Introduction

The book was written by Franz Kafka (1883-1924) and published in 1925, one year after his death. It is one of his most famous works. Kafka was Jewish, so The Trial was banned in 1935 by the German Police, along with most of his work. Some of his projects were even destroyed. The book mainly focuses on bureaucracy and the corruption of justice, current issues during the author’s time.

Summary

A young bank official, named Joseph K., is accused and arrested for an unnamed crime, even if he did nothing wrong. The narrative follows K.,as he tries to prove his innocence, and presents K.’s hopeless struggle against the terrifyingly bureaucratic court system.

Plot Checkpoints

The first chapter begins with the arrest and interrogation of Joseph K., the morning of his birthday. Κ. is told he can continue to live his life as usual and work at the bank, but he has to occasionally turn up for inquiries about his case. During the inquiries K. is ignored and treated unfairly. Certain experiences and encounters help him realize the corrupt and illogical ways in which the court system works. The final chapter takes place one year later, the evening of K.’s birthday, again. K. is lead on a quarry and executed, as one man holds him and the other stabs him, “like a dog”, as K. himself exclaims shamefully before his death.

Characters

• Joseph K.:  He is the chief financial officer of a bank, respected, ambitious, “a man of business”, who is calculated but intolerant of many others. He floats between arrogance and insecurity, and in the end, he becomes desperate, but accepts his fate. Joseph K. represents all outlaws, or people feeling guilty -everyone is somehow outside the law or somehow unique, outside normativity, after all-. He tries to fight with logic and common sense against the paradoxical law system, but gives up, realizing it is pointless
• Huld: He is a defense lawyer, who claims to be the best for the job, even if he greets his clients from his bed, because he has connections inside the court system. He admits that the court works in immoral ways. He flatters his richer, more respected clients, such as K., but is cruel to others, such as Block.
• Block: He is a merchant, who used to be successful before his trial. He is a man who has been trying to find justice for many years
• Titorelli:  He is a mediocre painter who lacks originality in his paintings, but he is the one who enlightens K. about the way the court system works.
• Corrupt figures of justice
• Assistant manager:He wants to see K. “compromised” and take his position.

Themes-Allegories

Bureaucracy:

A system for controlling or managing a country, company, or organization that is operated by a large number of officials employed to follow rules carefully.

 -Cambridge Dictionary 

One main theme of the book is bureaucracy and how it fails to benefit the citizens. K. is never able to properly discuss his case, and he seems to constantly “stumble” upon the court system (e.g. he discovers that Titorelli’s house exits to a courtroom, people around him always seem to have connections). This allegory captures the entrapping atmosphere of the bureaucratic system from which there seems to be no way out other than the use of immoral methods.

Another main theme is injustice and abuse of power. In the events of the book, K. is practically ignored, when he tries to prove his innocence, and corruption rules the courtroom.  There is no mention of him ever being put through an actual trial or being taken to thesupreme court. While taken to his execution, K. and his executors avoid talking to a police officer, who could symbolize the real Law and how the court system has distanced itself from it.

The book also focuses on unoriginality and stagnation, the inactivity of society. The lack of originality in the paintings suggests the absence of new ways of thinking and progressing, and thus, the state of the system.The terrifying court system has also been seen as a reference to totalitarian regimes or religious extremism.

K.’s crime remains unknown. The unnamed crime can be interpreted in various ways. It is possible that it remains unknown to emphasize the unfairness of the paradoxical system. In the end, K. appears to refuse to kill himself, and thus, spare his executors of being in the position of killing someone. From that symbolism, the reader might come to the conclusion that K. is executed for somehow not submitting to the system and its will.The concealment of the main character’s last name aims to show that K. could symbolize everyone, from a criminal to someone who is in some way different than the others and the treatment they get.

Some of Kafka’s own ironic views of the world can be spotted in the book. His pessimistic views align with K.’s lack of resistance: K. often seems to procrastinate dealing with his case. In the end, he is desperate but defeated (parable of the man who never found the Law), finding no meaning in life; his mind stops working as rationally.

After finishing the book, one can reach the conclusion that if K. wanted to survive, he would have to learn to tolerate such laws, and if we wanted to survive, we would have to learn to endure the world, with all of its flaws.

In the end…

I found the book really interesting and eye opening, since it focuses on issues that are as current today as they were during Kafka’s time.

I liked how, even while discussing real issues, it unfolds in a nightmare-like way, with people coming and going and the atmosphere of entrapment and despair looming over the reader, creating the so-called Kafkaesque atmosphere.

It has countless symbolisms and allegories, and it can be given various different meanings and interpretations, according to the reader’s own experiences, thoughts and beliefs.

In general, I would definitely recommend The Trial to anyone who wants to read something different and thought- provoking.

Ελένη Γεράση (Β1), Πρότυπο ΓΕΛ Ευαγγελικής Σχολής Σμύρνης