In The Penal Colony Analysis

In the Penal Colony - Franz Kafka
Short Story, Fiction

In the Penal Colony portrays a conventional, human protagonist who ventures through a judicially corrupt colony (the Penal Colony). This character the narrator titles as the Traveler. The Traveler observes the negative impact totalitarianism takes on humanity, as he explores an island community run purely off justice enforced by a single torture apparatus. I believe the main idea revolving around this text is totalitarianism and its issue within third-world countries. But also how it can be avoided. An underlying example of how this can be stopped is if humanity were to undertake most actions of the Traveler in this story. One specific act humanity must replicate is the Traveler’s in-depth …show more content…
The condemned man is reminiscent to a dog in this story as the system he lives by alters him into an animal-like being. The man obeys all he is told, whilst also remaining hostile and territorial. All of these attributes reflect towards that of a dog, thus the reason he is referred to as a dog in this text. The condemned man became an animal-like figure due to his government. How the man became like an animal symbolizes how the totalitarianism run governments of third-world countries shape people into animals rather than human beings. The condemned man became victimized by his government; the justice system run solely off of the torture apparatus. The condemned man barely speaks in this story. His lack of expression of his thoughts demonstrates how he cannot speak for himself, and how he will seize to achieve the well-being he truly desires. This attribute of the condemned man relates to the third-world people as they also have no voice or opinion towards their governments. If the condemned man were to speak up against the government ruling him and shaping him to become an animal, he would slowly return to a civilized state. However, the condemned man hardly speaks about his opinion of what changes he wants, hence the reason he remains in his animal-like position. Essentially the third-world civilians are in the same situation as the condemned man as they also have no expression towards the government they live before. If the Traveler in this story were to speak up for the condemned man, this would help him to become a more human-like figure. However, the Traveler only ignores the man. The Traveler’s attitude towards the condemned man in this story should be opposed by humanity for a change to appear in third-world countries. If everyone