, and I was always the “referee” in their fights, trying to get them to stop. Their fights were never physical, but they would say the most horrible things to each other, and insult each other’s families, who I loved. It was almost always my mother who caused the fights because I believe she has a lot of childhood trauma also that’s never been addressed. This put me into a constant state of fear that they would have a fight and it would end up in divorce. I couldn’t imagine my family separating and it felt like a nightmare to imagine only seeing my dad on weekends and not every day like I always had. I was closer to my dad than my mom, as she was often very moody and you would get yelled at over the smallest things. So that’s my best advice to parents or potential future parents. Solve your issues in private and never in front of your kids. It WILL have a major impact on their lives when they get older.

In all my countless hours watching youtube over the last 15 years, I have never encountered a video with subtitles this good. If only these were available on the things that actually require subtitles.

I love Metamorphosis for its inate pessimism. I definitely need to re-read it. The book was a great thought experiment. I find the book a great way to voice Kafka's perspective that "if you don't nourish me, you have no value." When Gregor failed to provide for his family, his significance reduced. All his previous hardwork for his family was forgotton. And he was treated like someone who doesn't matter, being as insignificant as a "vermin". In fact, Gregor was completely forgotton as if he never really existed which is evident when the death/disappearence of Gregor brings relief to the family. Kafka did a great job in giving shape to how he and others feel in todays society.

scrambled across this, and it sent a chill down my spine. had a situation happened in our life where a friend got cheated on but he blamed everyone except the girl for it he refused to provide a reason, but just said that we weren't his "real friend" we tried our best to console him and try to calm him down when he came to us the first time around. but afterward, people around us who weren't as tight knitted came to us and revealed that he was basically shittalking us to them more nasty stuff started to turn up when we started to dig towards the girl's side and it turned out, he was a total scumbag and a cheat himself who was already trying to get laid within our own friend group, not counting other crimes he did. everyone from our group basically split apart after the revelation im just scared that maybe we are the one that abandoned him like the family did to gregor because he turned into a "monster" maybe if we, or even just me, took his tantrum and put up with it, i'd still be living the happy facade instead of always having this nightmare scenario replayed in my head for years now yelling into the void like this it made me realize what an ordeal it was and this is probably for the best

I wanna be just like Bug Guy!

As I'm listening I remember that this is exactly how my grandma felt when she became crippled. There was nothing she could do without falling. I was always scared that she would fall. And deep down, I thought that she should just die. And I know she felt the same. When she died, I was relieved. I don't shame myself for that anymore because it really was for the better. No matter how much we loved or cared for her, she wouldn't feel better. Because she would never feel useful again.

I had this happen to me. I was popular among staff at a school I worked at, I bought chocolates from a coworker without knowing they were also selling weed chocolate and vocal about it.I publicly was accused of buying drugs on school grounds. Even though I was found innocent, virtually everyone shunned me afterwards. As a visibly gay man in a conservative setting, I felt like they were looking for a reason to justify their fear of me. I will never trust "good people" again.

Currently going through homelessness, drug/porn addiction, family abandonment and failing out of college. When you truly feel like an insect you feel like your existence and words poison everything and everyone around you. It really does feel like your death date is postponed and you live completely based on fear. Its a psycopathic lifestyle that requires you to constantly shed your skin, and you only either wish for a quick death or to become more than an insect

I struggle to understand social interaction. Recently I got sick, and also lost a family member. People who were close friends suddenly were angry with me for what seemed like no reason. This really helps me understand. Thank you for this.

Two years ago I was very ill and diagnosed with a rare condition , which made me unable to go to school, I was physically unable to get anything done and my mental health was completely out of whack. This made me force the hard truth that people and society as a whole, ignores you and shames you for being behind or not fulfilling your role in it. Family, friends,peers , strangers treated me like an outcast, a broken thing that was not useful to society thus not deserving of respect and acknowledgement. (Just to let u know , I am currently at a very good place in life mentally and much better physically than two years prior ).

I’ve only been betrayed by crappy ppl good ppl give me a sense of love

alternative title: most "good people" are not good because they actually have morally good intentions, they act upon what they think makes them a good person.

Fun fact: Franz Kafka's last name is being used on an anime character named Kafka Hibino aka Kaiju No. 8.

