Kaylee Final Reading Post

The last chapter of The Trial served as a goodbye for K. and the struggle of his trial. As the men come to summon him, K. pretty much knows what is happening and everything is over for him. I thought it was strange how it wasn’t clear what exactly what their occupation was. Were they government officials? Or actors like K. assumed? In addition, when they are taking him away, they ask him which direction he wants to go. In the end, it doesn’t matter which direction he chooses because his fate still remains the same. The two men resemble the doormen in the story that the champlain tells K. because they too are following the rules of the government and are ultimately below K. It is ironic because they technically work for him, yet they end of destroying him in the end with the help of the trial itself. At the end when the men strip K. and begin passing the knife back in forth; I believe it says a lot about K. in regards to his refusal of using the knife on himself. Throughout the process of the trial he has conserved his level of pride/dignity. In the end, K. dies with a lasting image of the terrifying faces of the men looking down on him. Although he was ready to leave, it was sad to see him go.

The fact that the last two chapters of the novel were not written by Kafka really pisses me off. It’s annoying because it is another person’s interpretation of what the end should be, which is a big deal considering the end of a novel ties everything together and is supposed to bring some sort of resolution. As a reader, you can’t help but think, is this actually how Kafka would have like to end his story? No. Why didn’t they just let it be and leave the rest for interpretation? Collectively, this novel was not completely dreadful to read. It was even intriguing at points. But I kept waiting for something climatic to happen; yet it never really did. So much of the novel is K. wandering around doing things with little significance. Although when you look at the novel as a whole there is a great deal of significance. I guess that’s Kafka’s way. In the next couple of weeks, I plan to discuss the three institutions and how they are implicated in the story, along with other important themes in the story.