We have translated here a German-language page with the help of
https://www.deepl.com/translator
into English and hope for understanding.
Since our English is not yet optimal, we are of course happy if we are made aware of ambiguities or problematic passages in the text.
The German website variant can be found here
https://textaussage.de/kafka-verstehen-ganz-einfach-man-muss-nur-einen-schluessel-haben
What this is about:
Franz Kafka is considered a poet whose texts are difficult to understand. They are like rooms with doors that are difficult to open.
We were lucky enough to find a key – and that’s what happened: A long time ago, we once read almost all of Kafka’s short stories. We thought, in fact, that he could become an assignment in an exam.
At first, we just found the stories strange – but then we realized that they all went more or less in one direction. They could be understood as „picture stories“ or parables in the form of a narrative. We know them from the Bible – and there is a story there that can be called the „mother of all parables“.
The term comes from the world of mathematics. If you know a little bit about it, you also know what a normal parabola is.
Here is a sketch that mathematicians should not take so seriously 😉
The parabola
And the stories called parabolas also have these two branches.
First, there’s the fact side. This is usually a problem that you want to clarify. To make it easier to understand, one does not start with the difficult part right away, but first presents a simple variant of the problem.
A story from the Old Testament of the Bible can help here:
Example of a parable from the Bible
- It is about King David, once saw a woman he wanted to have. Unfortunately, she was married. Fortunately, the man was just as an officer in the war. So the king made sure that he was sent to the front. Then the others quickly withdrew – and the problem for David was solved. The officer and husband was dead.
- But what King David had not reckoned with: there was a clever prophet named Nathan who heard about it. Now he had to figure out how to make the king understand his guilt. For firstly, the king was powerful – and secondly, he was certainly unreasonable. After all, who likes to admit guilt – especially when he has no judge over him.
- So it could help to first tell the king something: So Nathan invented the case of a rich man who himself had many sheep. But he didn’t want to sacrifice any of them for a banquet. So he simply took them away from his poor neighbor, who had only one sheep.
- Now the matter was clear to the king. He was, after all, the chief judge: so he exclaimed, „That man – he meant the rich man – is a man of death.“
- Now Nathan had what he needed, namely the insight that a crime had been committed here that must be punished.
- What the king did not expect, however, was Nathan’s exclamation, „You are the man.“
- He then made it clear to the king that he had also taken away another man’s only wife. In addition, he had killed his husband.
- King David was then also really punished – by God – this can be read in the Bible.
— - Let’s have another look at the parts of the parable:
- There is the factual part – the taking away of the wife and the murder of the husband. It is about clear guilt, but one may not be able or willing to see it.
- Then there is the picture part, a simple story that leads to clear insight.
- This point, where the two branches of the parable meet, is called the „common point“
- This gives you a roundabout way to explain difficult or tricky things.
Transfer of the parable to Kafka’s stories
- We soon realized in our reading of Kafka’s stories that they were very special stories. Many seem almost like nightmares.
- This gave us the idea of understanding these texts as picture stories that could explain a factual side. This is not to say that Kafka wrote them for that purpose. As a poet, he could leave his readers to the text and to themselves.
- We then thought: what do these stories actually show in general terms? In doing so, we came up with two things that do, however, belong together.
The situation of man – in general
and thus in the world. - Let’s take a look at an example. Fortunately, there is even a Bible variant and one by Kafka.
- First, the story from the Bible:
- There’s a young man who eventually gets tired of helping his father with the farming.
- So he goes to him and wants his share of the inheritance.
- He gets it and goes off.
- But he doesn’t do anything sensible with the money, he just wastes it on endless fun.
- Then he himself is also at the end and finally has to work for a farmer and feeds himself on what the pigs also get.
- He realizes his mistake and goes back to his father. He would rather work there and at least get water and bread.
- To his surprise, however, his father is pleased, forgives him, and celebrates a great feast.
- This story runs to the common point that God forgives every man as a father if he honestly repents and returns.
Now there is a story by Kafka, which is also called „The Homecoming“:
Let’s take a closer look at it now.
Man and the world in a „parable“ by Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka, Homecoming
I have returned, I have crossed the hall and look around. It is my father’s old yard. The puddle in the middle. Old, useless equipment, jumbled together, blocks the way to the attic stairs. The cat lurks on the banister. A torn cloth, once twisted in play around a pole, lifts in the wind. I have arrived. Who will receive me? Who waits behind the door of the kitchen? Smoke comes out of the chimney, the coffee for dinner is boiling. Do you feel at home, do you feel at home? I don’t know, I am very unsure. My father’s house is, but cold stands piece next to piece, as if each were busy with its own affairs, some of which I have forgotten, some of which I never knew. What use can I be to them, what am I to them, even if I am the father’s, the old farmer’s son. I dare not knock at the kitchen door, only from a distance I listen, only from a distance I listen standing, not so that I could be surprised as a listener. And because I listen from a distance, I don’t hear anything, only a light clock strike I hear, or perhaps I only think I hear it, from my childhood days.
What else happens in the kitchen is the secret of those sitting there, which they keep from me. The longer you hesitate in front of the door, the stranger you become. How would it be if someone opened the door now and asked me something. Wouldn’t I myself then be like someone who wants to keep his secret.
- First of all, it’s a very strange story that could well be a nightmare.
- So let’s just apply our key to this strange story: Situation of man in the world.
- Then you realize: there was someone far away and now he wants to go home.
- This can be applied to the person who has an idea of a home to which he wants to go. Everyone can imagine for himself what the dream of home is for him.
- However, this home is no longer as beautiful and easily attainable as it used to be, when people’s world still seemed to have a safe ground – for example, in a religion.
- Then very negative ideas of man begin. He cannot imagine that people in the homeworld are interested in him.
- The more he imagines something, the more insecure he becomes.
- Finally, he doesn’t even know if he belongs to this homeworld at all.
- This can easily be applied to the situation of people in the modern world.
- One still somehow knows that one has a home, a safe place to which one belongs.
- But this place has become foreign to you.
- The more one deals with it, the more uncertain one becomes about the place. Finally, one is no longer sure of one’s own identity.
- Now everyone can elaborate on this for himself.
- The only decisive thing is that the man of the Bible still had a (heavenly) father to whom he could return at any time – and was also accepted.
- In the present time, however, most people have become uncertain about a transcendent world to which they belong and which also receives them when one returns home.
Reference to comparable parables of Kafka
As we said before, we have read many parables by Kafka – and our explanation has always fit so far.
On the following page, for example, you can find texts by Kafka that can be understood in this way:
In German:
https://textaussage.de/kafka-themenseite
As for the insecurity of man, we especially recommend the following story:
Kafka’s parable „Give it up!“ Fragility and insanity of reality?
In German
https://textaussage.de/kafka-gibs-auf
Whoever thinks that there is a better key or that our key does not always fit, can simply contact us. How this is possible, we show here:
Questions and suggestions can be filed on this page:
https://textaussage.de/schnelle-hilfe-bei-aufgaben-im-deutschunterricht
Further information, tips and materials
Info, tips and materials on further topics of German lessons
https://textaussage.de/weitere-infos