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The Trial by Franz Kafka

 


"Someone must have slandered Josef K., for one morning, without having done anything truly wrong, he was arrested."

The Trial by Franz Kafka reveals the true world we live in, hidden behind all the corruption and facades. It follows the story of Josef K. who is suddenly arrested by unidentified agents one morning without any sort of clarification on the crime that he supposedly committed. Then, he is put through a complex trial facing enigmatic lawyers, judges and other characters who offer little to no clarity to him on the subject. Even though he tries to clear his name, he finds himself deeply entangled in a web of absurd and corrupt bureaucracy. Mr.K represents our desire to deal with problems in a logical way but at the end of the day, we are just pushed into the insanity that is this world. This story is presented as an allegory representing society and its flaws as a whole. Here, we can see man's fight against totalitarianism and a corrupt administration. But upon further speculation, it occurred to me that this corrupt system might represent life in itself and how man is endlessly fighting against the forces of the universe on a daily basis to keep on living despite the tragedies and mysteries.

Some people say this book is a terrifying trip into a corrupt world that hooks the readers into the absurdity of it all. But in truth, it is not some trip. It is the reality that we see around us. In fact, this book despite its blurry and vague settings and incomprehensible procedures, sits closer to reality than many of the books out there. This book is frustrating. It leaves the readers in complete frustration as there is no definite explanation for it at the end of it all. But then it's because K doesn't know either. He is left just as confused as the reader. It clearly goes to show how some things will always be above our level of comprehension no matter how hard we try. And Kafka has executed this idea almost too well.

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