Vol. 3, Issue 1
72
LEGAL REALITIES: THE FICTIONAL WORLDS KAFKA CREATES ARE VITAL TO UNDERSTANDING OUR EMOTIONS Renee A. Pistone∗ I. INTRODUCTION Works of political fiction can and do reflect social problems by highlighting abuses in society. Franz Kafka’s novel, The Trial, demonstrates how the societal role of a legal system can be interpreted in a multitude of ways.1 In this manner, Kafka’s work influences our attitudes and beliefs. This paper examines the concepts of authority and personal well-being as depicted in Kafka’s literary work. In short, Kafka’s fictional characters consent to legal and familial authority in order to achieve some form of personal familial satisfaction. The question becomes whether societies primarily use the law to help people get exactly what they want. It is argued here that Kafka’s fictional realm and the real world are dissimilar because Kafka focuses on the discordance between humanity’s desire to seek authority and the struggle to relinquish our own autonomy. Kafka has become an influential writer, and his importance to legal thought cannot be underscored enough. Legal and philosophical scholars have written about his novels. The development of law and literature presents us with issues that are central to explaining human behavior. A legal system is designed to give humanity a framework for organizing society. It is the means for maintaining law and order. The legal system is supposed to be applied to everyone equally. Yet, rather than a uniform and legitimate system of laws, Kafka describes an illegitimate system of laws. He demonstrates how jurisprudence may be administered in a random manner. His works are thus very important to a modern democratic society that wishes to remain free. Our laws and morality are strongly rooted in the JudeoChristian tradition and are based on the Biblical Ten ∗
Professor, Rutgers Writing Program. See generally FRANZ KAFKA, THE TRIAL (Edwin Muir & Willa Muir trans., Schocken Books, 1999); see also E. Weber, Before the Law, After the Law: An Interview with Jean-Francois Lyotard, 11 QUI PARLE part 2, 37 (1999). 1