Reaction

Having finished the book, I really like the part about “In the Cathedral.”  The parable that the preacher tells K is written in really direct language and obviously an anecdote for the entire book as a whole. The plot is self-evident and doesn’t need any further explanation; the meaning is what is important. The parable is about a man who is desperately trying to gain permission to enter a door and he dies before his wish is granted. Everything about the plot is logical, but the setting and characters that are involved in the parable seem somewhat allusive. The setting and characters are not at all identical with our reality, which I think is K.’s goal. He wants us to expand our knowledge and perception of how we view reality since we see it so narrow-mindedly. The setting seems somewhat dream-like and nonsensical. It certainly has characteristics of an imaginative mind. The characters don’t really have any human characteristics or traits and are rather translated to motives. The man from the countryside is a persistent desire while the doorkeeper is like an obstacle to the identity of a hidden Law that neither of them knows. I think Kafka decided to write about this certain setting and characters because he wants it to reflect on K’s personal experience with the law. I think that the man from the country side is who is waiting for permission from the doorkeeper is like the man who is looking for freedom but always seems to block himself from it or the man who is looking for absolute happiness but can never find it. They are all the same characters- a man desiring an absolute ideal that doesn’t exist in reality. This describes K, he never achieved the sense of isolation from the judicial system. There is no exit once you enter the system and there is no way to avoid the system. It is an absolute that engulfs everyone even though we cant feel, perceive, know it. Yet, as I have spent my time analyzing this, Kafka probably meant something entirely different. I think he wants us to analyze how and why we view the story in this certain way and what it says about is. There is a sense of self-reflection associated with this book that is external to K.’s story but wouldn’t be able to happen if we didn’t know K.’s story.