"Don't despair, not even over the fact that you don't despair." -Franz Kafka

It is depressing to think that an overwhelming majority of the masses are living a life primarily consisting of silent despair but the reality of this statement has impacted authors for centuries. Henry David Thoreau stated this fact and Franz Kafka agreed with him many decades later in his work The Metamorphosis. In this work, Kafka makes his viewpoint profound and over-simplified. The main character, Gregor, has over-worked himself for several years in order to take care of his family. He despises both his job and his boss but refuses to tell anyone out of fear of the consequences. While he has received some pleasure from his family's wellbeing, his composure is slowly slipping away. In his family's eyes, it has become expected that Gregor take care of them. They show him less appreciation until one fateful day he awakes to find himself a giant bug. The table has turned and instead of the family showing Gregor the love that he always showed them, they neglect him and think of him as a curse and a burden on the family. Gregor's life of silent despair goes from being metaphoric to the literal loss of his ability to communicate his despair. Kafka is using this story to relate to the general public the pointless nature of this way of life. He wishes others to see that despair, silent and/or otherwise, is useless and a large element holding both society and the despairing individual back. Despair is a wildfire that can easily be put out.