Ryan Cordero Chapter 10 Post

            This final chapter of K.’s journey ends rather Kafkaesque, even though Kafka did not write the ending. When the novel first began I did not think K. would end up dying, but as the novel progressed I realized that K. would ultimaltey have to die. Like in every chapter new characters are introduced, and the two men introduced in chapter ten, who are only referred to as gentleman, are the ones to kill K., I first questioned if they were sent by the court, as a bizarre and seemingly inexplicable end as Kafka himself could envision. K.’s manner of death seemed rather fitting, given the randomness of the noel in general. I was surprised to see Miss Bürstner return, although the narrator pointed out that it might have not been Miss Bürstner after all. A particularly peculiar aspect of the ending was when K. realized, or thought, that the two men wanted K. to kill himself. Maybe they wanted K. dead but did not want his blood on their hands, but why did they want K. dead? The plot of the novel reminded me of a Shakespearean tragedy, in that K. was thrust into an apparent struggle and no matter how hard K. tried to fix his situation nothing was getting better. And like any tragedy, K. dies in the end. In the end my sympathy did lay with K., I could only imagine how frustrating of a position he was in, although, K.’s predicament seemed rather normal in this society. The man that K. saw in the window, who was he? Why did he make a gesture? And did he say anything about K.’s death? I would like to know what this man does after K.’s death, I think he would report the incident, but his story would instantly be dismissed. Also, how will the people in K.’s life react to his death? Will they care; do people often go missing in this society? The ending of the novel is extremely open-ended, which is appropriate to the novel as a whole, as Kafka left many things open to the reader’s interpretation. I think Kafka wanted the reader to judge K. and decide themselves if K. was guilty of a crime, the reader never actually knows, which I correctly predicted. All in all, the novel was interesting to read, however, at the end of every chapter, and the end of the book, I wanted more information, as if Kafka always left something out. I am also kind of annoyed that I will never know how the novel was truly supposed to end.