I just thought of why when a victim of bully fights back, everyone around him chastises his self defense. Because the bully was only this victim's problem... everyone was just a spectator laughing at how week the victim was. Now the bully is everyone's problem. Everyone around him now needs to be very cautious until this bully finds its next victim.

This book was often what I thought about when my mom got diagnosed with alcoholic dementia when I was 21. Now 5 years later she has passed and I think about it even more. There was a sense of relief when she passed and I think my whole family feels guilty about it. We tried everything though, but it’s crazy to watch someone you love change so much and know there isn’t any turning back. Trying to help and do what you can but finding bottles stashed away, having things thrown at you, hearing you’re a terrible daughter. The fear that I would become just like her was so palpable, it felt like looking in a mirror and seeing I was now the beetle myself. Friends tried to help me but I hid away, scared I was becoming unrecognisable too. I am not really sure where I was going with that but I guess to say I have thought about the Metamorphosis a lot.

"And we find our every word judged by people we can't see, by rules we don't know ..." ----- TED ED

Growing up with multiple disabled siblings the revulsion and fear of strangers was common for our family. That being said the public perception of those that are different has, in our experience, evolved quite a bit in the last 30 years. I firmly believe books like tjis opened that door.

Simple answer to all this problem (learn how to not give a f*ck) Ignoring is one of the greatest weapon. Once you overcome social boundation you truly become enlighten and learn how to deal with these type of situations without becoming insane.

I'd honestly love to have you as my philosophy professor, your passion and delivery are great.

To be fair his family are not good People! He does all the work and when he isn’t productive anymore (due to depression) he is useless for them and they see him just as plain garbage. Kafka himself had a really bad relationship with his father. The family of Gregor were never good people - they were exploiting him the whole time. (I am actually German and I had this as my topic in my a-levels :D) It is not about betrayal - it is about depression and feeling unworthy because people on the outside deem u as such!

Thank you for the wonderful insight. This really helps me with my regrets and depression that I’ve recently did on my loved ones by abandoning her. It also teaches me to be more careful when abandoning people in our lives. Because if they loved you, abandoning them will immensely impacted their lives. And i did not realize it until now. Thank you

A captivating concept… this reminds me of the dementia patients I work with. You get to see in real-time how you can be discarded once you become “useless” and or a “burden”. A lot of them end up in nursing homes not knowing why they are there and reenacting memories that were meaningful to them like in childhood, their relationships, or their jobs/careers.

Have you heard of a game called Limbus Company? I've seen people in comments eference it and to many it was their first meeting with Kafka. The whole story of Gregor is retold with different type of events, making him a fallen war hero, who he was made into against his will. The flashbacks, heavily steered by his emotions, do not focus on gruesomeness of war itself, but pressure he felt from everyone around, expecting him to be their example... devolving deeper and deeper until the source of his trauma bleeds out in form of everpresent pressure from his mother, forcing him to live up to her ambitions. And to make it ever more obvious, Gregor's mother in the game is called Hermann.

I love so much the fact that he worked so much for his family but without saying anything bad, thinking that working makes them happy, but his family gave up almost instantly on him just because they saw him like a burden..

The metamorphosis can apply to others and they'll treat you as though you're the one who underwent it. Any undesired change or effects they're enduring shall cause others to mistreat you as a result of how they feel.

Only listening to your video and having never read the book, I feel connected with my journey of grief. I lost both my parents pretty closely back to back during the pandemic. Grief and empathy were there in the beginning, but it felt like everyone else moved on so quickly and I felt alone. As my grief turned to depression, it turned to rage, and I isolated myself even further. I am working to be on the other side of it and recover. To forgive those, who I perceived as distant, but I know somethings can never go back to the ways they were with most people, or myself, or the world.

I want to read the book now. This reminds me of a humble young Russian game developer who one day made a popular game and around the same time became addicted to NSFW content, let egotism overcome him and have his server turn into an utterly toxic NSFW-reinforcing cult that someone now wants to expose for how people get treated there. I remember when he was making another game and he used to be more civil and friendly. A bit after people complained about what he did and how he changed, I learnt about NSFW addiction and how it affects millions of people and spreads all over the internet like an unrestricted memetic cognitohazard I feel like that would be a very easy way to become an insect by accident. And a disease-carrying one, at that

What you describe as shame is actually embarrassment, shame is orders of magnitude worse than that. It is a thing that makes you question your own value as a moral being, rather than embarrassment, which is the feeling of losing perhaps a bit of your dignity in the presence of others. Enbarrassment is about how you may be perceived by others, while shame affects how you perceive yourself.

