Maya's 2nd 500 words

      Aside from said overlaps between Kafka’s life and his short stories, it can be argued that the inspiration for The Trial began long before its creation. Kafka’s family lived in a German speaking part of Prague, a country which, at the time, predominantly spoke Czech. Because if this alone, his family faced isolation and discrimination. In the year 1897, year and a half after his bar-mitzvah, Kafka and his family lived through anti-Semitic riots in Prague. The riots lasted for three days and became known as the “December Storm”. The Czech speaking citizens were protesting against new language laws being formed to accommodate the German-speaking Jewish population of Prague. Much like Josef K., the German-Jews of Prague were being persecuted for an offense they did not know they committed.

          To make a more obvious connection, it seems as though Kafka had a pre-existing fascination with the law and the judicial system. In 1901, Kafka enrolled in the German University in Prague. There, he studied chemistry for two weeks before moving on to law. In the year 1906, he applied his studies and became a clerk in his uncle’s law office. In June of that same year, Kafka received his Doctor of Law degree. He then begins his legal practice in the landesgericht, provincial high court, and strafgericht, criminal court. It is more than likely that Kafka encountered certain events in his time in both courts that inspired his writing of The Trial. After working the landesgericht and strafgericht, Kafka went to work at The Institute, a government agency that dealt with workmen’s compensation laws in Prague. Like Josef K., Kafka worked in a high position at the company. His superiors valued him and trusted him with many assignments. Kafka’s work within the Bohemian bureaucracy is said to have inspired his work with The Trial. This assumption seems likely to be true. Bureaucracy, mainly its shortcomings and failure to actually get anything done, is a major part of The Trial. Josef K. struggles to make it through a sea of “red tape” that inhibits him throughout the entire story from finding out what he is being accused of and how he can clear his name. Every time K. attempts to understand the court system and begin working towards asserting his innocence, some sort of obstacle presents itself. This is to the point where K. has to leave the law office because the air circulating inside of it has become heavy and unbreathable. Apart from this, it seems as though the only people who actually know how the judicial system works in K’s society are the people working within it. When K. goes to meet the painter named Titorelli, many of his “solutions” are just ways to prolong his trial further and further so that he is never sentenced to anything.