Samsa Study

This piece is a kind of study of a major piece in process of composition: The Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka. The title “G…” corresponds to the initial of the main character: Gregor Samza.

The Metamorphosis is a key piece in literature of XX Century. In this novel, Kafka preannounces the catastrophes that occur a few years later. It is a metaphor that interpellates us, as individuals and as members of Latin American societies, defined by the most brutal social, economic and cultural contradictions. How we deal with the “different”, with the “other”? The transformation of the main character in an insect is obviously a metaphor where our societies are reflected. How to deal with the poor, the sick people, the elderly? All of them are part of the society but we (as a society) see them as alien, as different, as menacing. We need to reaffirm our identity though the crystallization of the “other” as scapegoating, the father of all evil.