As I progress deeper into The Trial, I start to appreciate the plot and developing themes. Kafka's character development of K. and the judicial system officials and underlings blurs the spheres of reality and fantasy in this novel. This particular development begins after the initial hearing and heightens after K. visits the judicial system offices.
I think that he returns to the apartment where the initial hearings were held because he was curious about the judicial system, it's influence in the community, and the extent of it's authority. Every person tied to this institution is unaware of freedom and unsure of their ability to control his or her own decisions. They seem to have lost the power of their minds and it's associated independence. This is clear when the court usher suffers from other people's intrusion and manipulation of his life. For example, they do not respect his privacy and control his enjoyment when they take away his wife for their own pleasure. His wife's willingness only supports the fact that the bureaucracy has eroded its employees' independence.
The blur of reality and fantasy occurs when K.loses his strength inside the bureaucracy's office. After interacting with other defendants and noticing their hopelessness and inability to reason, K. turns into the same state of mush after he has been in the building for too long. He loses his independence and has to rely on his "enemies" to get him to fresh air. While reading this section, I thought that K. would never be able to leave the building and that the officials would imprison him inside their system.
This theme of reality and fantasy develops when K. eventually exists the building and watches the bureaucracy's officials suffer from fresh, clean air. I love Kafka's manipulation of this theme especially when K. hallucinates that the two guard that arrested him are being flogged in his office building. I figure Kafka wants to emphasize that Kafka's personal life is diminishing, he is becoming more attached to the bureaucracy and that he is suffering from psychological stress.
I also understood from getting deeper into the book that Kafka is trying to convey his feelings regarding the judicial system. I agree with Camille in that the people in the building are in that world so much that they lose their independence, as well as their ability to formulate their own opinions and act on them. We see the effect of the system when K. is in there as well, as he becomes less and less individualistic and sort of loses sight of his initial opinions. We witness K. become weaker, and at one point get the sense that he will be overruled by this corrupted environment. The blur between fantasy and reality, as Camille says, takes an effect on the people involved in the system and forces them to be imprisoned in the building. K. finally gets out and begins to lean more towards reality in order to recognize the effect of the bureaucratic system on the people.
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