FREE ESSAY ON FRANZ KAFKA

FRANZ KAFKA

In his parable Before the Law, Franz Kafka suggests that obstacles that one faces in life
can either be used to mold one's success or bring about one's failure. If one can
overcome challenges that they face they grow in a unique type of way, for every
individual perceives each situation in a distinct fashion. That unique type of growth is
what establishes a person's character and perception of the world. However if one cannot
overcome their obstacles, then they cut of their means for growth and are left
uninspired, forgetting any dreams or aspirations. It is through the man's interaction
with the doorkeeper, and his inability to overcome this obstacle, that eventually leads
him down the path of complacency and failure.
It is the doorkeeper in this parable that keeps the man from gaining access to the law,
and his inability to pass this doorkeeper that leads to his demise. It is important to
realize that the man strives to reach 'the law', however he winds up getting only as far
as the doorkeeper. However, what would have happened if he would have overcame the
doorkeeper? The doorkeeper himself provides the answer to this question when he warns the
man that he is "only the least of the doorkeepers. From hall to hall there is one
doorkeeper after the other, each more powerful than the last. The third doorkeeper is
already so terrible that even I cannot bear to look at him." Of course "these are
difficulties that the man from the country has not expected, "and instead of taking his
chances, "the doorkeeper gives him a stool and lets him sit down at one side of the
door." The man failed to realize that even if there were another doorkeeper behind the
first door, he would have been able to face him with the experience and knowledge gained
by overcoming the initial doorkeeper. This concept applies to life as well. When one
overcomes their challenges, the knowledge gained from that experience merely provides
them with the necessary tools to face a more difficult situation. This continues on until
they are finally able to cope with difficulties that they initially never would have been
able to. Unfortunately the man accepts the stool that the doorkeeper offers him where "he
sits for days and years." The man never gains any sort of stature, for he looses out on
all of the potential growth he could have gained by standing up to the doorkeeper. Before
the man knows he has reached a state where he is looked down upon, and questions asked of
him "are put indifferent, as great lords put them." Unaware of the hole he has dug for
himself, the man eventually loses total sight of his original goal of reaching 'the law',
and "the man fixes his attention almost continuously on the doorkeeper." He even reaches
the point of begging the fleas in the doorkeeper's coat to grant him access to 'The Law'
If only the man would have realized from the beginning that the gate was placed there for
his own personal self-development. The lessons he could have learnt by pushing beyond the
initial doorkeeper would have built him into a totally new person, with unique talents
and insights gained from his experience. Instead he grows old and never achieves his
aspiration, and the doorkeeper finally points out, that "no one else could be admitted
here, since the gate was made only for you. I am now going to shut it."
The lesson learnt from the man in Franz Kafka's parable Before the Law, bears an
important lesson about the life one leads. One must be prepared to face the trials that
life present. If one is able to overcome their challenges, they will grow from their
experience and form their own unique personality. If one cannot overcome their obstacles,
they may spend their entire life stuck in a rut of complacency, never achieving any goals
or dreams that they once had.