Book review: The trial, by Franz Kafka

The plot

The plot of the book “The trial”, by Franz Kafka, starts with a bank employee finding himself accused of something that he doesn’t know what it is.

Can you imagine this scenario?

If someone is accused of doing something and has to go to court trial, at least they need to know or be informed about what they are accused of.

On the contrary, Josef K., the main character of the book, is going to go to trial without having the faintest idea of what his accusation actually is.

This theme continues throughout the book, and, in fact, the book itself revolves around the trial of Josef K.

Discussion

To tell you the truth, when I started reading this book, I found it difficult to follow the author’s line of thought.

Actually, there were times that I thought I would quit reading the book altogether.

The author kept talking about events in a cinematographic manner, and these events were supposedly linked to a vague trial.

How enlightening is that?

For example, modern book readers have been accustomed to reading self-improvement texts that make their purpose clear, already from chapter one, so that readers are not confused too much.

Kafka, on the other hand, does not seem to care about whether his readers struggle to follow his thinking, as they find themselves out of familiar waters.

Totally out of curiosity, I continued reading the book, because I wanted to see how it would end, and whether there would be some moral to the story to make reading it worth it.

Strangely enough, I caught myself engrossed in reading it at moments, although I couldn’t expect this to happen, to be honest.

Kafka is Kafka, after all.

He hasn’t earned the title of a prominent literary writer for nothing.

Perhaps it is that readers, myself included, are used to reading books that follow logic.

I mean, who would believe that there is even the slightest possibility of having to defend themselves at court without knowing the indictment, i.e. what they are accused of?

As I kept on reading the book, I started feeling some sort of sympathy for Josef K, the main character of the book.

His train of thought didn’t seem that absurd in the end, at least when it comes to defending himself against others.

I gradually realized that the plot of the book may not be as nonsensical as it appears to be at first.

If you have ever found yourself in an irrational situation, from which you cannot escape, no matter what you do and how hard you try, perhaps you can relate to Josef K., the hero of the day, who becomes the scapegoat of a faceless system.

It’s even harder than bureaucracy, because, in a system where red tape dominates, you can hope to find written evidence somewhere; here, on the other hand, there is no evidence to substantiate the accusation, and it is like coming out of the “Jack and the Beanstalk” fairy tale.

This, however, is the quintessence of Franz Kafka’s writing prowess, as he makes the setting of his novel hovering somewhere between the real and the imaginary.

His criticism of the judicial system, though highly judgmental, is insightful and comprehensive, and touches sensitive areas that have not been dealt with by many writers, if any, in a way that graphically illustrates both the insanity of the system and the despair of a defendant who has been accused rightfully, or not, without anyone knowing for sure.

Finally, Kafka was prophetic of a future that we currently live, and in which, it is really hard, if not impossible, to tell if someone is guilty, or not, due to a chaotic coexistence of extremely diverse and contradictory views and situations, making it very difficult to tell the truth from the lies.

Although nowadays both judges and defendants are aware of what defendants are accused of, the final outcome is the same, and results in a similar degree of irrationality, vagueness, and absurdity to that faced by Kafka’s character.

Further reading:

The Trial by Franz Kafka – Goodreads

The Trial by Franz Kafka – review

Book Review: The Trial by Franz Kafka