WHAT IS NEXT?

Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis stands alone in as a narrative. The more I think about the story and the characters the more interested I am in the relationships among this fictional family. I wonder what must have been going on between them at this time and how the power dynamics, those changing roles, and how did the geopolitical context impact them.

It was complicated. Gregor was supporting the family and then not able to support the family and then as Gregor suddenly turned into this disgusting monstrosity how did his once loving father feel about his son? how did his feelings change? and did those feelings manifest? How do all feelings change between parents and their children as their children grow and change and become their own people, sometimes similar to their parents, sometimes different. This really interests me as a daughter and as a parent myself. Not only as a person interested in parenting dynamics and how parents manage children who are different from themselves but in how parents manage children who are also reflective of their own failures and inadequacies. These, in my opinion, are the more difficult aspects of parenting that are rarely discussed. 

Some parents find it difficult to deal with children who are very different from themselves and mourn the fantasy of who they thought their children would grow up to be. This conflict has been well discussed and documented in both story telling and academic literature. As adults the conversation that is not addressed nearly as often is the difficulty when a child is similar to the parent and reflects the parent in a way were the parent is forced to confront their own faults.

I found it very difficult when my children were very similar to myself. Not politically but in personality. When they are very stubborn for example or have a strong sense of injustice. It is difficult to reason with a person who is essentially yourself.

After several years of thinking about Gregor and his family I reread the story that Kafka had written and nothing that I had imagined of his relationships was there. I had conjured much of the complexity specifically between him and his father. I was sad that it wasn't really there in Kafka's original story.

I want to stress that Kafka's story is complete. It is on its own a full story and it is absolutely perfect. Where I am picking it up is an aside based on the relationships that are of interest to me and the events that are surrounding them in their time and place. I wanted to hear a story about Gregor and his relationships and how those changed and I wanted to know what was happening in the world around him. I hope you do too.