Joseph.K, a banker by profession, wakes up one day only to find two men appear in his house and keep him under arrest for a crime that is unspecified. The novel progresses with K.'s struggle against the judicial system and his search for the substance of charge leveled against him. He is placed under trial without knowing the specifics of the crime he had committed and every attempt he makes to unravel the reason behind the charge and the status of his trial proves futile.
The solitary struggle of Joseph.K against the absurd bureaucratic processes of the judicial system is presented as a political satire on totalitarianism. At the same time, K.'s quest to find the substance of his trial is a metaphorical take on his own existence, thus making this an existential novel.
The self-determined approach of K. towards the start of the trial withers away slowly after his futile attempts at finding what he is guilty of. The final episode conveys the inevitable end of his unjust trial. This analogy with the journey of life towards an inevitable end makes this novel a good read. However, the dead ends which K. faces at all his attempts becomes repetitive at a point and slows down the pace of the novel. With shades of Albert Camus' take on absurdity and existentialism, Franz Kafka's "The Trial" is another classic which can convey different perspectives to different people at different times.
No comments:
Post a Comment