Chapter 6

         By reading Chapter 6, my opinion of K. has changed dramatically. The chapter begins by us meeting his uncle, Karl. Uncle Karl has come to try to aid K. in every way that he can for the trial. The same thing that is shocking to Uncle Karl is what has been shocking for me throughout this whole process. K. seems to not care about what is going on. He stays calm and collected when many others would be panicking in this situation. In my opinion, K. is starting to connect the dots and figure out what is happening. He starts to think that people in the office might be responsible for what is occurring as displayed be his want to talk to his Uncle outside the office.

         It is also revealed in this chapter that K. is a little bit more of a snob then I originally thought. When Karl tell him that he has a friend who is a lawyer, K. is hesitant because the friend, Huld, usually defends the lower class. K. even points out that he is a higher up at a prominent bank. Many more things are revealed at the house which I think is going to change the story as a whole. At Huld’s house, we find out that his Uncle goes by Albert. This really confused me. Why would he go by a different name? Does he have something that he is hiding?

         At the house we learn that Huld is good friends with the Chief Clerk of the courthouse, who is currently present in the room. K. should have jumped on this opportunity and tried to prove his innocence. I felt that out of all of the people who were in the room, he seemed to be the one who cared the least even though the outcome of this case can dramatically alter K.’s future. Instead, K. is seduced by the nurse and ends up going to a different room with her. I feel as if this is going to play a huge role later on in the book. The Chief Clerk probably now thinks that K. has no interest in the case. He is not going to make an effort to help someone who will not even give him the decency of staying with him for a short meeting. K. really messed up here and he better find a way to fix this situation or he may up behind bars.  

Kafka's Lack of Concern (takes a toll on me)

K's nonchalant, relaxed attitude is once again apparent when his Uncle comes to visit him. Worried and anxious as to what will happen, K's Uncle talks to him about it and gets a dry, untroubled reaction from his nephew. Why is K so relaxed?  It is all so sketchy. And in the midst of all these strange encounters and conversations, K is yet again approached by a woman who strongly desires him. It may be his superior, confident, and unflustered personality, or it could just be his looks, but this is the third woman that comes on to Joseph K. During this time, it was common for women of a lower class to approach men with money, and obviously this does not bother K. Nonetheless, he does not overthink these situations too much and just “goes with the flow.”

K’s lack of concern is starting to bother me. I do not understand why he is so calm all the time. It is not even that he is acting calm to keep his composure, it is that he simply does not care enough to stress himself over what he clearly should be stressing about. He is in trouble with the law; his family depends on him. I had not really thought about those factors until his Uncle came into the picture, and when K reacts with such a lack of worry towards the whole thing, it made me uneasy. He is being selfish and isn’t holding himself accountable for what is going on. K.’s superior and haughty characteristics are starting to piss me off and I want him to snap out of it before it is too late. Obviously I cannot control this, but it would be nice if he had some sort of urgency in him, maybe then he would get the whole thing resolved and he wouldn’t be in such a mess.

After reading all of Kafka’s short stories, I look at his writing differently and am more prepared to read bizarre, and random things in “The Trial.” Because I have established that he perplexes his readers on purpose, I now know that if I am confused at any point in the book, it is because Kafka wanted it this way. Nevertheless, Kafka is still able to spark a sense of anxiety in me through Joseph K., who does not seem to give a crap about what is happening in his life at the moment. 

Comment on Camille's

I was so close to writing my blog post on this, but opted out for some reason.

Definitely starting to see a clear connection between the works of Kafka and The Trial. Just they way it's written strikes similarities. The way things are described to us in the novel are almost dream-like, and same with works like The Metamorphosis and The Penal Colony. Honestly, the first line of The Metamorphosis had me laughing, because I said to myself: "Kafka..at it again." He literally wrote about a man transforming into a bug. A bug. I mean, the creativity in The Metamorphosis, The Penal Colony, and The Trial have just been stellar so far.

I also noticed the transformations in the character's in Kafka's work. I may have said that K.'s personality is congruent so far, but I meant it in regards to the guards and underlings, not overall. Specifically speaking, in regards to K. and his beliefs on people that have lower 'ranks' them him, he has stayed the same. Generally speaking, though, K. has made a change, and seems lackadaisical like Camille pointed out.

In The Metamorphosis, Gregor goes through a physical transformation, but an even bigger mental transformation. He was once relied upon to cover all financial responsibilities of the family, and at the end of his transformation, is ridiculed, and tormented to death by his blood sucking leaches of a family.

Comment on Ben's response

Camille Kelleher 

I agree with Ben that there has been a large transformation of the judicial system since K. has been on trial.  I think this transformation is because of K.’s strong nature and natural intelligence. He is a Chief Financial Officer because he has wisdom and knows how to manipulate people around him. K. might be hero for this odd and unusual judicial system. Although I have not read to the point where Ben is, I think the guards ask K. for help because they trust that K. can make the right decisions.  K. could be the answer for this people who have suffered under the system’s hierarchical structure and unjust treatment.

