The Trial by Franz Kafka

The Trial

Franz Kafka

Published 1924

Bohemian Novel

The Well-Educated Mind Novels

⭐⭐⭐

An Impromptu Update

More than two weeks have passed since I have last written, and it will be a few more days before I can write anything about my most recent book, The Trial by Franz Kafka.

For a while, I had not been able to read much because this has been the craziest summer vacation ever; I have yet to have any "vacation" at all.  In fact, I am still literally waiting for summer vacation to begin.  Yesterday, I just returned from Texas, but now I must get back to my reading schedule.

I will say this: The Trial reminds me a lot like 1984 by George Orwell for its dreary, oppressive atmosphere.  It feels like a bad dream, as opposed to a nightmare, because bad dreams have agonizing and frustrating plots, while a nightmare lacks any plot at all. 

Up to this point, I have finished the novel, but Kafka, who never actually finished the story, had written additional sections to the novel that are included at the end of the book called "Fragments," and this is where I am now.  I should finish it today, and afterward I will put together my summaries.  In the following days I will answer the inquiry questions from TWEM. 

I am excited to learn that there is a film adaptation of The Trial by the same title directed by Orson Welles, starring Anthony Perkins, and released in 1962.  You can watch it right here on Youtube, although I am going to wait until I am totally done with the book:

In addition to The Trial, I am reading O Pioneers by Willa Cather, of which I have read so many wonderful opinions.  Since I am doing a Little House school year this fall with my children, I am hoping to draw additional inspiration about pioneers in the late 1800s.  This title is not part of TWEM list, but it will count toward my Classics Club list.  This one is taking a little longer because my focus is mostly on The Trial.

A Quote by Kafka About Books

Well, if I did not know any better, I would think that I was avoiding my Well-Educated Mind questions for The Trial by Franz Kafka.  However, I am just really super distracted by life right now, so I have not answered them at all.  I did read some "Fragments," but they did not add anything for me; preferably I like the story right where it ends, as brutal as it is.  

Anyway, I found a really great quote by Kafka in my research of him, and I wanted to share it:

"Altogether, I think we ought to read only books that bite and sting us. If the book we are reading doesn't shake us awake like a blow to the skull, why bother reading it in the first place? So that it can make us happy, as you put it? Good God, we'd be just as happy if we had no books at all; books that make us happy we could, in a pinch, also write ourselves. 

What we need are books that hit us like a most painful misfortune, like the death of someone we loved more than we love ourselves, that make us feel as though we had been banished to the woods, far from any human presence, like suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us. That is what I believe." 

Grammar Stage: What is the most important event in which the main character changes? 

The moment we meet the main character, Josef K., he is arrested, so there is not much to know about him before hand.  After his arrest, he behaves slightly guilty of something we do not know and will never know; but he is working to do whatever he can to beat the system, which is quite shady and chaotic as well as incomprehensible.  By the end of the story, K. learns that he cannot beat the Law, and he must meet his destiny and accept the result of the end of his trial, which is his judgment, and this is where the reader understands that K. has given up and changes completely.

Logic Stage: What does the main character want, and what does he do to get it? 

K. wants the truth.  He gets the truth at the end of his fate, although it is not the end result he had searched for.  And the truth is that he must accept that there is no truth – only another’s version of the truth which is still as important.  Like the priest told K.: “…you don’t have to consider everything true, you just have to consider it necessary.  Lies are made into a universal system.”  

 (BTW: I do not ascribe to this, I am just laying it out as I think the author wants us to think it is.)

Rhetoric Stage: What is the author trying to tell us? 

This was challenging because on the one hand I saw the religious groundwork at the very end with references to Scripture with the doorkeeper and Law being “divine” because it is “unseen,” hence maybe the author questions divine Truth because it is unseen.  But I also understand this story being a reference to political government if you take into account how inept bureaucracy can be.  But then there is the argument that the human condition is full of shame and guilt, and maybe K.’s guilt was that he was human.  He was not exactly a moral, upright individual.  Possibly, Kafka understood that the human condition is naturally corrupt and guilty of sin.  Frankly, I kept wondering why other characters were not just as guilty as K. was. 

Overall, I liked The Trial because it was thought provoking as far as trying to understand the message, but it was not a happy ending.  So if you are looking for a happy read, steer clear of The Trial, but if you want to be challenged by ideas, this may be the right one.