3 archetypal wounds: shame, betrayal, abandonment.

I had read a downsized print of the novel given to me by a friend that didn't quite wrap it around her head. It had stuck with me since. And not too long after we had to move to grandma's 'temporarily' and for the rest of the school year, for about half a year I had to live out of a hotel while grandpa suddenly slipped in a gradually worsening state of dementia. Trying to wrestle with isolation in a small room with not much interaction from others outside of school, going on a 3 hour trip every Friday to go back to grandma's, spending a whole day watching the entire household slowly break down (and witness any meltdowns from dad, grandma or grandpa), have other family members voice their inadequate insight and even get flak myself for not studying enough, only to do another 3 hours for a return trip and start the week all over again. It's summer now and we are still here. Though I felt relief after schools were out, I'm afraid it was temporary. Alongside my shambling grandpa that may or may not be still there trying to shimmy around the house for multiple days until he collapses out of exhaustion, I feel like dead weight. There is not much I can do around the house, I can't even help around, and the house is so small there isn't much room to find privacy to at least get out of the way. I get praised for things I used to do on the daily. At this point, I feel like I am watching Gregor and his family dive into a descent, standing idly as a bystander.

Wow…thank you. This brought a tear to my eye, can very much relate to the decline Gregor experienced. I am wiser and happier for it now but it took many years to get to this place.

“Fear leads to anger anger leads to hate- HATE leads to suffering”

I found your channel thanks to kafka. You speak very fast and eloquently. English is not my native language, I learned English watching videos like yours. By the way, love your accent.

Directly before he transforms Gregor decides to fund his sister's full time training as a musician. Yet his employer complains that he made no sales on his latest trip. So Gregor starts as delusional. Is it possible he doesn't change physically at all?

Your ability to analyze books is remarkable. Hope you get to review Machiavellian philosophy one day. Particularly the book "the prince." There's a youtuber called "Saint and Sinner," and he did a video deconstructing the book "the prince." It was one of the best analysis I've ever seen. I would love to see your take/interpretation on the book one day. Love your unsolicited advice :D

