Franz Kafka: Metamorphosis

"Als Gregor Samsa eines Morgens aus unruhigen Träumen erwachte, fand er sich in seinem Bett zu einem ungeheuren Ungeziefer verwandelt."

"As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous vermin."

There are numerous translations of this famous short story, and while much of the germanic wordplay is lost in translation, the piece is still widely accepted as one of the most seminal works of short fiction of the 20th century.

While Gregor Samsa is often depicted as a cockroach, Kafka actually never intended for any one image to be associated with the word "Ungeziefer" which only loosely translates to vermin and is more strictly translated to "animal unfit for sacrifice." The term is most often used in Germany to describe a bug while the word vermin in English expands to rats and mice.

Regardless this piece utilizes the extraordinary circumstance of a physical metamorphosis to display what is otherwise a very normal occurance; that is when someone wakes up one morning and realizes what a disgrace to society they've become, a shut in with no real contributing value to society. A tad nihilistic but humerous nonetheless, I want to capture this surrealist exemplification of the quotidian within my lifewriting pieces as well; creating surprising and entertaining stories based on actual events.