            Unlike Ben, I think K. has already transformed into a different person. He seems to be less willed than he was before; however, relative to the other victims on trial, K. has the ability to get out of this endless situation. Initially, K. was surprised by the judicial system’s conformity and strange standards. Now, he has become more relaxed and at ease with his trial. I think K. will continue to change until the end of his trial, if it ever ends by the end of the book. It will be interesting to see what the next steps are in this system. I think K. will continue to confront more people in his trial and be affected by them. I think that the people K.’s uncle reaches out to are a part of this system and will be unable to fix the trial.

Comment on Camilles

            I have to agree that there is a large amount of similarities between Kafka’s other pieces and The Trial. He uses the same writing style in all of the pieces that we read, as he is particularly elusive. Kafka writes one thing and then sends us a completely different way. However, the main thing that can be seen thorugh all of them is consistent themes. The one that popped out the most to me was the relationship between movie and The Trial. In the movie, there is a large base that is controlling society. Random acts are starting to occur (people begin to be missing all around the town). We learn that this is due to the fact that the castle is bringing them in for science experiments. This castle is very similar to the courthouse in the The Trial, both are very corrupt and the main character is slowly revealing this through his actions to figure out why these events are occurring. I think that as the book progresses, we are going to see that there are many more similarities between this book and Kafka (the movie). In fact, I bet that while they were making the movie, they used his books and stories as the basis for what message they wanted to portray.

Similarities between Kafka's works

          Camille Kelleher  

After reading some of Franz Kafka’s other works such as “The Judgment,” “The Metamorphosis,” and “In the Penal Colony,” among others, I have a more developed perspective on The Trial. I researched some dates and found out that The Trial was written a couple of years after the named short stories. While reading today, I noticed some references to “The Judgment” and “The Metamorphosis.”

Along with Gregor’s extreme transformation into a bug in “The Metamorphosis,” K. undergoes the same process in this story. At the beginning of The Trial, K. was an honest and hard workingman who was devoted to his career as a chief financial officer. Now, K. seems somewhat lackadaisical, especially when his uncle comes to help him. The uncle’s informative dialogue with K. gave me the impression that K. has changed a lot over the process of his trial. He is less urgent to finding the solution to his trial than what he once was before at the beginning of his trial. His growing indifference may lead him to regretful mistakes.

There was also a presence of “The Judgment” in Kafka’s writing. There is a hostile and anxious relationship between the underground court and K. I think the degradation of K. will continue as long as he remains in contact with this judicial system and his trial does not end. I don’t think K. will give up like the other victims described in the story when K. went inside the administrative building because K. is naturally intelligent and has more motive and ability to manipulate the system. It will be interesting to see how K. changes as his trial continues, and if the judicial system holds the same control as the father did over his son in “The Judgment.”

There is a strong sense of an invasion of privacy when the uncle brings K. to the ill private lawyer’s house. The uncle barges in on the private lawyer even though he is very ill and turns his own familial problems into the private lawyer’s responsibility. Also, K. finds it hard to get privacy when he wants to describe his trial to his uncle because there are so many people watching him from his assistant to officers around the bank. This motif parallels the cover of my book with the eyes, although I have yet to determine the significance of the one yellow eye among the rest of the eyes that are blue.

            

Chapter 5

Everything seems to be coming together. We finally get an idea of who K. is dealing with in regards to his accusations. K. stays at the bank working late. He walks passed the garbage room, and hears some odd noises. Out of curiosity, he steps in, and finds three men, two of which who were the guards to arrest him in Chapter 1, and one of which who is wearing a vest. To me, this man in the vest is the one K. should pursue more than the guards. Kafka brings this revealing type of attitude into Chapter 5. He makes it seem, at least to me, that this man in the vest is the man who employed the guards and who is ultimately controlling the guards. Instead of going to the courthouse and continuing to play this corrupt game, K. should opt out and begin pursuing this man in the vest, who to me seems like the man behind this whole corrupt mess.

It only fitting that now in this part of the novel, the guards ask for K.'s help in rescuing them from their punishment, when in Chapter 1, K. was asking for their help to why he was being arrested. Now, they ask for his help and he hints at some concern, but ultimately opts out and allows them to receive their punishment. The main worry for K. is that the other workers at the bank will hear, and it's justified. I know that I'd do the same, and I'd let them receive their punishment for convicting K. which leads me to my next point.

In the beginning of the novel, K. was acting like he was sort of condemning the guards because they were underlings and not on the same social 'rank' as him. And now, in Chapter 5, he acts the same way, by lying to the assistant and by leaving with an indifferent attitude. It's nice to see that K. hasn't completely changed, and the fact that he acts consistent throughout Chapter 5 is interesting. I think he will change sooner or later. He seems partially lonely, and I feel that the negativity surrounding his life will come to engulf him sooner or later.

The book is keeping me mildy interested, but I think Kafka could have done a better job of staying on course with the plot. Incidents like these have not proven to be that influential so far, so hopefully Kafka will tie it all up nicely soon.