Preview

Who Is Kafka's 'In The Penal Colony'?

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
331 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Who Is Kafka's 'In The Penal Colony'?
Although Kafka’s story “In the Penal Colony” can be considered 3rd person omniscient, I believe the story was primary narrated through officer. I agree with Brittany’s interpretation that the traveler benefits from the narration of the officer, because I believe that the traveler symbolizes the reader while the officer plays a more active role as the narrator.
The traveler like the reader is brought to a foreign place where the officer’s explain the intricacies of his beloved machine. The officer seems to be in control of everyone on the penal colony, while the traveler seems to be a passive bystander who did not try to stop the officer’s “unjustified” punishment. “The traveler now wanted to remain silent, but he felt the eyes of the
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Gentlemen, Your Verdict
    • 733 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Gentlemen, Your Verdict

    This story is told in limited omniscient third person perspective. This is because the narrating voice enters the minds of most characters, excluding the radio telephone scenes. You can only hear Lieutenant Commander Oram’s voice, not the character on the other end of the radio.…

    • 733 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Kafka's Fantasy Of Punishment Analysis
    • 214 Words
    • 1 Page

    Kafka's Fantasy Of Punishment Analysis

    In the “Kafka’s fantasy of punishment”, Author Kaiser reveals and scrutinizes more insightfully the significant meaning of the metamorphosis of Gregor Samsa. In Kaiser’s point of view, Gregor’s transformation is a “self-punishment for his earlier competitive striving aimed against his father.” His unintentional emotions toward his father are beyond hatred, which is interpreted by Kaiser as an oedipal jealousy intended for the mother. However, that is not the manifest struggle between the son and father. It is Gregor’s bold ambition costs him to suffer. Before his catastrophic metamorphosis, the son takes up the position as head of the family as a result of business failure of his father. He begins to work assiduously to sustain the whole family;…

    • 214 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Horrors of a Slave Ship
    • 1021 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Horrors of a Slave Ship

    “The Horrors of a Slave Ship,” describes in detail, the tragic experiences of Olaudah Equiano as a captive slave. Equiano suffered many sleepless nights; he was flogged and kidnapped multiple times. In the article, the author is trying to give the reader the feeling by giving details of the brutally floggings and desperation as many slaves suffocated to death as they were placed in an overcrowded deck. Overall, the author tries to give readers their point across of the difficulties in being a captive slave.…

    • 1021 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Migrant Hostel Skrzynecki Analysis
    • 1463 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Migrant Hostel Skrzynecki Analysis

    The sense of irony is apparent in the notion that the hostel represents a new start for the immigrant, yet it is “prison-like” in its description, the poets last line highlights the bitterness felt by the migrant at this situation.…

    • 1463 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Story Cathedral
    • 827 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Story Cathedral

    b) What is the narrator's attitude toward the visit of the blind man? Why is he so threatened by the idea of that visit? How might the blind man threaten his worldview and/or values?…

    • 827 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    To Kill a Mockingbird
    • 1274 Words
    • 6 Pages

    To Kill a Mockingbird

    Ar first we thought the narrator was omniscient, but we later figured that since the narrator talks directly to us, as if we was right in front of him/her, it would be a obtrusive third-person narrator.…

    • 1274 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Comparing Traveler's 'The Two Travelers'
    • 1313 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Comparing Traveler's 'The Two Travelers'

    “The Two Travelers” is about the tailor and the shoemaker, two people who are opposites in their ideals of faith and action. The tailor has faith, but does not use mercy to act on his faith and reward him. Only later, when the shoemaker shows the tailor life without faith, does the tailor realize faith and mercy are needed for a rewarding life.…

    • 1313 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Mrs Turner Cutting The Grass
    • 563 Words
    • 1 Page

    Mrs Turner Cutting The Grass

    The narration throughout the story is in third person as the narrator always refers to the main character as Mrs. Turner, Geraldine or Girlie instead of using the first person perspective. The point of view is from a single narration that is omniscient since we are given other characters perspectives towards Mrs. Turner and how they feel about her.…

    • 563 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Cattle Shed
    • 801 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Cattle Shed

    The beginning of the short story starts off as a very vivid description of the prison she is in, Ling uses words like, ‘shrill whistle shrieking’, ‘ear piercing sound’, ‘darkness’, and ‘naked electric light bulb’ (142). Ling sets the tone of the story right from the beginning, using this depressing language to enhance the miserable atmosphere she has been placed in. There is hopelessness in the language used at the initial setting described by Ling. Because of the weighted controversy, the reader expects the narrator to continue with her feelings of hopelessness and defeat. However, when the letters by C. are introduced, they fill the narrator with feelings of optimism and inner strength.…

    • 801 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Analysis
    • 605 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Analysis

    The Hitch-Hiker is written in 3rd person point of view and positions the reader as if their Carole Phillips (main character, protagonist). The reader is made to feel positive and to like the main character. For the hitch-hiker on the other hand we have neutral feelings at first, but then we grow suspicious as the protagonists thoughts and seeing’s are brought into the scene about the situation. When the axe is revealed in the hitch-hikers bag we are positioned to dislike the hitch-hiker and he becomes the antagonist in the story. The cultural differences of the reader…

    • 605 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Purpose of Italo Calvino's If on a Winters Night a Traveller. Essay Example
    • 1125 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Purpose of Italo Calvino's If on a Winters Night a Traveller. Essay Example

    Italo Calvino's If on a winters night a traveler is a postmodern novel which is self-conscious of the literary and reading process. It is considered postmodern because it seeks to over turn the dominant discourses in reading which are the authority of the traditional, silent, dictatorial author and the concept of a single objective meaning determined by the author. Calvino demystifies the authority of the author in the novel through the use of metafiction structure and the multiplicity of authors which make the reader aware and critical of the fiction and the author. Calvino presents reading as a subjective process through the multiplicity of reading and deliberate ambiguities which develop the idea of multiple interpretations.…

    • 1125 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Taste Of Apples By Hun-Ming Analysis
    • 875 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Taste Of Apples By Hun-Ming Analysis

    The story opens up with the scene of the car accident, placing great emphasis on comparing the possessions of the two men involved. The green sedan that had belonged to the American had crashed into the old bicycle that had belonged to Ah-fa “like a wild animal pouncing on its prey” (135). The…

    • 875 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Kafka the Country Doctor
    • 673 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Kafka the Country Doctor

    Franz Kafka 3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924. Known to be one of Germany’s most influential authors of the twentieth century, had a termed coined after his last name and writing style, Kafkaesque, and it is used by many modern day critics. Kafka’s narratives have been called “anti-fairy tales” (Kafka 332). Unlike fairy tales, where the hero or protagonist is sent on an adventure in order to save the day, Kafka’s journey is meant to bog down the hero and makes them feel like all hope is lost. The following essay will summarize “the Country Doctor” and find evidence of its surrealism which is used to give the story a dream like appeal to readers and show why his narratives were called “anti-fairy tales”.…

    • 673 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Boulevard Of Broken Dreams
    • 726 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Boulevard Of Broken Dreams

    Essentially the traveler is aware of his reality of being ‘alone’ and not knowing ‘where the road goes’ and that he recognizes that the boulevard has become his ‘home’.…

    • 726 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Tamara - the Watcher
    • 1151 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Tamara - the Watcher

    The postmodern text ”The Watcher” is much more than the main character watching a security guard from a flat opposite an office building. The text is full of religious symbols, anti-realism, irony and a fluid language that sometimes seems meaningless.…

    • 1151 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More

Related Topics