Raoul's Response to the first half of The Cathedral

In the last installment we read the first half of the chapter titled Cathedral. I found the Chapter to be different from the rest of the book. This could easily be attributed to the fact that this chapter was not written by Kafka. Ironically though, I find this chapter to be one of the most kafkaesque chapters in the book. But any way, in this chapter I believe that the author was attempting to show the churches control on Joseph K's life. We see that in the conversation between K. and the preacher that the church is pulling stings behind the scenes in order to get what they want. This only adds to our Kafka theory of the church's power to control our lives even when we do not involve ourselves in religion. Furthermore, this conversation also leads us towards believing that the church and the state are working together in order to control the individual, which in this case is K..

While reading this chapter I began to get extremely curious of why Kafka never told us what K. was being tried for. I also began to wonder if K. knew what he was being tried for because at first he wanted to know but now he acts like he knows. Furthermore, all of the accused men in the novel never talk about what they were accused of. Kafka obviously had a purpose for doing this, but what was it? Did he want to make a more kafkaesque environment, or did he want to lure in the reader, or he want to make a point about the fact that it does not matter what we are being tried for? Either way my curiosity wants to know what K. did, but I consciously know that its not going to be mentioned again.

In the scene with the priest I came up with a theory for the novel that really explains why everything is going on. I looked at the novel as if the trail was really just a judgement from god. In doing this Kafka is kinda poking fun at religion saying that we can never avoid the judgement of god, and in the end what is our true sin that condemns us to a life of damnation. In short in the eyes of god, from the view point of religion, we are all accused men. Is that not an assured way to live life? Any way that was kinda a weird idea I had about the book!