This is an interpretation of mine, and so I may be wrong, but I am hoping to hear what others think. There are four elements of metamorphosis that I feel deserve much more attention in this video as they may shed light on the situation. Context: metamorphosis is a story of personal transformation in which the main character, Gregor Samsa, gains a crippling level of self awareness. A self awareness which leads to self contempt and paralysis. This catharsis of becoming a cockroach is a product of various pressures in his life building up, several of which were his fault. I feel it is him who deserves the most blame, but as time passes there is an unavoidable sympathy roused from the reader through things like how he was treated and the helplessness of his situation. Element 1: The painting. Pursuit of goals in life can sometimes be paralleled to pursuit of imagery. The painting he isolates as room decoration, and ultimately becomes one of the last thing he clings to in his room. The painting is of a lady in fur clothing, a symbol of lavish luxury. A symbol of wealth. This painting reflects Gregor himself. A money obsessed individual, who likely also has concern for status. A cockroach is the polar opposite of this height. A lowly creature, an insect. A disgusting creature, a cockroach. Unsightly, ungraceful, low. This is not the only reason a cockroach was chosen. This is not personal description of cockroaches, this is in metamorphosis. Self contempt meant not reaching his height of wealth and status. Self contempt meant being low. Element 2: Debt. I don’t remember the exact origin of his debt, but it is mentioned early on. Consistent with his fixation on money, he writes about his debt is propelling his behavior. He does things other than pay his debt, but this is a picture of being unable to avoid your condition - needing to work for money - that I want to reference later. Element 3: His view of his superiors. Gregor has a terrible view of his superiors. Calling people involved with them spineless and stupid. Describing his chief with purely negative words. He does not like the people he works for. Yet, he worked for 5 years and never called in sick once. This is obviously untrue, what happened is he got sick and still went to work. This element also characterizes the nature of his illness. Not physical, but mental, as when he starts thinking what his superiors would think, he finds it nothing but unreasonable that he would call in sick after 5 years of never calling sick. Something reasonable. Again, important reference later.. Element 4: The apple. This is easily the most direct indicator of what is happening in this story. At about page two he says “the devil take it all!”. This feeling is nothing short of giving up and wishing it all away. Not wanting to move forward. Wanting to fall over. The apple was thrown by his father (fittingly) and lodged into his back. The wound from this apple never healed, and ultimately killed him. Using a word like the devil introduces theological parallels into the narrative. In the garden of eden, the apple granted them something that would ruin their life - self awareness. From a pure and innocent life where they listened and obeyed the father to realizing they were naked and being disobedient. A punishment that killed their eternal life and turned them mortal. Turning mortal itself was their death. The apple, which became the paralyzing burden on his back, was lodged by his father. His father who is notably hard working and most certainly raised Gregor to be hard working. His wound is once again self awareness. Metamorphosis is a story about mental illness, and the slow suffocation it can lead to. The cause of his mental illness was gaining self awareness. In his pursuit of money and status, Gregor has become a metaphorical bug - lowly, stepped on, and disgusting. Hating his superiors yet never missing a day of work. Abused by his family (to some extent) as he became their provider. Of poor moral character, something he abandoned as it was not part of his pursuit of wealth and status. The pressure of his actions built up and culminated until eventually… he burst. He couldn’t get up in time. He couldn’t go to work. He couldn’t continue living the way he was living. He realized what he was, and in so, matured… grew up… and became a cockroach. (What he metaphorically was). So, the narrative is actually not one demonizing his family. It is social commentary aswell as some demonization of certain subsets of the workforce. As he pursued money, his family got caught with the motions and grew a reliance on him. As he pursued money, the pressures in his life began to build up. As he pursued money, he created a life he could not escape. He cannot take a day off work. He cannot stop providing for his family. He sat in his room stuck. The furthest he went was the kitchen. Trapped in it all. After gaining expectations and responsibility, he fell to the pressure. In the past I would mentally blame him more than anyone else, but there is earnest sympathy and invitations for pity throughout the story. Especially as things escalate and spiral into worse and worse things. Part of the reason his family treated him that way is because the dependance they had on him was not parasitic. It was symbiotic. His father was a hard worker and raised his son, and he gave him respect. His mother cared for and supported him, celebrated him, cherished him. His sister looked up to him. In his failure, he lets all of them down. In his failure, he tells all of them they were not good enough. What I find sad about blaming the family is, what more could they have done? How could they have been better? Really, it is unfair to look at the family and expect some unconditional treatment towards him. They had to give up everything, because that is what their life became. They rented out their place and got insulted and looked down on. In the same way they got caught up with his pursuit of wealth and status, they got caught up with his mental breakdowns and paralysis. He did not live alone and he did not live just for himself. His failure then also becomes their shame. He tells the world he cannot play his role even with a family. He tells the world his family is not good enough to him. Brutal. Yet really… the pressure built up and he fell to mental illness. Yet really… the hopelessness of the situation is exemplified in many ways. Yet really… the imagery and how things appear is one of the focal points of the story itself. The sympathy is because we get to see the product, the result, the consequences. People who struggle with illness relate to Gregor from a treatment perspective. Yet the reader realizes it is not physical ailment after the start. It starts as physical ailment… physical differences… but then, he never gets better. Metamorphosis is maturation. He grew, and there is no getting younger. His illness is mental. He did not recover. He eventually dies. The father inflicting the mortal wound is consistent with the story of adam and eve aswell. A social commentary of sorts that discusses the pressures and roles we undertake, and possibly even a statement that we can only bear what we bear without self awareness - for if we had it, we would be crippled, immobile, and slowly die. I do not personally agree with the demonization of the workforce, but that is how it reads to me. @MELLMAO I would like to know what you think since you said you believe it is a story about mental illness

2:00 so you can’t trust unemployed people. Gotcha thanks kafka you’ve reinforced my biases from using Reddit and 4chan

