Four years ago, I wrote a post which, to my surprise, became one of this blog's most enduringly popular posts. That post had discussed Gregor Samsa, the protagonist of Kafka's classic novella The Metamorphosis. In my post, I called Samsa the Voice of Disability.
Because the post kept appearing
daily in my Feedjit feed, I
finally decided to re-read it. I found the post to be timeless in its
demonstration of how literature can be a voice for the voiceless. Kafka's
Gregor Samsa had suddenly found himself without a voice. Yet Kafka gave Samsa a
voice so clear, the novella The Metamorphosis became a classic in literature.
I am reposting my original
entry, which was part of my A Hero's Journey series. Here it is:
A Hero's Journey: Kafka's Gregor Samsa as the Voice of Disability
“As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams
he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect."
Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis
Once again, I use a fictional
character to help depict heroism. But a man turned insect, you say? Where is
the heroism in that? Before I am accused of trivializing disability, let me
share that three generations of disabling illness in my family have sensitized
me to the very real challenges faced with severe disability. The Metamorphosis, once
past the fantastical element, is one of the best depictions I have ever read
about the challenges, consequences, and ultimately the heroism associated with
disability, both for the individual sufferer and for his caregiving family.
As I read the story, I kept
wondering how Kafka was able to capture so poignantly the dilemma of a disabled
person and his family. Indeed, no analysis I have come across has honed in on
Gregor Samsa as a symbol of disability. Then I found out that Kafka had
suffered from tuberculosis, requiring frequent stays in sanitariums, extended
support and caretaking by his family, until he died from complications of the
illness. I realized then that Kafka had lived the limitations and ostracism associated
with disability, an experience he transmuted into that of a man imprisoned in
an insect body.
A brief recap of The Metamorphosis: The
secure if unexciting life of Gregor Samsa, a traveling salesman, is completely
overturned when he awakes transformed into a gigantic insect. His parents and
sister, who have depended on him economically, are also thrown into a turmoil
over how to integrate this new reality. Though everyone sees him as a
terrifying insect, Gregor inside still feels and thinks like a normal person
and is heartbroken when others can’t see that. Eventually, after being shunned
and attacked by his family, strangers, and a work colleague, Gregor succumbs to
a fatal wound and dies, whereupon his family thrives financially and socially.
The trajectory of Gregor and his
family is reprised daily all over the world in families living with disability.
Many a disabled former head of household exhibits a similar selfless concern
for his family. Gregor internalizes his emotional and physical pain while
attempting outwardly to guide his family in their new reality. Many a family
starts out with the best intentions only to be overwhelmed by the demands
imposed on them. Gregor's family, undergoing its own grief and also burdened
with caregiving, initially attempts to act honorably, only to be overcome with
impatience and disdain.
Ultimately, though, the tragedy
is uniquely Gregor’s. He is the one suffering the limited mobility and
inability to speak, the rejection, his diminished status, and his having become
a burden to those who loved him. Like so many struck with disability, he
carries on with the quiet courage that is his most heroic quality. His
trajectory begins with a plaintive “What has happened to me?” and progresses
through the classic stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and
acceptance. It ends sadly with the realization that “The decision that he must
disappear was one that he held to even more strongly than his sister.” He dies
not long after.
Gregor Samsa’s story, of course,
has wider applicability than the compelling one of disability. Vladimir Nabokov
has said about this story, “Kafka’s private nightmare was that the central
human character belongs to the same private fantastic world as the inhuman
characters around him but pathetically and tragically he attempts to struggle
out of that world into the world of humans and dies in despair.”
I focus on Gregor Samsa’s life
here, though, to highlight the quiet courage and heroism of people whose
ordinary lives are made extraordinary by the tragedy of disability. Often, as
in Gregor’s case, that tragedy is transmuted into heroism. Sometimes, as in the
case of the Samsa family, it manifests as craven rejection and selfishness.
Kafka’s genius is that he was able to communicate all this through a story
about a man-turned-insect.
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