The Government In The Trial

A society gains its balance by the laws that are implemented by the government in order to keep it running smoothly. These laws are meant to keep order, peace, fairness, and equality among all civilians. If there is ever a time it disrupts its natural purpose, then it is not law, but a command that invokes imbalance in society. In the novel The Trial, a man named Josef K, the chief head of a bank awakens to an appalling scene, his arrest. Josef never did anything that was out of the ordinary to influence any civilians in any harmful way, however, he is now facing an arrest for something he committed that he does not know of. With barely anyone to rely on, he struggles to deal with the pressure placed by the government to display his innocence …show more content…
But what makes the circumstance worst was the crime he committed was never specified in the novel and he was falsely accused of it. Even though he was falsely accused, the government provided some level of fairness through laws and regulation by requiring Josef to attend court every Sunday and forcing guards to follow him to every destination to check up on suspicious activity. This level of power the government possesses is immensely significant because it shows how far they reign of the civilians living under them. According to professional economists Andrei Shleifer and Robert Vishny, “Weak governments that do not control their agencies experience very high corruption levels. Second, the illegality of corruption and the need for secrecy make it much more distortionary and costly”. This shows that if a nation is in possession of a weak government then it will be highly corrupted, and with this increased level of corruption comes high costs such as twisting or forming unbeneficial rules for one’s nation. In present society, money is the medium of exchange that causes people to become corrupt and wicked because they desire more. This obsession with money ironically correlates to the novel because Josef is the head of a bank, and due to his accusal as a criminal he is subjected by the government to have guards following him everywhere he goes. The corruption that the money causes relates to the corruption of the government in Josef’s realm due to all the excessive amounts of stress placed upon him. An instance in the novel for the corruption of the government would be when Josef questioned the Magistrate which is the head of the courtroom sessions he attends every Sunday, the head officer which he meets at an office to file evidence and his experienced and well-known lawyer Huld, about why he is suffering through all of these procedures to prove his innocence, and they