Though he lived and died in obscurity, Franz Kafka (1883– 1924) managed to become one of the most influential authors of the 20th century. Capturing his own feelings and fears on the page, his intensely personalized stories prefigured the focus on the individual and his or her relationship to society, a sentiment that dominated the latter half of the 1900s. While The Metamorphosis predates the era when totalitarian ideologies attempted to harness the individual to the needs of the collective, Kafka clearly saw how modern life demanded a submission of the will to the demands of the group – both through the need to earn a living and to maintain social conventions. By the 1960s, his depiction of the crushing weight and ultimate futility of being a good son and brother became a banner for youth trying to create a better world based on individuality, creativity and spontaneity. While the mechanisms of conformity have changed, the story still resonates today among readers left empty by a substantially richer but ultimately oppressive existence.

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