Kafkas The Trial :: Kafka Trial Essays

Kafka's The Trial Kafka's The Trial follows a man, K., as he is arrested and released for an unknown offense and attends a series of bizarre trials. He tries to comprehend and extricate himself from an outrageous course of events, which transpire suddenly in his life. K. is persecuted by this unimaginable court, which seems to hold a quasi-authoritative place in society. K.'s life seems to spiral out of control while he and the reader struggle to understand what is going on. Kafka uses this piece to criticize bureaucracy, even in a seemingly democratic society. Kafka believes that bureaucracy is endangering the freedoms of the individual in modern society and that it is extremely detrimental to society in the long run. It is not readily identifiable what geographical location Kafka is referring to in The Trial. Based on the rest of the novel's bizarre twists and turns it seems that Kafka did not want to nail down any concrete location to weight down his surrealist story. While there is no link with any known location (other than perhaps Kafka's hometown of Prague) the surroundings are modern and urban. In The Trial, K spends most of his time in various buildings with very little mention of any identifying characteristics. Kafka seems to center around middle class urbanites for the most part. Kafka tackles the evils of government and bureaucracy, concentrating on the social implications of these man made authorities on the individual. Reification seems to serve a pervasive role in Kafka's The Trial. Reification is when something abstract is given material worth by a society It seems that Kafka is questioning how the legal system has been given so much authority and power making it a material entity. In 1912, when Kafka penned The Trial, the rise of the republic was evident around Europe. There was a renewed emphasis on realism and rationale, which also makes an appearance in The Trial. When published, Kafka's novels "evoked the hopelessness of individuals confronting a relentless, machinelike society in which they are minor cogs". As the threat of war swirled in Europe (World War I was just on the horizon), anti Semitism and nationalism surrounded Kafka. In the arts, the rise of modernity created a challenge to positivism that could not be silenced.