Kafka’s story "In the Penal Colony" - as a symbolic historical meditation on the origins of punishment, can be demonstrated by comparing certain aspects of this story to Nietzsche’s essay "On the Genealogy of Morals" - which offers a historical account of the origins of punishment and justice. Nietzsche’s essay discusses how humans transform from pre-civilized, e.g., humans in their primal state with little regard for social-obligations; to civilized, e.g., those who comply and conform to the laws of a civilized society, and how this transformation relates to punishment. Nietzsche hypothesizes, that although history shows a transformation from pre-civilized into “the kind of human being that civilization produces” (BCIT, 2000), that punishments,
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By Nietzsche’s own definitions, “[t]he primitive state was a ‘fearful tyranny’ that needed to use the most extravagant of punishments” (BCIT, 2000). The fictional penal colony would no doubt fit this description of a tyrannical, primate, uncivilized state; and the machine - the extravagant punishment. The civilized Englishman sent to pass judgment on this old system quickly condemns “the injustice of the procedure” (Kafka, 1996) as inhumane. His condemnation of the penal colony and the machine demonstrates the superiority of a civilized man with values of democracy and liberalism. Nietzsche believed that “The transformation of the “natural man” into a member of a civil society depends on the natural man developing a memory for promises and social obligations, and not on [the] institutions of punishment” (BCIT, 2000). Therefore, the penal colony would have little hope of becoming civilized by means of the machine and their system of absolute power and punishment. Rather, the machines' destruction seems to represent an unavoidable roadblock in adopting a more civilized, rational, and humanitarian
By Nietzsche’s own definitions, “[t]he primitive state was a ‘fearful tyranny’ that needed to use the most extravagant of punishments” (BCIT, 2000). The fictional penal colony would no doubt fit this description of a tyrannical, primate, uncivilized state; and the machine - the extravagant punishment. The civilized Englishman sent to pass judgment on this old system quickly condemns “the injustice of the procedure” (Kafka, 1996) as inhumane. His condemnation of the penal colony and the machine demonstrates the superiority of a civilized man with values of democracy and liberalism. Nietzsche believed that “The transformation of the “natural man” into a member of a civil society depends on the natural man developing a memory for promises and social obligations, and not on [the] institutions of punishment” (BCIT, 2000). Therefore, the penal colony would have little hope of becoming civilized by means of the machine and their system of absolute power and punishment. Rather, the machines' destruction seems to represent an unavoidable roadblock in adopting a more civilized, rational, and humanitarian