Final Outline

Thesis: Franz Kafka’s drive to highlight the corruption of government and lack of professionalism in Russian society is exceptionally portrayed through the characters and situations that occur in "The Trial." The implications of his belief system were cleverly interlaced in the novel to express his dissatisfaction in the unofficial, unethical customs of the modern Russian government.     I.         Introduction: Thesis, brief summary

   II.         K’s Arrest
                   a.   The Guards
                                    i.     Randomly coming to K.’s house and arresting him
                                    ii.     Unspecified charge
                   b.   Conditions of Arrest
                                    i.     Allowed to go about his daily routine
                                    ii.     Under arrest but not told why
III.        First court hearing
IV.        Importance of Innocence in the trial (Huld)
                 a.   Huld
                                    i.     Admits to Joseph K that the only way to win a trial is through connections
                                    ii.     Innocence means nothing, it is all about who you know or what you can do for the Judges.
                 b.   Titorelli
                                   i.     Because of his paintings he is classified as a “connection.”
                                   ii.     A painter can be more important than innocence in this bureaucracy.
  V.     Totalitarianism; power to the worthy
                a.   Titorelli
                                   i.     Has so much power because of his power
                                   ii.     Not qualified but is able to get what he wants because he has what those in authority want
                                   iii.     Complete abuse of power demonstrated by Titorelli’s character
                b.   Leni
                                  i.     Sleeps with men in order to be secured by the government
                                  ii.     Because of her promiscuity she has some power, not because of qualifications
VI.      K’s Death; comparison between the guards who arrested him and killed him.
               a.   Similarity between the guards who arrested him in the beginning and those who killed him in the end
               b.   Unprofessionalism of these events; parallelism between the two incidences
VII.         Kafka’s analysis on Russian government during that time; indirect critique
               a.   His view on totalitarian government
               b.   Idea that the only way to get anywhere is through connections
               c.    Intelligence, experience, or innocence do not matter.
               d.   All that matters is your name or what you can do for those in charge.
VIII.        Conclusion