In the Penal Colony by Franz Kafka -- Analysis
Observations and notes People have no names but have capitalized titles Squeaking foreshadows something Explaining the whole apparatus before showing how it works - what purpose does it serve? The namelessness is apparently to create impersonality and detachment but then there are sentences like "The condemned man is laid out on his stomach on the cotton wool" which is basically like The Condemned Man without caps- which makes it a little personal again. Interesting question: who is the commandant? He does everything. “Diagrams made by the Commandant himself?” asked the Traveler. “Then was he in his own person a combination of everything? Was he soldier, judge, engineer, chemist, and draftsman?” is he a metaphor for a ruler, or god? The pit- into it all the symbols of pain go (bloody water, blood-stained cotton wool). The Traveler's position as a stranger from without the culture: "Does he know his sentence?” “No,” said the Officer. He wished to get on with his expl