Born in Prague on July 3, 1883, Franz Kafka had become one of the most influential existential writers of the twentieth century. Kafka’s works often portrayed ideas such as isolation, alienation, and authoritarian oppression (“Franz Kafka”). As like most writers, their works are influenced by either an event or a person’s role in their life, Kafka had his influence. Kafka’s father played one of the more prominent roles in his life that can be seen in his writing and even after the day he dies.
Hermann Kafka, Kafka’s father, and portrayed by his son as a “large, loud, volatile, and domineering” said by NNDB. Kafka’s father is not been depicted in his works, yet Kafka even address a letter, “Letter to my Father” or “Dearest Father”, about his father’s abuse and parenting. In “Letter to my Father” some of the points Kafka makes include:
It is also true that you hardly ever really gave me a beating. But the shouting, the way your face got red, the hasty undoing of the suspenders and laying them ready over the back of the chair, all that was almost worse for me. It is as if someone is going to be hanged. If he really is hanged, then he is dead and it is all over. But if he has to go through all the preliminaries to being hanged and he learns of his reprieve only when the noose is dangling before his face, he may suffer from it all his life (40).
This being one of the very many comments to his father in his letters gives and idea of not just a dislike for his father, but a complete hatred of him. Moreover, this is a personal letter to his father specifically, not a work he published; yet still shows his major influence on his writing.
In 1916, Kafka had finished his work, “The Judgment”. This story talked about almost direction about...
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...writers consider Hermann Kafka a large influence, if not the most important influence on Kafka’s writing. Even until the days of his death, Kafka was never able to give his father the letter in which he addresses to him, and is a mystery if it truly ever was supposed to, as he wished all of his letters and diaries to be burned.
Works Cited
“Franz Kafka.” The Biography.com, 2014. Web. 14 May 2014
“Franz Kafka.” NNDB.com., 2014. Web. 14 May 2014
Kafka, Franz. Dearest Father. Trans. Hannah and Richard Stokes. United Kingdom: Oneworld Classics, 2008. Print.
Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis. Trans. David Wyllie. The Project Gutenberg, 2005. Web 14 May 2014.
Kafka, Franz. The Judgment. Trans. Ian Johnston. thoughtaudio.com. ThoughtAudio. Web. 14 May 2014.
Stephens, J. Franz Kafka’s personal life reflected in the Metamorphosis. Mauro Nervi, 8 Jan.2011. Web. 14 May 2014.
From the moment we meet Gregor Samsa's father we are shown how short tempered he is. He "came on, hissing like a wild man" when Gregor first exited his room in his new state as a bug. Gregor's father chased after him with a cane and newspaper making a hissing noise that annoyed Gregor. Just this passage here shows how alike Mr. Samsa and Herrman Kafka are. Kafka was...
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. .
There are many different factors that play a role in shaping one’s life. Two of these, family and society, are expressed by Leo Tolstoy and Franz Kafka. Tolstoy’s novella The Death Of Ivan Ilyich draws attention to the quality of Ivan Ilyich’s life. Although he has a life the whole community aspires to, he becomes aware of the hypocrisies and imperfections that accompany it. Similarly, Kafka’s The Metamorphosis focuses on the ostracized life of Gregor Samsa who continuously seeks the approval of his family, but somehow always ends up letting them down. Ivan Ilyich in Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Gregor Samsa in Kafka’s The Metamorphosis both experience extreme alienation from their families, and thereby shed light on the nightmarish quality of their existence.
his father incurred, Gregor has had to suppress his rebellious wish. Kafka alludes to the
Kafka, Franz."The Metamorphosis." The Longman Anthology of World Literature. New York: Pearson/Longman, 2009. 253-284. Print.Works Cited
Bernstein, Richard. “A VOYAGE THROUGH KAFKA'S AMBIGUITIES”. New York Times 02 May 1983. : n. pag. ProQuest Platinum.
Bruce, Iris. "Elements of Jewish Folklore in Kafka's Metamorphosis." The Metamorphosis: Translation, Backgrounds and Contexts, Criticism. New York: W.W. Norton, 1996. 107-25. Print.
Franz Kafka, b. Prague, Bohemia (then belonging to Austria), July 3, 1883, d. June 3, 1924, has come to be one of the most influential writers of this century. Virtually unknown during his lifetime, the works of Kafka have since been recognized as symbolizing modern man's anxiety-ridden and grotesque alienation in an unintelligible, hostile, or indifferent world. Kafka came from a middle-class Jewish family and grew up in the shadow of his domineering shopkeeper father, who impressed Kafka as an awesome patriarch. The feeling of impotence, even in his rebellion, was a syndrome that became a pervasive theme in his fiction. Kafka did well in the prestigious German high school in Prague and went on to receive a law degree in 1906. This allowed him to secure a livelihood that gave him time for writing, which he regarded as the essence--both blessing and curse--of his life. He soon found a position in the semipublic Workers' Accident Insurance institution, where he remained a loyal and successful employee until--beginning in 1917-- tuberculosis forced him to take repeated sick leaves and finally, in 1922, to retire. Kafka spent half his time after 1917 in sanatoriums and health resorts, his tuberculosis of the lungs finally spreading to the larynx.
New York: Vintage International, 1988. Print. Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis. Trans.
Franz Kafka always had a strong background in literature and writing. Pursuing a career in law, Kafka put his writing skills to good use, but he always had a knack and passion for writing literature such as short stories, poetry and full novels more than working his actual job. By the age of 27, Kafka attended a play put on by a Yiddish theatre troupe performing in Prague. With the lack of money the troupe had, they became stranded in the town, where Kafka gained his interest in Yiddish theatre (Gray, 301). With the stranding of this troupe, critics believed this to be what led to the influence of most of Kafka’s later writings. This is believed due to the evidence of a journal found after Kafka’s death. These journals kept records of performances he attended, plot synopses, character analysis, descriptions of staging and critiques of the performances (Gray, 301). Kafka also had a journal filled with vignettes about specific productions, along with brief reflections on the theater and the production (Puchner, 177). We first see Kafka showin...
Updike, John. Kafka and the Metamorphosis. Literature and Its Writers: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. 2nd ed. Ed. Ann Charters and Samuel Charters. Boston: Bedford, 2001 545-548.
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.
He was born into a German-speaking family in Prague on July 3rd, 1883. He was the oldest of six children. His father, Harmann Kafka, was a businessman. His mother Julie Kafka was born into a wealthy family. Kafka considered the vast differences in his paternal and maternal relatives as a “split within himself” (Sokel 1).
Kafka, Franz. "The Metamorphosis". The Metamorphosis. Trans. Donna Freed and Ed. George Stade. New York: Barnes and Nobles, 2003.
Pawel, Ernst. A Nightmare of Reason: A Life of Franz Kafka. 2nd ed. New York: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 1984.