Kafka's Manipulation of Plot

Camille Kelleher

Response to Vero

9/15/13

Vero discusses the unrealistic, dreamy sequence of events in this story. It causes us to be indifferent to the plot because we can never fully relate to K. and his feelings.  I agree with Vero’s opinion on Kafka’s narrative style, it is frustrating and sometimes causes me anxiety to get through the assigned pages. Yet, this type of controlled and manipulated narrative is not uncommon to us; Ayn Rand uses the same amount of control over the events in Atlas Shrugged.

While reading both of these stories, I feel contempt for how we have to follow the unnatural rollercoaster of events that only help the authors reach their novel’s thesis. I hate having to accept the story for how the author wants it to unfold, instead of how it would actually happen in reality. It seems as if the author is cheating all dimensions and logical sequences of the universe! But, I guess that is only the definition of fiction. If I want to read a logical story, then I should read autobiographies or history textbooks.

My distaste for these kinds of narratives is so strong that I would choose unreliable narrators like Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye over Rand and Kafka. Caulfield leaves the readers wiggle room to question his narration instead of having to mindlessly abide to unchangeable events. As for K.’s unrealistic trial, it looks like we have to accept Kafka’s manipulation of plot and see what he has to say in the future of this story.