Kafka's Metamorphosis & Spiegelman's Maus

Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis and Art Spiegelman's Maus both raise issues of the meaning of being human, the parameters of humanity, and how people retain their humanity in the face of horrible conditions. Kafka raises issues of what are the boundaries of human life in Metamorphosis, while Spiegelman addresses the question of how people keep their humanity in extreme conditions. Inherent in both of these analyses is the central question of what is humanity--what is it that is being lost in the change that overtakes Gregor Samsa in Metamorphosis and what is it that people are trying to keep in the extreme conditions of the Holocaust in Maus? An examination of the two books may show some conception of what humanity is, what it is that makes us human, and thus what it is we try to hard to protect.

In both books, the central character is not (or is no longer) a human being, and yet the issue of humanness is never far from the surface. The mice in Maus are if anything more human than human beings because they embody all of the ideals that humans prize. This fact is heightened by these characters being portrayed as mice--the characteristics we see in them are not the characteristics of mice and are seen in sharper relief as human concerns transferred to the world of the mice. Gregor Samsa went to bed a human being, but he wakes up a huge insect. At first, he is dismayed, but in time he accepts this change and even revels in it as differentiating him from the human beings who

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she gains from Gregor's change and becomes more an individual than she could be in this family before the transformation. Her mother withdraws more into herself as Grete blossoms. There is a similar linking of the characters of Gregor and his father, with a huge gulf created between the two by the transformation. The father wanted the son to be like him, and now the son is an insect. There is a certain weakness in the father as well that may be the flaw in the son leading to this change. Kafka never answers these questions fully but instead leaves the relationships ambiguous, much like the transformation itself, for which no explanation is ever offered. Being human also means not knowing the answers to many questions encountered in life. Gregor's struggle within himself is over what his identity really is. In the beginning he seems to know that he is Gregor the salesman and that he belongs with a certain family in a certain home and in a certain job. Because of the transformation, however, Gregor is alienated from all that he has ever known, yet this alienation does not become a matter for despair but rather leads to a new acceptance of the changed situation. Gregor's identity has been shifted from Gregor to the insect,

Category: Literature - K