Franz Kafka's In The Penal Colony

Today’s society is run by and thrives off capitalism, ruled by our government. Many things are kept surreptitious from us. The government feeds us lies to silence us and to force us conform to society’s customs, this is evident in the novel ‘The Trial.’ It depicts the way in which society is ruled by an autocratic hierarchy, which is kept secret from the working class. This is a metaphor for the Marxist ideology of the bourgeoisie exploiting the proletariat in a capitalist society. ‘The Trial’ by Franz Kafka was published in 1945 and follows the injustice of the main character Josef, who is arrested by two wardens, and prosecuted on unnamed charges. "Without having done anything wrong he was arrested one fine morning." The nature of his crime is kept confined from him and the reader. Throughout the novel, Josef struggles ineffectively against an oppressive and autocratic court system, only to be abruptly executed, at the end of the novel. This essay will be exploring Josef’s character and the ways in which ‘The Trial’ is written in a Marxist perspective in depth, analysing how Josef struggles against the oppressive court system, adamant not to compromise his beliefs to conform to and suit society’s norms.

In The Trial by Franz Kafka, the protagonist K. is going through what is often thought of as one of the most dehumanizing aspects of society. Even in the United States many criticize the justice system for being dehumanizing. People are forced to wear the same thing, act the same way, and are given numbers instead of names. In The Trial Kafka emphasizes the dehumanizing aspects of this process by exacerbating the bureaucratic steps that must be accomplished and adds more uncertainty and secrecy to the steps. Kafka’s writing shows the lack of information that K. is given, and the symbolic dehumanization that occurs during the whipping and with K. lacking a last name.

Kafka’s “In the Penal Colony” tells the story of a European traveller who has been invited to observe an unnamed penal colony’s system of justice and punishment. Throughout the foreign traveller’s visit, a character referred to as “the Officer” zealously defends the colony’s justice system by explaining—from his point of view—how one is convicted and punished. A convicted individual—referred to as “the Condemned”—is to face punishment; unfortunately for him, only one form of penalty exists in this society’s system: a tortuous execution by a device known simply as “the apparatus.” This capital punishment is falling out of favor with the majority of the colony’s citizens—including the new commandant, leaving the Officer to implore the Traveller’s support of his beloved machine (Kafka). Under its surface, this story actually speaks to much more than a simple ideological debate; digging deeper, one can come to realize that it touches on a much more severe type of conflict: war. By analyzing Kafka’s characters and looking at numerous conflicts throughout human history, one can conclude that in every war, there are different sides, each with their own ideals: one will prosper, another will be defeated, one will be dragged into the conflict, and one will refuse to intervene.

The various characters and aspects of existentialistic themes in “In the Penal Colony” made me find Kafka’s work to resonate with Soren Kierkegaard’s works. Kafka explored an intriguing theme of unexamined values which is similar to how Kierkegaard explored the incomprehensibleness of faith to mankind in “Fear and Trembling.” The officer sees the apparatus as a source of pride as it’s a machine used to enforce justice. However, the entire system of this penal colony is based on the idea that “guilt is never to be doubted.” The condemned are never tried nor given the chance to defend themselves. Instead, criminals of even minor offenses are sentenced to death at the order of the judge. The only reason the officer could see this grossly unjust and inhumane system as fair is the fact that he never examined the underlying values, meanings, and normativity of this system in which he was designated to enforce. Just like how Kierkegaard found it absurd to simply accept Abraham to be willing to sacrifice his child due to his faith for God, Kafka portrays such absurdity of brutality and injustice through the eyes of the explorer. The theme of unexamined values

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

Laws and regulations vary from nation to nation. Attitudes towards the capitalism, as well, vary from person to person. The death penalty, it seems, has become more debatable topic than ever. Although some people think capital punishment, just like death penalty, is a inhuman act which against human 's rights for life and it is too cruel to give the criminals another chance to live a new life. I suppose capital punishment is still an effective way to deter violent criminals, because it can give comfort to the victims and their families. Also, death penalty gives citizens the right message, that is, punishment is proportionate to crimes. And from economically speaking, it saves a lot of money by sentencing murderers to death rather than sentencing them to life imprisonment. So in my observation, I strongly oppose the abolition of death penalty, and this paper will seek to prove that death penalty has to be preserved and impletmented as a valid means of prevention serious crimes.

Franz Kafka’s famously translated novel The Trial was thought by many to be strongly influenced by his strong background and affiliations with theater and literature. Within the novel, Kafka refers to various types of the art form including, physical art, performing arts and acting, and the art of how a person moves and/or interacts with others. Critics have argued that Kafka’s background was the influence to the novel, while others strongly disagree. Was Kafka’s references to the performing arts within the novel his way of portraying life as a play, something that is scripted and planned out or was it simply the main character treating his situation as an unrealistic event and a joke?

