On a book by Kafka - the author who wished he would disappear

Since my knee was operated on 2 months back, I have preferred seclusion to socialising and forced a sort of lethargy on myself. But after a few weeks of wallowing in my grief and brooding about the future, I decided to come out of it and try and make this period of rest worthwhile. The first thing that came to my mind was to revive my lost passion for reading. So I got 'The Trial' by Franz Kafka ordered.

In this book, right from the opening lines of the book, "Somebody must've made a false accusation against Joseph K., for he was arrested one morning without having done anything wrong", Kafka sets out to express the helplessness of an individual. The entire book traces the prime character, Joseph K.'s struggle to find out more about his case and ways of getting out of it. In this he seeks help from various people - the fusty advocate Herr who provides assistance that is by no means practical, but only anecdotal, Fraulen Burstner, a co-boarder in the house where K stays who even allows him to kiss her once, but rebuffs any further efforts on his part to get in touch with her; and several others. K. throughout his journey is constantly befuddled at the invisibility of the people who accuse him. His suffering is accentuated by the painful realisation that all those people who offer to help him in the matter know no more about his case than he doesand are like him, mere puppets in the hands of the court - a higher sacrosanct body that does not invite anyone, but only supposedly performs its duty by passing its judgement. K. realises that such a system of administration where the spoken word of a group of people is accepted as the truth goes totally against the rule of justice and fairplay. This is made clear in the 2nd last chapter of the book where the court chaplain describes an allegory to illustrate K.'s delusion regarding the court. He narrates the story of a man from the country who seeks to enter through the door of law, but is prevented by a doorkeeper who says that he cannot be allowed to enter at the moment; although he might be let in in the future. Thus, the poor manwaits his chance on a stool outside the door. Years pass. But all his efforts to convince the doorkeeper go futileand he is not able to enter. Finally when he feels that he has only a few breaths left, the doorkeeper on being asked why in all these years there was never anybody else who came seeking the law, informs him that it was because the door he was guarding was meant exclusively for him and noone else. By presenting this parable towards the end of the narration, Kafka kas probably tried to summarize the whole thing and made a final attempt to draw the reader's attention to the central theme of the story. The story finally ends with Joseph K. dying a tragic death at the hands of two strangers sent to exterminate him by the keepers of the law.

What I liked about this book is that the author has in no way tried to impress a certain idea on the readers or to make them sympathise with the central character. The object of writing here as it appears is not to draw morals out of it, but it was a way he chose to let out his own anger, helplessness and frustration that Kafka probably faced in dealing with his own life. He seeks no answers or interpretations from his work here, but only to send out a cosmic question into the void. Yet, he has unwittingly made a very profound statement on how the dominance of a certain higher order raises it to such a pedestal that the real purpose of instituting the body dies squelching any potential challenges to the system. The human involved in such a process is reduced to a mere dwarf who has only to await the judgement passed on him and accept it as a necessity; for he has not the right to ask questions about right and wrong, he has not the right to ask for a trial.