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Caught in a Mouse Trap: K’s Struggles in Kafka’s The Trial
Modernists built upon the shambles of World War I by searching for a philosophy that takes into account the rampant destruction of man’s body and spirit. The end result was a patchwork of disconnection and incongruities. Modernists admit that they do not know – though they sought a higher meaning to life, most, if not all, failed in the attempt (Lewis 38). Instead, they were left, as Albert Camus asserted, with an “odd state of soul . . . in which the chain of daily gestures is broken, in which the heart vainly seeks the link that will connect it again" (Rhein 12). Like many Modernist writers, Franz Kafka searches for the meaning of life in a world where God and religion are put in doubt. Specifically, Kafka drew on his experiences living in a world consumed by fear and anticipation of an impending totalitarian state that would emerge in the future (Kundera 90). He provided insight into this world’s arbitrary violence. As fellow Czech writer Milan Kundera claims, “In Kafka, the institution is a mechanism that obeys its own laws; no one knows now who programmed those laws or when; they have nothing to do with human concerns and are thus unintelligible” (Kundera 90). Nowhere is this more apparent than in Kafka’s The Trial, where an elusive Court system arbitrarily selects victims to torture and subsequently murder in the name of the state. Josef K. is such a victim. He is accused of a nameless crime. While he is consumed with proving his innocence in the spectacle of the Court system, it becomes more apparent that there may be no absolute end to his struggle. The clues and hints that he receives from people connected to the judiciary are not substantial, and ultimately l...
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...wing K. to pin it down.
Works Cited
Kafka, Franz. The Trial. New York : Schocken Books, 1998. Print.
Kundera, Milan. “Kafka's World.” The Wilson Quarterly (1976-), Vol. 12, No. 5 (Winter, 1988), pp. 88-99. Web. 11 Apr. 2014.
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Lewis, Pericles. Modernism, Nationalism, and The Novel. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. pp. 38-39. Print.
Rhein, Phillip H. "Chapter 2: The Absurd." Albert Camus, Rev. ed. Phillip H. Rhein. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1989. Twayne's World Authors Series 69. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 7 Feb. 2011.
Waterfield, Robin, trans. “Heraclitus of Ephesus.” The First Philosophers: The Presocratics and the Sophists. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. pp. 32-48. Print.
Kafka’s In the Penal Colony is a story about the use of torture tools which cause death sentences into effect, within 12 hours of torment and the convicted, in the end dies. Lets regard the roots of this subject and its idea of hope....
Rodney, Sydney. "Pericles." Ancient Greece. University Inc., 11 May 2003. Web. 7 Dec. 2013. .
The Metamorphosis is said to be one of Franz Kafka's best works of literature. It shows the difficulties of living in a modern society and the struggle for acceptance of others when in a time of need. In this novel Kafka directly reflects upon many of the negative aspects of his personal life, both mentally and physically. The relationship between Gregor and his father is in many ways similar to Franz and his father Herrman. The Metamorphosis also shows resemblance to some of Kafka's diary entries that depict him imagining his own extinction by dozens of elaborated methods. This paper will look into the text to show how this is a story about the author's personal life portrayed through his dream-like fantasies.
Sokel, Walter H. "Franz Kafka." European Writers. Ed. George Stade. Vol. 2. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1992. 847-75. Print. European Writers. Ward, Bruce K. "Giving Voice to Isaac: The Sacrificial Victim in Kafka's Trial." Shofar 22.2 (2004): 64+. Literature Resource Center. Web. 1 Oct. 2013. .
Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis. Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama and Writing. Ed. X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 7th Compact Ed. New York: Longman, 2013. 268-98. Print.
Bernstein, Richard. “A VOYAGE THROUGH KAFKA'S AMBIGUITIES”. New York Times 02 May 1983. : n. pag. ProQuest Platinum.
ii Updike, John. Foreword to Franz Kafka: The Complete Stories. New York: Schoken Books, 1971.
New York: Vintage International, 1988. Print. Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis. Trans.
Neumann, Gerhard. "The Judgement, Letter to His Father, and the Bourgeois Family." Trans. Stanley Corngold. Reading Kafka. Ed. Mark Anderson. New York: Schocken, 1989. 215-28.
Clarke, Fiona, and Mark Bergin. Greece in the time of Pericles. Hemel Hempstead: Simon & Schuster, 1909.
Aldiss, Brian W. “Franz Kafka: Overview.” St. James Guide to Science Fiction Writers. Ed. Jay P. Pederson. 4th ed. New York: St. James Press, 1996.
ii Kafka, F. The Trial. Translated by Willa and Edwin Muir. Introduction by George Steiner. New York, Schocken Books, 1992, 1.
Pawel, Ernst. A Nightmare of Reason: A Life of Franz Kafka. 2nd ed. New York: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 1984.
Franz Kafka’s “Before the Law” is often referred to as a parable. Thus, it is logical to approach Kafka’s work as an allegory and search for the deeper meaning underneath the story. We can then try to uncover the identity of the characters; of the gatekeeper, the man from the country, and the Law and subsequently relating them to something that fits the example of the plot; a man’s confused search for god, a man’s quest for happiness but never accomplishing it, a academic’s quest for recognition which never comes. Any given number of innovative readers...
The Trial is Kafka’s exploration of the most extreme consequences of denying one’s own guilt and thus one’s own humanity. In some senses, it serves as a warning, or a sort of parable of its own, and in others it is simply an expression of anguish. The story serves to warn against thinking so highly of oneself that we only interpret infractions of the outright law as guilt. If we are to be truly innocent and humble beings, we must recognize our own innate guilt as human and accept it. If we do not, we will constantly be obsessed by our “state of apparent acquittals."