Resistance in Existence: Understanding Life in Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis

The chapter deals with the discourse of resistance in one of the most celebrated novels by Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis (1996). The existential framework of the novella opens up a huge space for a discussion of human existence and the resistance that operates throughout. It attempts to investigate the connection between the existence of a human being and the resistance that the person has to offer to it. The objective is to leave the reader to reflect upon and analyse their life, which will let them understand in what ways human lives are interconnected through the same driving force. The interplay of repression and resistance, as well as that of power and resistance, is traced by focusing on Sigmund Freud and Michel Foucault's notion of resistance respectively. In both cases, there is a ‘formation of self’ which comes to the foreground. Gregor Samsa, the protagonist has suffered oppression, be it at a mental or physical level both in the form of a human being and after being changed into monstrous vermin. Living itself is resistance. Accepting the absurd while welcoming all the anxieties and fears is a resistance to the pessimistic thoughts of the meaninglessness we see in life. The chapter concludes with the metaphor of a mound of sand and how its existence is very much the same as a human existence in resisting the fall. It attempts to propose that resistance is an inherent part of human existence, no matter how subtly it persists in the lives of each and every individual.