The Trial - In search of great literary works. Review on Trial, The - Franz Kafka

Well, actually I am not attempting to pen a review. Consider this as a reaction toward the verbose bw Adiga fans and myself.

I received some M2Ms regarding the reason why I have thrown gauntlet towards Indian Writers and in particular chosen to criticize the young writer who got Booker Prize!

Some of the comments were

a) Why are you being so patriotic? Is India the best? If some one is depicting a true picture of India, why are you so restless?

b) If winning Booker Prize is so simple, why dont you write?

c) Only western writers are great according to you?

Ok, so let me write a few words regarding "The Trial" by Franz Kafka (I mean something I loved)

This novel mocks the society where he belong to in his own manner - it is not like halwai bitching about certain aspects and giving his gospels like the protoganist of the latest booker prize winning novel "The White Tiger" .The difference lies in the fact that the former has got aesthetic literary flavour and the latter was narration of events like documentary. Let me take you through the essence of this novel

About Trial

A small deviation - I am sure you would have come across the novel called "Plague"by Albert Camus. The novel ends with the following sentence "perhaps the day would come,when, for the bane and the enlightening of men, it would rouse up its rats again andsend them forth to die in a happy city.when, for the bane and the enlightening of men, it would rouse up its rats again andsend them forth to die in a happy city.when, for the bane and the enlightening of men, it would rouse up its rats again andsend them forth to die in a happy city.when, for the bane and the enlightening of men, it would rouse up its rats again and send them forth to die in a happy city".

The literary meaning is quite simple. Plague will come again to warn the public.

When Plague came in the happy city of Surat everybody remembered Camus and his book.

But it has got some deeper meaning - might be the current financial crisis is the plague coming to happy society when we forgot the fundamentals! Camus;s wisdom and far-sight was quite evident in this book. The Trialis another book which belong to this category.

Plot

- Joseph K, the junior manager of a well known bank was arrested one fine morning by authorities that are so alien to the readers. The reason why he is arrested was not clear. Those who came to bring him to the court were dressed in a shabby manner and it depicts Joseph as a well settled person where as the court of law belonging to another community all together.

• Arrest does not prohibit his freedom of movement etc. and he can attend to duty etc. Inside the court he saw the magistrate's books containing pornography.

  
  




• Joseph believe that he is innocent and the court is vulgar. But every moment he was convinced that he did something wrong.

  
  




• Also, there are normal political systems around like police, court of justice by Joseph never approaches them.

  
  

-Joseph visits the advocate as per his uncle's adviceand finds him to be a capricious and unhelpful character.He returns to his bank but finds that his colleagues are trying to undermine him.

• Josef K is advised by one of his bank clients to visit Titorelli, a painter, for advice. Titorelli has no official connections, yet seems to have a deep understanding of the process. He explains: "You see, everything belongs to the Court."

  
  




• On the last day of Josef K's thirtieth year, two men arrive to execute him. He offers little resistance.The two men then execute him. His last words describe his own death: "Like a dog!"

  
  

Essence

Reading this, majority of my friends would have thought that only insane people will appreciate such a crap! Well - this is a heavy subject that needs lots of interpretation.

Joseph is the example of some one who leads normal life amidst of affluence. Like all of us - who goes for work, gets decent pay, occasionally criticize the system and always believe that we are safe. In our eyes, we are innocents. But there are people who belong to the other extreme and their rules are so alien to us and once if we are caught up in their situation - there we are dead.

Dont you think - Kafka foresee the circle of life - Capitalism will dominate the world and all of us will be happy enough to lead a happy life as we see prosperity around (India Shining) - all of a sudden we hear something like "sub prime crisis" "blood shed in SENSEX"and we are doomed - and finally we reach a situation where we identify our life as equivalent to that of a dog!

Friends - this is classic novel for me. Such classic will surpass the bonds of time and space and has got importance always.

Loka Samastha Sukhino Bhavantu!