Many people in society believe that in a time of need others will provide you with necessary aid in order to help in the predicament that one is situated in. This includes a wide range of people from friends to families to lawyers. However, InThe Trial by Franz Kafka, we see that sometimes there is nothing that these people can do. Joseph K. an ordinary business many trying to make a name for himself in society is arrested for a crime he is unaware he committed. Furthermore, the government refuses to acknowledge his request to inform him what the crime was. This pressure from the oppressive government causes him to be both alienated by society and stubborn to accept anyone’s help.
The governing body that is mainly responsible for alienating K. from society is the court. In the novel, the court represents a society where everyone is forced to conform and adhere to a specific standard. No one can be different and the court does everything in its power to attempt to alienate those who are different. When K. is initially arrested one of the guards points this out. They tell him “you should talk less in general; almost everything you’ve said up to now could have been inferred from your behavior, even if you’d said only a few words, and it wasn’t terribly favorable in any case.” This guard is blatantly telling K. that no matter if he is being truthful or fictitious, the court has a way of turning what he says against him, so it is in K.’s best interest not to act at all. The court sees itself as a body that is never wrong, which allows them to make the “correct” decision regarding every trial. In fact, at one point in the novel K. is told that because the court never sees its accusations as being wrong his life will be contained by this trial for an extended period of time. When K. hears this, he realize that this is not the only one being oppressed by this power hungry governing body but that it is happening to many people in society around him. “What has happened to me is merely a single case and such of no particular consequence, since I don’t take it very seriously, but it is typical of the proceeding being brought against many people. I speak for them, not for myself!” In this quote, K. is showing how a governing body such as the court has way too much power. In fact, they have enough control and influence in society to force K. to act by himself. Every single victim that K. of the people that K. is speaking about is alienated.
The governing body that is mainly responsible for alienating K. from society is the court. In the novel, the court represents a society where everyone is forced to conform and adhere to a specific standard. No one can be different and the court does everything in its power to attempt to alienate those who are different. When K. is initially arrested one of the guards points this out. They tell him “you should talk less in general; almost everything you’ve said up to now could have been inferred from your behavior, even if you’d said only a few words, and it wasn’t terribly favorable in any case.” This guard is blatantly telling K. that no matter if he is being truthful or fictitious, the court has a way of turning what he says against him, so it is in K.’s best interest not to act at all. The court sees itself as a body that is never wrong, which allows them to make the “correct” decision regarding every trial. In fact, at one point in the novel K. is told that because the court never sees its accusations as being wrong his life will be contained by this trial for an extended period of time. When K. hears this, he realize that this is not the only one being oppressed by this power hungry governing body but that it is happening to many people in society around him. “What has happened to me is merely a single case and such of no particular consequence, since I don’t take it very seriously, but it is typical of the proceeding being brought against many people. I speak for them, not for myself!” In this quote, K. is showing how a governing body such as the court has way too much power. In fact, they have enough control and influence in society to force K. to act by himself. Every single victim that K. of the people that K. is speaking about is alienated.
No comments:
Post a Comment