A few days ago I reread The Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka, and this time I reflected on it in a different way. Perhaps because, with the passage of time and my life experience, I have understood his story from another perspective. Books remain the same, but we change, and each new reading can leave us with a different lesson.
Kafka's work tells the story of Gregorio Samsa, a young man who works hard to support his family. Everyone depends on him as long as he can fulfill his obligations. Gregorio does not enjoy his job, but he continues to do it because he knows that his parents and his sister need the money he provides.
However, one morning he wakes up transformed into a giant insect and can no longer work or help his family financially. From that moment on, everything changes. They no longer see him as a son or a brother, but as a nuisance and a burden.
At first, the family tries to help him, especially his sister Grete, who takes care of bringing him food and cleaning his room. But, little by little, fear, shame, and exhaustion set in. They lock him up and isolate him from the rest of the house, as if they wanted to hide him and pretend he doesn't exist.
Gregorio remains the same person inside. He retains his thoughts, his memories, his feelings, and his love for his family. Although he can no longer express himself with words, he continues to worry about all of them. However, no one seems capable of recognizing him or remembering the man he was.
They no longer care how valuable he was to them, nor how much he did for them. All that seems to matter is that he has ceased to be useful and now needs care. The son and brother who worked for years to support them becomes someone they want to get rid of.
His room becomes a reflection of his loneliness. Gregorio remains locked up, increasingly isolated and forgotten. Over time, they even begin to store objects they no longer need there, as if he too had become something useless that they didn't know where to put.
While Gregorio remains locked up, his family learns to get by without him. They all start working and discover that they are capable of supporting themselves. Then, Gregorio understands that the place he occupied within his own home was closely related to the money he provided.
While he could work and solve everyone's problems, they needed him. But, when he loses that ability, he stops being important to them. That is one of the most painful parts of the story: to see how a person can give a large part of their life to others and end up being rejected when they can no longer continue doing so.
The situation reaches its cruelest moment when his own sister claims they should get rid of him. For Grete, Gregor is no longer her brother, but a creature that complicates the life of the whole family. He hears these words and understands that everyone would be happier if he disappeared.
Wounded, weak, and completely alone, he returns to his room, stops eating, and finally dies. After his death, his family feels not only sadness but also relief. They go out for a walk and begin to make plans for the future, considering that Gregor's disappearance is a liberation.
Rereading the book, I understood that the true metamorphosis is not only Gregor's physical transformation. The most terrible transformation occurs within his family. Those who previously needed him and depended on him end up rejecting him when he can no longer offer them anything.
This story remains very current. On many occasions, people are valued for what they do, for the money they contribute, for the problems they solve, or for how available they are to others. As long as they help and respond to everything asked of them, they are necessary and loved. But, when a setback occurs, they get sick, grow old, or are no longer useful, they can begin to be considered a burden.
This happens with those who spend years attending to everyone, helping, caring for, and resolving difficulties. Others get used to receiving and may even forget that this person also gets tired, suffers, and needs someone to care for them.
What a great lesson rereading this book taught me! A person's worth does not depend on their productivity, the money they can contribute, or what they are capable of offering us. We all deserve affection, respect, and dignity, especially when we go through moments of weakness.
True love is shown when someone can no longer give us anything and, even so, we remain by their side. It is easy to accompany a person when everything is going well and their presence benefits us; the difficult, and truly valuable, thing is to stay when they can no longer offer us anything.
The metamorphosis also made me think about the importance of taking care of ourselves and not allowing our value to depend solely on being useful to others. Helping is beautiful, but no one should forget themselves to always attend to the needs of others. We have the right to rest, to set boundaries, and to ask for help without feeling guilty.
Life can change at any moment. We can all lose our health, our job, our independence, or our strength. Then we will need someone to be able to look beyond our limitations and remember who we are.
Therefore, this work invites us to ask ourselves if we love people for who they are or only for what they do for us. No one should feel like a burden after having given so much of themselves. A truly humane society does not abandon those who can no longer produce: it accompanies them, cares for them, and reminds them that their life continues to have value.
Because the true value of a person is not in what they can give us, but in what they are. Whoever truly loves does not abandon when weakness arrives, but remains, accompanies, and cares.
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