Thesis and 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. 

Outline: 

I.               Introduction: Thesis, brief summary

II.            K’s Arrest

III.          First court hearing

IV.         Importance of Innocence in the trial (Huld)

V.            Prolonging of the trial; importance of connections and conveniences (Titorelli, Leni, Huld)

VI.          Totalitarianism; power to the worthy

VII.        K’s Death; comparison between the guards who arrested him and killed him.

VIII.      Kafka’s analysis on Russian government during that time; indirect critique

IX.           Conclusion 

Themes for Term Paper

1) Opposed to what is perceived to be in a typical society, the government in The Trial seemed to have total control over what was occurring in society. They were able to control every aspect of K.'s life from his job, to church, to engulfing all of his time with this trial.

2) The three Kafka institutions, church, family, and state, set you up to fail. They interact with one another and have inherent contradictions. Throughout The Trial, K. has a difficult time choosing between these conflicting institutions and they ultimately cause his downfall.

3) In The Trial by Franz Kafka, we are able to see the alienation of one man, Joseph K. Throughout the novel, we learn of the different hardships that he is put in because of this alienation and it ultimately leads him to becoming a more independent person.

4) Another theme that is prevalent in the novel is that K. is very self-conscious. Because of this, he wants to try to be the best at everything and ends up over thinking a lot of things. This even leads him into firing his own lawyer.

Themes

1. The corruption of government and lack of professionalism in "The Trial" are very apparent and ongoing themes in the plot. Through many characters such as Titiorelli and Leni, Kafka was able to express his viewpoints on how unofficial and corrupt the government is, and how seemingly unimportant people can become such "respected" figures in society because of the connections they have.

2. Kafka's writing strategies regarding fantasy vs reality are exemplified throughout the entire novel. His existentialist perspectives are underlined through the strange, eerie situations that K. experiences. At some moments, it is very unclear whether or not what is happening is real and it all forms part of this "kafkaesque" style that the readers become so familiar with.

3. Kafka's perception on the pressures exerted by the state institution are very clearly portrayed throughout the novel. In fact, it seems as though the details of the trial were never revealed solely for this purpose; to highlight the way he feels the state institution impacts citizens in a negative way.

4. Kafka's critique on totalitarianism is also a reoccurring topic in "The Trial." The idea that the government controls society fully, and that the authorities involved are no more fit to be leaders than anyone else in the society is often implied.

Themes

1. Human institutions and how The Trial is a perfect example of how us as humans create our own demons. We create these institutions to manipulate people and gain an advantage over people and ultimately screw over the people of our own race.

2. How social creations like the bureaucracy can change who we are. In The Trial, K. Is initially described as being a self made, hard working, successful man. By the end of the book, he's completely worn down and isn't himself at all, a direct result of the phony bureaucracy in The Trial.

3. The effect of a totalitarian-like legal system and where our society as a whole may be headed. If/when our government develops into something like this in The Trial, what we we do as Americans? Rebel like our four fathers did or just allow the government to run us down like it did with K.?

Themes

1.     Human Institutions in the sense of Bureaucracies

I think that one theme in The Trial is the conflict that humans create for themselves via establishing institutions and laws that make it impossible to establish any sense of justice. The court system in the book never reaches final conclusions for any of the people arrested because the law prevents them.  By never reaching justice (both for the guilty and innocent if that even exists), the whole societal system fails and makes every citizen a slave to the institution’s bureaucratic ways and inefficiencies.

2.     Transformation

K. loses a sense of hope and ambition as he spends more time under arrest and experiences the institution’s limitations. Although K. is nowhere near an adolescent figure at the beginning of the book, he has a sense of optimism as CFO for his bank and the future with Fraulein in his boarding house. Yet, as time continues after he gets arrested, he becomes more pessimistic about life and society in general and he realizes that there is really no definite purpose for humans to achieve in their lives. He becomes more secure with the idea that humans all have the same fate regardless of their class, gender, age ect. There is a sense of the human condition here. 

3.     Absence of religion

K realizes that humans can’t believe in any supernatural force because everyone is attached to this invisible judicial institution that can determine your future by just arresting an innocent person. The priest in In The Cathedral chapter associates himself with the court as prison chaplain rather than relating himself with God. There is no outlet to god, rather only to a society where a person is born as a prisoner to this court. Religion is absent and holds no authority in this book.  There is no one to confide in besides lawyers and miscellaneous men who believe that they have some control over their and others’ futures in order to feel somewhat secure and powerful.  

Totalitarianism and the predetermined destiny 
The idea of totalitarianism is that all of the citizens are controlled by the government and they have no control over their future, as if everyone had a predetermined destiny. No matter how this individuals spend their lives before getting caught up with the government, it has no significance in the end. The government doesn't care about race, gender, religion, class etc. In the end, we are all equal and under the control of the government. 

Reaction- 2/16

As I finished the novel I could not help but analyze the different aspects in the novel that were relevant to the lecture on the different types of institutions that control the protagonists life in a Kafka novel. However, I feel as if the themes from the other lectures on Mr. Shapiro begin to play a role as well. Kafka's character Joseph K. is inflicted with a trial and his first reaction is to do anything to benefit himself. Although this is very understandable given the current situation that he is in, it relates to the lecture about how all humans are selfish.

I know that Ben kind of pointed out this aspect, but I feel that it is such an intricate part of the book and describes human nature that it had to be mentioned again. When humans are put in a difficult situation, they may struggle at first. However, due to our intellectual capacity we accept what is presented to us and attempt to make the best out of any situation. This is prevalent in the trial. I felt as if K. accepted the trial as a part of his everyday life. For him, the trial was no different than waking up and brushing his teeth: it became part of his everyday life.

Another aspect that I want to acknowledge has to do with one of the three institutions that were apparent in Mr. Shapiro's lecture: government (state). The government is supposed to make laws that protect its citizens. However, "The Trial" shows that the government does not create law that benefit each citizen equally. Citizens like K. can be engulfed in horrible situations like K. by the government and have no out.

The End

Through the progression of the novel, K. continues his life under the trial almost as if he is used to his trial. The way he is described towards the end is as if he has become so used to the idea of the trial that he lives completely normal, and becomes unshaken at the idea now. His trial just sticks onto him like a parasite, sucking the life out of him almost to the point where he accepts it, and lives his life with it.

It certainly was an abrupt ending to a novel that just kept dragging on and on. I think we all saw it coming the whole time, that sooner or later K. would be killed somehow. For the true exaggeration of Kafka's piece to truly exemplify the meaning of the fictional world and corrupt bureaucracy that is depicted in the novel, K. needed to die. It ties everything up so perfectly. I have finally understood Kafka's stories, and the pattern that he depicts in almost all of them. In every story, from the Metamorphosis to The Trial, the main character is always thrust into a situation out of his/her control. Their fate is inevitably controlled by the hands of other people, a feeling that is just absolutely gut-wrenching. Once you take away our control of our own lives, you take away everything from the person. You take their soul, their physical being, their mental being, and so on. I think Kafka hits on this idea not because he thought the world would come down to a society like the ones in his books, but  to depict how outside forces can, unintentionally or intentionally, ruin our lives for the greater good of themselves. It all wraps back around to this idea that man is inherently selfish. These institutions that play into Kafka's stories were built around this idea, and were promoted and spread by another idea. For example, (to me) religion was created on the basis of manipulating the masses and manipulating human action, and the same goes for government. They were promoted as something good for the people to believe in, something that the people can rely upon, a wall that we all accept with open arms.