I swear, this is why I can’t read classics, most of them I read, I don’t like or am completely confused about. I only read this for a Bingo square and my other choice has a 10 week hold on it and I didn’t want to spend the money on a book that I may not like. Anyway, here’s my review of Metamorphosis or what I like to call, that dude really turns into a bug and it’s just pages of this?
Metamorphosis follows a salesman named Gregor who wakes up and finds that he’s a bug. I know, I know, symbolism. The story follows Gregor as he first tries to hide from his family and then his boss he’s a bug, and then just goes back and forth from his room to eat and ponders his life and listens to his family.
Look, I didn’t like this. I definitely can hear my old English teacher somewhere yelling at me about looking at symbolism and the deeper meaning, but this whole story just made me sad. Gregor’s family sucks a lot and though his sister at first seemed to feel some sympathy for him. I guess realizing they couldn’t mooch off of him anymore made her angry. Honestly the whole story can just be “man finds out his family is awful.” They kept treating Gregor more and more like he was not human (and he slowly starts to starve to death. And at the end though, you can see that Gregor’s sister isn’t about to be seen as anything more than a meal ticket to her parents, so the cycle continues.
I read this for Halloween Bingo 2025, “Creepy Crawlies” square.