Franz Kafka - Bit Of Research

Quotes

“I cannot make you understand. I cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside me. I cannot even explain it to myself.” (metamorphosis)

“And he lay there quietly a while longer, breathing lightly as if he perhaps expected the total stillness to bring things back to their real and natural state.” (metamorphosis)

“You've seen yourself how difficult the writing is to decipher with your eyes, but our man deciphers it with his wounds.” (in the penal colony)

“Many questions were troubling the explorer, but at the sight of the prisoner he asked only: 

"Does he know his sentence?" "No," said the officer, eager to go on with his exposition, but the explorer interrupted him: "He doesn't know the sentence that has been passed on him?" "No," said the officer again, pausing a moment as if to let the explorer elaborate his question, and then said: "There would be no point in telling him. He'll learn it on his body.” (in the penal colony)

“They're talking about things of which they don't have the slightest understanding, anyway. It's only because of their stupidity that they're able to be so sure of themselves.” (the trial)

“The meaning of life is that it stops.”

Motifs

Irony

Existentialism

Absurdity

Alienation

Bureaucracy

Identity

About

“In the style of many an enigmatic literary figure (like Emily Dickinson), Kafka requested that upon his death his unpublished writings be burned unread. Luckily for us, his executor and close friend Max Brod ignored his request, giving the world The Trial and other Kafka classics in the process.”

“Though recent biographers have sought to downplay the commonly held idea that Kafka himself was very much a Gregor Samsa-like character, the young-man-turned-insect of literary fame did live in an apartment that was identical in layout to Kafka’s own.”

“Though Kafka famously couldn’t lie, cheating apparently relied on a different skill set. Along with a group of other students, Kafka was involved in bribing his Greek professor’s house keeper into stealing a copy of the test from his desk. The whole group obviously passed with flying colors (with some of the weaker students making intentional mistakes to keep up the ruse), and their teacher was awarded a commendation as a result.”

“At the end of his first year of studies, Kafka met Max Brod, a fellow law student who became a close friend for life. Brod soon noticed that, although Kafka was shy and seldom spoke, what he said was usually profound.”

“Kafka feared that people would find him mentally and physically repulsive. However, those who met him found him to possess a quiet and cool demeanour, obvious intelligence, and a dry sense of humour; they also found him boyishly handsome, although of austere appearance.”