Authors often write to criticise the fundamental ideologies that run their societies. Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis presents the story of Gregor Samsa, who on the morning of a workday is turned into a bug and struggles to make his obligations as a travelling salesman. Through a Marxist lens my interpretation of the text is that Kafka condemns how individuals under a capitalistic society are indoctrinated into the capitalist ideal of reification. Furthermore, Kafka critiques how the capitalist superstructure makes the proletarian indebted to the bourgeoisie resulting in exploitation, and also presents the capitalist lifestyle in absurd fashion, portraying Gregor as a bug and in doing so associates capitalist greed with the unscrupulous connotations of a parasitical insect.
Marxist texts are used to voice condemnations of the effect capitalism has on the worker. In contrast to my initial interpretation of The Metamorphosis as a purely absurdist text seeking to satirise the lifestyle of a working individual, a Marxist reading of the text indicates that Kafka disapproves with how reification has been engrained into the worker’s mentality. The Marxist interpret reification to be the process by which the working class are made into commodities to be exploited by the free market. In the text despite having been transformed into a large creature, Gregor instinctively worries about his job, thinking “right now I have to get up. My train leaves at five o’clock.” Through characterisation the reader perceives Gregor as indoctrinated into the capitalist mind-set of consistency and rigid, daily labour at the whim of the bourgeoisie. Upon discovering that the time was half past six, Gregor laments on how “there was no avoiding a blow up with the boss”, and that “He was the boss’s minion”. Gregor also adds that “during his five years’ service Gregor hadn’t been sick even once”. Kafka further characterises Gregor as extremely punctual, having fulfilled his obligations to the boss with an exceptionally high attendance rate. Despite this, the boss does not give Gregor a free pass, and Gregor expects to be reprimanded for a singular day of absence despite his long record of fulfilling his obligations to his boss. Kafka portrays the boss as greedy and further strips him of the human ability to forgive. The boss acts as a symbol of the bourgeoisie and thus Kafka presents the capitalists of society as mistreating their workers as commodities that they can abuse. Gregor’s acceptance of such a fate further indicates how anti-worker capitalist beliefs have been pushed onto Gregor. Hence through a Marxist lens I interpret Kafka’s text as highlighting how the working class are subject to reification by the bourgeoisie, and how they are made to accept such a fate as their only option to survive.
In contemporary society the exploitation of the worker has been counteracted by the recalcitrant attitudes of the working class. While I initially interpreted The Metamorphosis to be portraying a cynical, comedic attitude towards the standardised working lifestyle, reading the text through a Marxist lens highlights how capitalist society propagates exploitation of the worker, and that Kafka encourages working class readers to resist being exploited. A Marxist reader considers exploitation to be the material difference between the value of production for a sold good and how much a worker is paid to make said good. Gregor monologues how “Once I’ve got together the money to pay off the parents’ debt to him – that should take another five or six years… Then I’ll make the big break.” The reader is bluntly informed that Gregor merely works for his boss as he needs to pay off his parent’s debt. Kafka leads the reader to believe that Gregor does not get any personal satisfaction of enjoyment working for his boss, and only does so out of a materialistic need to survive under the provisions of the capitalist society he lives in. The reader understands that Gregor is exploited under his boss, being made to work unhealthy hours and do so with no sick days for years on end, or otherwise face being fired and having no way to pay his parent’s debts. Kafka presents Gregor as a working class individual who is enslaved by the bourgeoisie and is exploited for labour. Thus, through a Marxist lens my interpretation of Kafka’s text is that the exploitation of the proletariat is condemned.
