Gregor Samsa and Cohen's Seven Theses of the Monstrous

In my first paper I looked at Gregor Samsa's role as a monster in Kafka's legendary novella, The Metamorphosis. In this paper I explored the ideas of absurdity and existentialist thought and concluded that what made him the monster was the absurd. Making absurdity one of the greatest monsters of the tale. There was no specific reasons as to why Gregor was transformed. He and his family never speculate how or why he had been transformed into his iconic state of a "monstrous vermin", creating an environment, much like our own, where chaos unequivocally runs their lives. That we have to come to terms that as people sometimes things happen without reason, lacking any cause and effect. Thus, bringing to light the very essence of frailty in the human condition. Therefore, what was most monstrous or scary about this short story, was not Gregor with his disgusting bug exterior, but the ideas that surrounded his new found life in the body.

Gregor Samsa as a monster does not adhere directly to much of Cohen's Seven Monster Theses. I do not think that reader fears Gregor in a misplaced sense of desire. In fact, I do not think the reader fears Gregor at all, but fears his very existence. Gregor maintains his human identity throughout the entire novel, allowing the reader to seamlessly enter his horrific existence and realizes that we all teeter on that fine line of becoming a disgusting monster that has no meaning in life. That at any given moment, our lives could change allowing us to no longer have a place within society beyond a burden to our loved ones. That the societal and family obligations that bring meaning to our lives might be our very undoing and lead us to a state of isolation and self disgust. Basically, Kafka through the pathetic last days of Gregor's life throws at the reader that we all walk the fine line of complying with societal norms, and the abyss that lays below us as our very own existential crisis, leaving the reader to question the very meaning of their existence.

To say that Gregor doesn't comply to any of the Seven Monster Theses because he is existence isn't desirable or sexy, is incorrect. His existence complies with much of Cohen's Theses. Sadly for Gregor they are some of the most depressing Theses. Gregor does escape, through death, and is reborn into other existential thoughts of today, as Thesis 2 would state. However, the most poignant Cohen Monstrous Theory Gregor complies with is Thesis 1, which is arguably one of the most important Theses of the paper. Thesis 1 states that, "The monster's Body is a Cultural Body". Kafka as a German speaking Jewish man in a city run by Czech language, felt alienated by his own identity, not identifying with his heritage or culture. This feeling of alienation within the 20th century was not an uncommon one, especially as cities began to shift and form under the pressures of industrialization and modernism. Therefore, when the book was published in 1915, it hit a chord of the European populace that was currently in Middle of the First World War, where countries were flooding to the trenches to fight for patriotic nationalism that started and encompassed First World War. Through examining The Metamorphosis through the lens of Thesis 1 of Cohen's Monster Theory, it offers a glimpse into the cultural body of the time. A culture that was after the societal strains of industrialization and war, left questioning their own meaning in the new societies that Modernism had created. A culture that felt alienation from their very essence and culture after feeling the cruelty of the authoratiantive powers of World War I. A culture that was in its very own Existential Crisis.