Ambiguity of Characters in Franz Kafka’s ‘in the Penal Colony’ and ‘Waiting for the Barbarians’

Franz Kafka’s trademark is ridiculing his and the society’s blatant stories in subtle manner. With the help of paradigms what can be seen is that Franz Kafka’s use of humour in oddly places to clarify the asymmetry of the organized world and heightens the tension. It was also used to create even greater gaps both in scene and story line, to further stress the blackness felt in many of his stories. Studying his works it’s evident that Franz Kafka saw humor not only as a defence against the pain and anguish he felt inflicted upon him by the outside world, but also against the pain he rained upon himself. This technique was used to stress on the horrors of the big bad world. Although there have been resemblances of the protagonists’ character traits to his own self, he has brought out not only his own problems but on how people magnify and in

In part 3, Morris (2002, p.171) discusses why prison conditions matter and why penal reformers, including himself, have devoted their lives and travelled thousands of miles

“The setting plays an important role in how the narrator discovers the many ways he may die” (2). It is a dungeon full of torturing traps, and the character, as any normal human, feels terror inside his prison and fears his death in any of the cruel ways arranged for him. Still, he has to decide between death and the relief which it brings or life with the interminable agony of being tortured as a lab mouse.

In the American memoir, Night, Nobel Peace Prize-winning author Elie Wiesel constructs a story about the horrific events he endured during the Holocaust. In the pages of this memoir, he portrays the life of Eliezer, a child born Jewish. In the later chapters of the book, Eliezer endures the tragic hanging of a pipel who lost his life for not giving up the names of the inmates that worked to sabotage the power plant at Buna, a forced labor camp in Germany. The guards forced Eliezer and his father to walk past the child as he hung from the gallows stuck between life and death. The death of the child signifies the death of Eliezer’s faith. The author used this position in the memoir to signify the end of the main character’s religious views, which makes this the climax of the book. The climax fits into the structure of the memoir at this point by staying consistent in word choice and advancing the plot further. The use of the appeals and tone also ties this scene into the plot. However, each translation utilizes these devices differently. The scholar’s translation focuses on ethos, logos, and a helpless tone. Marion’s translation uses pathos and a bitter tone. Marion’s version more effectively uses the appeals and tone because it conveys more emotion to the reader.

Through his cleaver use of language techniques and word selection, Orwell evokes the reader's sympathy for the prisoner's struggles. He repeatedly shows that the prisoners are treated like animals. In the opening lines of the essay, the setting is described immediately highlights the inhumane conditions in which the prisoners are contained in. We notice this when the author is describing the cells, he states, "we are waiting outside the condemned cells, row of sheds fronted with double bars, like small animal cages" (Orwell 93). It is evident again when he is describing the way it took six guards to escort the prisoner. He says "it was like men handling a fish which is still alive and may jump out of the water" (Orwell 94). "The sprouting moustache, absurdly too big for his body" (Orwell 93), and "a puny wisp of a man" (Orwell 93) suggests malnourishment and neglect among this prisoner, but the reader can infer that this treatment is spread out amongst all the prisoners. In contrast with this sickly man, he describes the prison guards as "tall Indian warriors"(Orwell 93) and even describes one guard in particular as a "fat Dravidian" (Orwell 94). The details of these well-fed men in comparison to this ill man fuels a feeling of sympathy towards the prisoner. He provides these details to evoke sympathy for the prisoner to prove that killing a man is unethical.

This article by Walter H. Sokel claims that the metamorphosis Gregor goes through gives him the chance to be rebellious. Sokel highlights that after Gregor is changed into a cockroach he also changes mentally, which affects his actions.

In the book “Night” written Elie Wiesel, Wiesel wants readers to know the pain and struggles he had to face in the holocaust. In 1944, in the village of Sighet, Transylvania, a boy named Elie was taken from his home and was taken to a concentration camp and spends time talking about being invaded by the Nazi. The purpose of the book was the remembrance of the holocaust and how it causes him to lose faith and his identity. Although the concentration camps were a bad place the people were forced to work, the rhetorical devices imagery, symbolism, and diction is used to present loss in faith and identity.

