In The Penal Colony Sparknotes

In the short story, In the Penal Colony by Franz Kafka, we are introduced to a horrible device that is used to torture and execute prisoners. This apparatus does this by repeatedly writing the word of the supposed crime that the condemned person did into their flesh like a bizarre tattoo artist made of pain and blood. It is both sickening and fascinating to read the account of how this machine operates from the character named the Officer as he describes in gross details just what monster of metal does to someone. But, why would Kafka go to such lengths to write about these grisly details of blood and torn flesh? In this paper, we will see how the machine is many metaphors about how people can view the justice system and how it may seem unfair

to the common person about to face it.
In the essay, Metaphors we live by Metaphors we live by (Lakoff & Johnson 2011), it states, “Metaphor is for most people a device of the poetic imagination and the rhetorical flourish—a matter of extraordinary rather than ordinary language.” When an author takes pen in hand, they make art out of their words to do just this thing. By doing this, they can put hidden meaning or messages in the stories they write. Sometimes this is to make a point about the political or social environment they see in the world they live in and others it is just to let the reader know how they feel about certain things. Lakoff and Johnson also say that:
“Metaphorical concepts can be ex-tended beyond the range of ordinary literal ways of thinking and talking into the range of what is called figurative, poetic, colorful, or fanciful thought and language. Thus, if ideas are objects, we can dress them up in fancy clothes, juggle them, line them up nice and neat, etc. So when we say that a concept is structured by a metaphor, we mean that it is partially structured and that it can be extended in some ways but not others.”
Kafka has done this in his story In the Penal Colony with his descriptive language when he writes about the machine used to torture and main prisoners to punish and kill them for crimes. Observer this passage from the text, “When the man is lying on the Bed and it starts quivering, the Harrow sinks onto the body. It positions itself automatically in such a way that it touches the body only lightly with the needle tips. Once the machine is set in this position, this steel cable tightens up into a rod. And now the performance begins.” (Kafka & Johnston 2015) First we must look at the word ‘Harrow’ in this passage. What is a harrow? It is a tool that is made of metal that is used to break up and tear apart topsoil for farming. But when you apply it to the context of this story, it is a tool made of needles that actually writes into the flesh of the one sentenced to die the word of the crime they have done.
Why would Kafka use such a term in his story when it comes to describing a part of a machine?

To frighten the reader is the easy answer on the surface, but there is much more going on than that. Kafka was using the skill of metaphor to show how an unjust and unfair criminal punishment system can be to the individual that has been condemned by it. The person is trapped, and now the system will tear into them both physically and mentally. Being left to the whims of such a system is a terrible fate, a person can feel like they are being hammered and ripped into by what they are going through. This scene brings this across to the reader but in a very subtle way through the use of the word harrow when it is used with a metaphorical

lens.
What other meaning can Kafka bring across with the metaphorical lens? Look at this scene from the story:
“The Harrow is starting to write.

When it’s finished with the first part of the script on the man’s back, the layer of cotton wool rolls and turns the body slowly onto its side to give the Harrow a new area. Meanwhile those parts lacerated by the inscription are lying on the cotton wool which, because it has been specially treated, immediately stops the bleeding and prepares the script for a further deepening. Here, as the body continues to rotate, prongs on the edge of the Harrow then pull the cotton wool from the wounds, throw it into the pit, and the Harrow goes to work again.”
These words depict a punishment that is very detailed and gruesome for the reader to try to take in when they envision what is happening to the person receiving the consent ripping and shredding of their skin as they die. What could be trying to be shown here is how the power and weight of being incarcerated can have on an individual in a system where punishment is more important than justice. Each day, each hour, minute and second that someone is in such a situation can exert a toll on them. Kafka is trying to get the reader to stop and think what this really means when the punishment no longer fits the

offense.
Lastly, look at this passage near the end of the story. The officer that was so much in love with this form of punishment, has now placed himself inside his own device. He has set the machine to write the words ‘Be Just’ into his own flesh rather than have his form of justice taken away from him. But what happens next bares us looking at it with a metaphorical lens.
“The wheel rolled all the way to the edge of the Inscriber, fell down, rolled upright a bit in the sand, and then fell over and lay still. But already up on the Inscriber another gear wheel was moving upwards. Several others followed—large ones, small ones, ones hard to distinguish. With each of them the same thing happened. One kept thinking that now the Inscriber must surely be empty, but then a new cluster with lots of parts would move up, fall down, roll in the sand, and lie still.”
With the officer now inside his own doom, this cruel from of justice is falling apart. With the only one that believed in it now being its last victim, it is breaking down and destroying itself as its last act. What Kafka can be trying to say here is that once the ones in power are gone, the systems of oppression and cruelty can be torn down. Unjust ways of dealing out so called justice require those in power to believe in them, and when those people are removed from power, the system will eat itself. The system will break down and then something new and hopefully better will replace what was there.
In conclusion, Kafka used his words in this story to shock and also frighten the reader at the images they were reading. However, when you look at the metaphors of the words the deeper meanings of what he was trying to get across can be seen. The machine In the Penal Colony was far more than a torture device to scare the reader of the story. It was a metaphor for what happens when a punishment system has lost sight of reform and justice. It becomes one of cruelty and death just for the sake of killing with no meaning or reason behind it. Kafka also shows that when change comes to the system it can stop the injustices that are happening and stop them.