When a person commits a crime, our modern government has a system in place in order for that person to be punished in a way that can be fair and just. This type of government is usually run by people who believe in a democratic system, where the decisions are made through a vote by the people in order to make sure the decisions made are fair and just to an extent. In the book, The Trial by Franz Kafka, the main character Josef K. is accused of committing a crime and put on trial by the state. Throughout the book, Josef K. was never told the crime he committed or what charges are being brought against him. This book was written in the 19th century, outside the United States, and has yet to be finished by the author do to the sorry fact that he died before finishing the book. In the following paragraphs I will use Fletchers, Basic Concepts of Criminal Law, to show that Josef K.’s trial was conducted in a substantive manner.

The criminal justice system, at times, provides an effective balance of the rights of victims, offenders and society. However, when considering the balance or rights in regards to the criminal investigation and criminal trial process and the system of sentencing and punishment, the inefficacy is considered extensive. The three key respective areas in which the balance of rights proves controversial are bail and remand which favours community rights, the role of juries, favouring the victim’s rights, and the use of different penalties favouring offender rights.

The late 18th Century and early 19th Century symbolize the period of rapid developing and highly industrialized societies in Europe. While economies were thriving, Europeans explored alternatives to expand their power. They believed that they developed the highest civilizations of all nations and they brought forward the development of human civilizations. As a result, colonization was the mechanism the Europeans employed to spread their power, and most importantly brought about advancement to the native land. Conrad’s “An outpost of Progress and Kafka’s “In the Penal Colony” were written in this heyday of European expansion, where colonization in Africa was at its peak. Although both short stories depict the colonies where they were far away from the imperial center, the emphasis of the European experiences, particularly the misrepresentations of the European civilizations in these colonies directly criticizes the European culture. Through presenting the

Kafka's In the Penal Colony chronicles a colony's justice system, from the point of view of an outsider. Through the narrative, the reader is able to witness several oddities in the way that justice is carried out. In the Penal Colony compares to Duff and Garland's Introduction: Thinking about Punishment, the versus surrounding the trial of Jesus, and the story of the deluge in the normative issues of crime, punishment , and justice that it brings to light.

The second article, the writer also shows the practice of the capital punishment. However, this article is related to the abolishment. The aim of this article is to investigate the debates about the death penalty that is eliminated due to the unconstitutional law.

Legally enforced legislation has been part of western society for a few centuries. However, the law’s interpretation and enforcement differs worldwide, depending on a nation’s values and principles. Henceforth, law’s usage in literature is varied and does not always follow the principles of liberal democracies. In Frank Kafka’s “In the Penal Colony,” the readers are faced, through the narration of a foreign explorer, with an island penal colony. On the island, the authorities employ torture as punishment for every type of crimes committed. Thus, “In the Penal Colony” is an allegory of law through the opposing view of the Officer and the Explorer on the justice system. The allegory is understood through the underlying debate of man-made and divine law, the Officer’s disregard of the rule of law and the apparatus’ usage as a representation of Officer’s ideals for the legal system implanted in the colony.

“Law is only a superstructure; in reality it only translates the interests of those who hold the reins of command in any given society; it is an instrument in the service of those who exercise their ‘dictatorship’ in this society because they have the instruments of production within their control.”

Franz Kafka was born on the third of July, 1883, as the oldest child of Hermann Kafka and his wife Julie in Prague. His family from the fathers side was from Südböhmen und moved later on to Prague. His mother was originally from a wealthy and popular german-jewish family. His father grew up in a part of the tschechisch-jewish part in Milieu, but the family was more orientated at the german speaking culture in Prague, like everyone else in this time at this place. Kafka had three younger sisters, Valli (1890), Ottla (1892), and Elli (1899). All children were send to german schools and were able to speak better the german language then the tschechis. Franz Kafka visited from begin of 1893 the high school in “Altstädter-Ring” and became his highshool diploma there. He studied law and right at the university of Prague and was also taking classes of germanistik and art history. In 1906 he became his University diploma with an promotion to an Ph.D. in right. Starting at around 1907 he began to write and in 1910 his first short story “contemplation”. He was visiting the theater multiple times where he made friends with Marx Brod, Felix Weltsch, and Oskar Baum. The year 1912 counts towards the most productive years of Kafkas life. Franz Kafka was not able to get in a long term relationship with woman. All of his affairs had an ending. Kafka created his first big pieces of work in the fall of 1912: The short story “the Judgement”, The roman “the missing person”, and the