The topics “Can You Use that Word in a Sentence,” and Racial Representation is significant throughout the book Long Division written by Kiese Laymon. The characters in this book will have to face racism and learn to defy racial representations, especially during the scene of the quiz contest. Overall, this essay will tackle the importance of language in the book Long Division and analyze the actions of the characters and the emotions they display. This essay will examine the words written and the racism experienced during the period using the two sources and research made to understand the importance of language in racism. Long Division, the book written by Kiese Laymon is an intriguing and gripping novel. It starts off with the main character Citoyen “City” Coldson a fourteen year-old boy; he participates in a nationwide televised quiz contest. However noticing that the contest is extremely racist, his outburst on stage goes viral. Shortly, City moves to live with his grandmother. He’s been given a book, before leaving, titled “Long Division”. The main character of the book has the same name as City yet it is set in 1985. A young girl named Baize Shephard has been missing in City’s new community. Yet, when Baize Shephard appears as a character in City’s strange book, both stories link and converge together. Citoyen “City” Coldson and LaVander Peeler are the only two black participants in the “Can You Use that Word in a Sentence” contest. There were many scenes that

The writer implies the prisoner’s humanity by describing his emotions and ability to reason. After the execution, the Eurasian boy tells Orwell when the prisoner found out he would be hung,“ ‘he pissed on the floor of his cell’ ” (Orwell 102). The boy’s story signifies the prisoner’s human characteristics through his reaction, as he was so scared he urinated on himself. As John Rodden notes, this happening creates sympathy (73). The action humanizes the prisoner, connecting the readers to him. Likewise, George Orwell details the condemned man’s human-like traits by describing the prisoner avoiding a puddle directly before his execution. This simple act causes a realization that the prisoner is also human. John Rodden states, “The narrorator reinforces this point by drawing attention to the prisoner’s humanity, as he-a dead man walking-diligently sidesteps a puddle” (72). Rodden suggest that the “dead man” still has dignity to sidestep the puddle. The illustration of the prisoner’s response to his death sentence and his avoidance of the water brings to the reader’s attention that capital punishment is taking another human life.

At this meal, news of a Johannesburg couple that had been beaten and robbed by a couple of natives was discussed. This meal of the priests is not only an act of communion, but it represents a bond created by two different races, which is the main issue of this novel.

Torture (Latin torquere, “to twist”), in law, infliction of severe bodily pain either as punishment, or to compel a person to confess to a crime, or to give evidence in a judicial proceeding. Among primitive peoples, torture has been used as a means of ordeal and to punish captured enemies. Examination by torture, often called the “question,” has been used in many countries as a judicial method. It involves using instruments to extort evidence from unwilling witnesses.

Gresham M. Sykes describes the society of captives from the inmates’ point of view. Sykes acknowledges the fact that his observations are generalizations but he feels that most inmates can agree on feelings of deprivation and frustration. As he sketches the development of physical punishment towards psychological punishment, Sykes follows that both have an enormous effect on the inmate and do not differ greatly in their cruelty.

Wilde’s poem, ‘The Ballad of Reading Gaol’ details the prisoner narrator’s first-hand experience in the prison and provides an account of a condemned man’s last days before being hung. The emotional nature of the poem allows the prisoner to express how he feels about the events he sees and the significant impact this has on him. ‘The Ballad of Reading Gaol’ is likely largely biographical and details Wilde’s own personal experience of being in prison. Largely, the poem explores themes of punishment, retribution, forgiveness and societal influence. Initially, the poem appears to be clearly about attacking the judicial system, however others would argue that the prisoner’s personal experience is more important because it evokes more feeling for readers and is more influential as changing societal views on prisoners compared to being an attack on the judicial system.

The first novel to examine is Seven Days at the Silbersteins, by Etienne Leroux. Written in 1962, during the earlier years of the apartheid, this book’s intention is to create conversation and foster the critique of the fundamental values that contributed to the conception of apartheid. Because of the high society references that the common person would not understand, such as certain thoeries of psychology and the production of wine, and numerous instances of convoluted conversations between some of the characters, this book was not written for the uneducated general public. The book is written in a surrealist fashion and the main allegory in the book is that the entire Welgevonden farm and the characters are all a representation of South Africa during aparthied. This specific way of writing, which targeted highly educated individuals, employs highly veiled and complex critiques of apartheid in this book, produces a complete work that only intellectuals would appreciate and understand. Every scene from each of the seven nights criticizes a different group of people, such as

In Waiting for the Barbarians, J.M. Coetzee introduces the controversial idea of civilized and barbaric through a nameless empire. The novel features the first person narration of an unnamed magistrate who becomes conflicted upon his duties after meeting Colonel Joll. As the antagonist of the novel, Colonel Joll coincides with the depraved actions of the Empire, one of the most prominent being imperialism. Later in the novel, the Magistrate also encounters an unnamed barbarian girl, who he brings into his home and claims responsibility for. With the intention of learning about her past and about the pain inflicted by his Empire, he aims to to extract the “truth” through means of