Kafka's Truth

Section: Book Reports

Gregor is trapped in his insect form, just like he was trapped in his job. Self-realization and fear of death are other issues Kafka deals with in "Metamorphosis." Gregor "takes a long, deep look at himself and discovers his fearsome counterpart" (Fickert, 47). The moment that he accepted being a beetle and started living like one, symbolizes the moment Man first realizes who he really is and the lifestyle he has been living up to that point has been meaningless. It is at this time that one can stop fearing death. "His death is a 'liberating realization. Gregor says, "Yes," to his own death and dies reconciled with himself and with the New World" (Emrich, 145). Critics agree that Kafka is "imply[ing] that man is hopelessly and inappropriately situated in the world as a beetle would be in a human family" (Thorlby, 40). In reference to man's position in life Kafka says, though it is imperative for us to attempt to follow the true way, it is impossible for us to succeed in doing so (Winkler, 46). Kafka wrote "Before the Law" in December of 1914. It was one of the few works that he considered ready for print (Emrich, 515). Each element of the story represents an aspect of the truth Kafka wishes us to see about justice and about man. The Law, in the man's eyes, is truth, perception, grace, and happiness. The Man is persistent yet powerless in attaining the benefit of The Law. The Gate is the path to the truth, and The Guard is the obstacle in that path (Zatonsky, 223). According to Kafka's writing, The Law is not a desirable institution that one can turn to for protection of their rights. "The Law is no longer a living being, but a petrified institution, no longer timely, only still intimidating" (Fischer, 91). "Before the Law" demonstrates a lack of timeliness in the justice system when the Man grows old waiting to be permitted to enter into it. The Man "has come to know and find Justice [and] is left with nothing, and the Law, for which he has thirsted, is inaccessible to him'but at no time during the parable does the Guard actually say that the Man can not enter (Suchkov, 165). "The doorkeeper stands 'before' the Law and not in the Law (Emrich, 325). True to human nature, The Man stopped at the first sign of resistance, and opted to wait for a path of lesser resistance. Perhaps Kafka is suggesting that if The Man wanted to access The Law, he should have been more aggressive. He should have pushed through the barrier, demanding his rights instead of waiting for them to be handed to him. He also suggests by his ending of the parable: "No one else could ever be admitted here, since this gate was made only for you. I am now going to shut it." (Kafka, 128), that if one does not take the initiative to go through the door, then the opportunity will pass and that door will be closed. Fischer rests more fault on the shoulders of The Guard, saying that he "repels the only one who as an individual requests entry, who is looking for his human rights as an individual…individualism has become impotent" (91). Kafka uses the gatekeeper to exaggerate the strength of world evil [in this case, the justice system] and portray it as "something indestructible and invincible" (Suchkov, 164). In the story, the gatekeeper says, "from hall to hall there is one door-keeper after another, each more powerful than the last" (Kafka, 128). In reference to Kafka's search for truth, each successive guard may represent a layer, more obscured and impenetrable than the last, of the inner self that one must come in contact and bypass during an in depth search for true identity. At last, the Gate symbolizes not only the path to truth, but the threshold which must, in one way or another, be crossed before entering the path. The Gate is never closed during the many years that the Man waits for permission to enter, indicating that the only barrier from the truth is man's unwillingness to seek it. When the Gate is finally closed, it is not because a man was refused entrance, it was because man refused to enter it. Kafka created a "rapidly sketched portrait of human condition, man's frailty, his fallibility, inner conflicts resulting from his comprehension of wholeness, a perfection forever in his sight but beyond his reach" (Fickert, 58). Wholeness is only beyond our reach because we don't reach for it.

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