Violence is created with the intention of solving problems. However, one might discover
that the very solution to violence requires more violence, creating an inescapable situation. This
concept is explored in Kafka on the Shore where the main protagonist, Kafka Tamura, attempts
to separate his individual identity from the collective to escape the mindless violence of the
world. Although he attempts to distance himself in the labyrinthine journey, his violent
memories of the past continue to incite sentiments of agony. Haruki Murakami utilizes the motif
of violence to elucidate the futility of Kafka’s premature escape from his metamorphosis.
Kafka’s determination to “run away from home” is characterized as an attempt to escape
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The butterfly serves as a reminder to Kafka that escaping the process of
metamorphosis would only kill off a part of himself, similar to a butterfly escaping its cocoon
before its complete metamorphosis. “In everything there’s a proper order” (144), and for Kafka
to complete his transformation is to endure the “small sandstorm” (5) or cocoon of fate and the
violent repercussions. Kafka suffers a loss of freedom, as he is not free to live his life, but rather
is bounded by fate to act out his violent curse. His transformation can be visualized as the very
process of crossing the sea of violent memories, and his emergence from the water onto the other
shore of reality is symbolic for exiting the cocoon as a new person.
A notable character without a definite form, The Boy named Crow acts as Kafka’s
subconscious voice to the peculiar world that Kafka exists in. Crow possesses an awareness of
Kafka’s every move, thoughts and decisions that even surpasses Kafka’s own knowledge.
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The blood relations between Kafka and his father symbolizes the genetic aspect of his
father’s presence within Kafka. Kafka cannot rid himself of his father’s presence as the curse
created by his father, “is part of [his] DNA” (387). From this perspective, the curse could be a
metaphor for “[The anger] …all inside [him], torturing [him]”, as a result of his father’s lack of
devotion for him (387). Furthermore, his “father polluted everything he touched, damaged
everyone around him”, which symbolizes that Kafka’s mind and identity were polluted,
and hence corrupted, from his father’s negative influence (203). Kafka also possesses the
destructive genes of his father since birth as “half [his genes] are made up of” his father (203).
As a result, despite Kafka’s efforts to “run away”, the presence of his father continues to torture
him (6).
Despite his curiosity “Why do people wage war?”, Kafka actually wages a war inside of
him as he attempts to end his prophecy, and thus his father’s presence, when in reality,
“nothing’s really over” (386). In war, countries attempt to annihilate the opposite
Kafka’s In the Penal Colony is a story about the use of torture tools which cause death sentences into effect, within 12 hours of torment and the convicted, in the end dies. Lets regard the roots of this subject and its idea of hope....
By being forced to break off with his identity of being a stranger, he got a chance to live out what he always wanted, recognition. His experience of exile led him to be in alienating situations, where he verbally had to prove himself right. His exile was also enriching because it gave him the recognition he wanted. The “stranger” was able to unmask his
In “A Hunger”, “The Penal Colony”, and Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, Kafka succeeded in showing his individuals as obsessed with their profession; however their obsession caused their doom because society asks so much from an individual, only so much can be done. However, regardless of that, these individuals choose their work over themselves, and not even bad health or death can stop them. Because society places immures pressure on Kafka’s work obsessed character, they neglect their well-being and cause their own downfall.
The story of "The Crow" (a graphic novel turned movie) is the story of Eric Draven, a handsome young musician living in the dark gloom of a gothic-industrialized city plagued by continual rain. He is set to wed a beautiful girl when she is raped and left to die by a gang of criminals. Upon arriving to witness it in progress (taking place at his own home), Draven is killed as well; pushed out of a window as high as a skyscraper. The story then chronicles his resurrection from the dead in order to avenge their murders. His only lifeline (or shall we say deathline) is through a black crow. The crow is the connection between the dead and the living, providing Draven with the means to be immortal for one night only. If the crow is harmed then Draven will lose his immortality and assume mortality, putting an end to his plans for revenge. The conflict of the story comes as Draven attempts to execute the criminals one by one, but is cut short by the harming of the crow. He fights to overcome this and prove successful in his journey.
attempts to remain a human. He didn't want to see that he, in fact, was
...generation. Kafka’s story proposes family dynamics as a natural ancestral foundation that’s pre-developed and set from early life stages.
There are many different factors that play a role in shaping one’s life. Two of these, family and society, are expressed by Leo Tolstoy and Franz Kafka. Tolstoy’s novella The Death Of Ivan Ilyich draws attention to the quality of Ivan Ilyich’s life. Although he has a life the whole community aspires to, he becomes aware of the hypocrisies and imperfections that accompany it. Similarly, Kafka’s The Metamorphosis focuses on the ostracized life of Gregor Samsa who continuously seeks the approval of his family, but somehow always ends up letting them down. Ivan Ilyich in Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Gregor Samsa in Kafka’s The Metamorphosis both experience extreme alienation from their families, and thereby shed light on the nightmarish quality of their existence.
Goldfarb, Sheldon. “Critical Essay on ‘The Metamorphosis’.” Short Stories for Students. Ed. Jennifer Smith. Vol. 12. Detroit: Gale Group, 2001.
The Metamorphosis is said to be one of Franz Kafka's best works of literature. It shows the difficulties of living in a modern society and the struggle for acceptance of others when in a time of need. In this novel Kafka directly reflects upon many of the negative aspects of his personal life, both mentally and physically. The relationship between Gregor and his father is in many ways similar to Franz and his father Herrman. The Metamorphosis also shows resemblance to some of Kafka's diary entries that depict him imagining his own extinction by dozens of elaborated methods. This paper will look into the text to show how this is a story about the author's personal life portrayed through his dream-like fantasies.
However, Gregor does escape from his life of indentured servancy- by becoming a giant insect. Walter H. Sokel explains the effect of the metamorphosis on his occupat...
Franz Kafka, b. Prague, Bohemia (then belonging to Austria), July 3, 1883, d. June 3, 1924, has come to be one of the most influential writers of this century. Virtually unknown during his lifetime, the works of Kafka have since been recognized as symbolizing modern man's anxiety-ridden and grotesque alienation in an unintelligible, hostile, or indifferent world. Kafka came from a middle-class Jewish family and grew up in the shadow of his domineering shopkeeper father, who impressed Kafka as an awesome patriarch. The feeling of impotence, even in his rebellion, was a syndrome that became a pervasive theme in his fiction. Kafka did well in the prestigious German high school in Prague and went on to receive a law degree in 1906. This allowed him to secure a livelihood that gave him time for writing, which he regarded as the essence--both blessing and curse--of his life. He soon found a position in the semipublic Workers' Accident Insurance institution, where he remained a loyal and successful employee until--beginning in 1917-- tuberculosis forced him to take repeated sick leaves and finally, in 1922, to retire. Kafka spent half his time after 1917 in sanatoriums and health resorts, his tuberculosis of the lungs finally spreading to the larynx.
He struggles as an artist himself, as a writer, and as a human being. He feels misunderstood and tormented, perhaps exactly what this story is all about. The irrationality in the people that surround the Hunger Artist, and the inconsistency of the audience is reflective of this vision that Kafka wrote an autobiography of himself, as there is no reader who can truly understand what he is experiencing in life, his thoughts, ideologies, emotions, or intentions. Not even the remarkable admiration of the spectators for the Hunger Artist can, at least in the beginning of the story, be considered to be a success for him in Kafka's point of view because it is based on a serious misinterpretation of the artist's
realizes that the controlled society he lives is one that tries to eliminate all individuality. This causes him to act out in violence against authority as a means o...
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?