Camille Kelleher
8/25/13
Response to Ben's post
It seems
that Ben’s main concern with the beginning of this story is why K. is being
arrested. It is a simple question that has caused tremendous confusion and
suspense for all of us, even K., “‘What sense?’ K. cried out” (page 15.) Both
the reader and K. seem to have equal limited knowledge in the unfortunate
incident that has plagued his morning.
There are numerous ways that Kafka
can progress this development in the story. Although Ben has considered two
routes, blackmail and revenge, other routes include society’s unjust selection
of random victims to scrutinize (such would be evident in early twentieth
century Germany) or K.’s neighbors who watch the whole morning unfold. For all
we know, Kafka may never even address this question and force us to accept that
whatever K. did in his past has led him to this trial.
No matter the reasons behind the
arrest, we all know that K. is undeniably innocent, “Someone must have
slandered Josef K., for one morning, without having done anything wrong, he was
arrested” (page 3.) Kafka’s straightforward narration leaves no freedom for us
to decide whether he is innocent or not. Kafka may make up for the restriction
on our imaginations by changing his strict style into a looser form, letting us
decide if he is innocent or not after the trial when we have more information
to base our opinions on.
Out of all the different reasons
that K. could be getting arrested for, I believe that the accusations may be
from his neighbors. Their reluctance to leave the window and stop staring makes
me think that they want some form of justice from his arrest.
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