I think many people say that Gregor doesn't really become a beetle within the story's narrative, and it's actually a stand-in for an actual disease or disability. Gregor could be plagued, crippled, or mentally ill. The exact nature of Gregor's predicament are not important. What is important is to look past and realize that Gregor is not a giant bug. He's a poor and helpless man who is being abused by the family he once provided for and now cannot. Rather than returning the favor to adequately care for Gregor in his hour of need, they torment and ultimately kill him, and rejoice at his very passing. It's worth seeing how much more potent and real it becomes with this knowledge. Imagine not Gregor's father beating a giant bug with a stick, but a still very much human Gregor who is dragging himself across the floor. Imagine not a giant beetle with an apple lodged in his back, but perhaps a sickly and again still very much human Gregor with some other object stabbed into the flesh of his back that he cannot remove. These scenes go from being detached to very real depictions of physical abuse. It's a story that, while perhaps exaggerated, is all too real. I recall similar stories during the pandemic, at such outbursts at family members who were no longer working. I myself have helped others, and they in turn never even attempted to help me but turned against me when I needed help. In some of this, there's not so much a lesson as what I see as a way to vent. Kafka had to know about this feeling of being taken for granted and being abandoned, hated, and even abused for circumstances that are often beyond your control by those who you deeply cared for and gave to. And in that there is another lesson: please, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Please.

I remember buying the book but never reading it, but after watching this, I notice a lot of parallels to my life and want to read it now. I'm guessing it's symbolism for having a disability and the effects it has on everything around you.

your videos are so great! recently I've been fixated on philosophy and literature and your channel is like best thing that could happen to me honestly you're so underrated with this amazing quality of your videos I hope more people notice your work!!

To be fair, if my dad turns into a beetle, he's getting the shoe.

You are absolutely underrated my guy. Keep up the great work.

came back to this video because i reread metamorphosis today. for the last four years i’ve been suffering with chronic illness and disability and i feel just like gregor. things said in this video felt extremely accurate :(

It's subtextual, but the point is there's no such thing as unconditional love, not even between parent and child. All "love" is conditional, depending entirely on who (and what) you are and what you can do or provide.

This video's been sitting in my Watch Later for months now; and now that I've finally found the time to sit down and listen to it, I realize it's the story I'm actively reading in class. How interesting

I liked this story but I think the title is a bit misleading.

Kafka s metamorphosis was a just a thought provoking tale to me untill i came out to my parents as gay I understood Gregor 's shame and the cruelty he faced Nice analysis keep it up

Thanks for having the words appear and editing fast. I can pay attention now. It’s not like ur just a person talking. How boring that would be.

I'm so happy young men are still reading Kafka, nietzche, kant and the sort. Lovely video

This was the first thing I ever read from Kafka, I remember reading it around christmas and how depreessed it made me feel for a bit.

This isn't about not trusting good people this is about not trusting people in general because we humans are pretentious.

Great video as usual! I feel like it is by definition a human feature both to be empathetic and kind and to be cruel and unjust towards others. Even if we consciously try to be perfect in our treatment of others and actively attempt to empathise with others in all magnitudes, it is imposible to completely comprehend, or even if understood, fully act correctly upon other's interests, as there are always conflicting feelings that will blur our judgement. Likewise, even if one were to suddenly decide to be as cruel and evil as posible at all times, I believe it is imposible even for the most apathetic of humans to not feel any sort of remorse towards their actions or some human compassion or warmth, as even in the most complete process of dehumanization I find it to be imposible to not mantain any sort of humanity.

One thing you fail to point out is that his family actually haven’t been nice to him before his transformation either. They were literally doing nothing with their lives but leeching off their son/brother.

Why does everyone forget the third part of “fight or flight”? It’s actually “fight, flight or freeze”. There is a third option.

I really appreciate you and this channel!!Thank you and this was another dope super awesome video!!

Gregor Limbus Gregor Limbus Gregor Limbus YEEEEAAAAHHHH

you got an uncommonly firm grasp of shame, despair, and fear, and damn do I respect that

Just discovered ur channel today after reading Metamorphosis. I feel lucky. What a nice way to start 2024!

When others depend on you, they don't see anything wrong with it, but when you depend on them, you become a burden. This books depths knows no bounds.

11:20 in elementary school a friend saw a teacher drinking a "sunny d" and repeated their tagline "your mom must be pretty cool". The teacher said "my mom is dead", in a way to guilt trip the student, who had no idea their mom had passed and was just trying to be funny! in short this sort of misunderstanding could happen to anyone!