Writer Franz Kafka is widely known for his deeply philosophical and existentially conflicting stories. While many of his works make it difficult to identify a singular theme, many of them revolve around the concept of the mind and the body and the relationship between the two. Some of his most famous short works, including “The Metamorphosis,” “A Hunger Artist,” and “In the Penal Colony,” portrays characters who are stuck in between fulfilling their spiritual wants and answering to their bodily needs. Despite generally nightmarish occurrences and events, a theme of how one’s spirituality transcends his bodily concerns can be identify in these short stories. By including a theme of mind versus body, Kafka’s works supports the existentialist
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With this underlying theme, Kafka incorporates into many of his stories the existentialist idea that “existence precedes essence,” stating that a person exists before any social construct of them categorizes them. This idea is mostly prominent in the stories “The Metamorphosis,” “A Hunger Artist,” and “In the Penal Colony.” In all three of these stories, a character must endure physical constraints and harm in order to realize their true goals of spiritual contentedness. In the case of Gregor, while the question of whether his metamorphosis is a figment of imagination or a literal one is unanswered, this change in his body is what leads him to mental and spiritual transcendence. In the case of the hunger artist, while he seeks to rebel against bodily concerns, he ultimately rises above the human need to have approval of one’s peers, which allows him spiritual freedom. In the case of the Penal Colony, the apparatus, and the officer, while he does not have the words “Be Just” engraved into his body, the realization that the act of killing the condemned in this way is the ultimate source of enlightenment for him. In all three of these stories, the importance of the story lies within the realization of one’s existential crisis. While the Kafkaesque brutality is present in all of these stories, the end result is a good one, as all the characters are enlightened by the time of their death. In including existentialism in his stories, Kafka forces his audience to question the balance of mind and body within their own existence, and promotes the idea of individualism as well as spirituality above all else in
With this underlying theme, Kafka incorporates into many of his stories the existentialist idea that “existence precedes essence,” stating that a person exists before any social construct of them categorizes them. This idea is mostly prominent in the stories “The Metamorphosis,” “A Hunger Artist,” and “In the Penal Colony.” In all three of these stories, a character must endure physical constraints and harm in order to realize their true goals of spiritual contentedness. In the case of Gregor, while the question of whether his metamorphosis is a figment of imagination or a literal one is unanswered, this change in his body is what leads him to mental and spiritual transcendence. In the case of the hunger artist, while he seeks to rebel against bodily concerns, he ultimately rises above the human need to have approval of one’s peers, which allows him spiritual freedom. In the case of the Penal Colony, the apparatus, and the officer, while he does not have the words “Be Just” engraved into his body, the realization that the act of killing the condemned in this way is the ultimate source of enlightenment for him. In all three of these stories, the importance of the story lies within the realization of one’s existential crisis. While the Kafkaesque brutality is present in all of these stories, the end result is a good one, as all the characters are enlightened by the time of their death. In including existentialism in his stories, Kafka forces his audience to question the balance of mind and body within their own existence, and promotes the idea of individualism as well as spirituality above all else in