Gregor Reborn in "Samsa in Love"

While reading “Metamorphosis” and “Samsa in Love,” I had initially thought that Murakami was simply rewriting Kafka’s original story but in reverse roles, where perhaps a bug had transformed into a human (Gregor). However, I soon came to believe that Murakami was writing a continuation of Kafka’s story where Gregor was able to change back to his human form, but only after his family had moved out. Gregor reawakens with no memory of what happened, except that he is unfamiliar with his human anatomy and has to relearn how to live in human society. There is no implication of him ever being in the form of a bug; it is almost like he is reborn in a way, with no memories of who he is, and enough language to communicate but no understanding of social cues. 

I also found it interesting how in “Metamorphosis,” Gregor and his family members mention several times that they hope Gregor will someday awaken and things will go back to normal, and Murakami grants this wish by changing Gregor back into a human but only after his family presumably has left. In “Samsa in Love,” all the furniture in Gregor’s room has been removed, and the window is boarded up. This echoes Gregor’s fear in “Metamorphosis,” since he had not wanted Grete to remove his furniture because it was his last semblance of his human life. Gregor had stated that: “Nothing should be removed; everything had to stay; he could not do without the beneficial influence of the furniture on his state of mind” (Kafka 32) and when his mother and Grete ultimately moved everything anyway, he said that they were “depriving him of everything that he loved” (Kafka 33). The absence of furniture and decoration in Gregor’s room when he wakes up in “Samsa in Love” suggests that Gregor’s fear came true, and that he has no way of remembering his past life because his possessions are gone. He asks himself: “who had he been before he became Gregor Samsa? What had he been?” (Murakami). Human Gregor examines the room and conclude that “all vestiges of human life had been stripped away” (Murakami), so he is essentially a blank slate with no clues to who he is. Despite the fact that human Gregor must relearn how to live as a human, I enjoyed the hopeful and optimistic ending. Rather than ending Gregor’s miserable bug life with a tragic death like Kafka did, Murakami gives Gregor the chance to be reborn and live again. Perhaps this is Murakami’s way of pointing out the innocence of humanity, the world of opportunity, and the importance of cherishing the simple things.

-Michelle