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 explanation

right away, but the Traveler interrupted him: “He doesn’t

know his own sentence?” “No,” said the Officer once more. He then

paused for a moment, as if he was asking the Traveler for a more detailed

reason for his question, and said, “It would be useless to give him

that information. He experiences it on his own body.” The Traveler

really wanted to keep quiet at this point, but he felt how the Condemned

Man was gazing at him—he seemed to be asking whether he could approve

of the process the Officer had described. So the Traveler, who had

up to this point been leaning back, bent forward again and kept up his

questions, “But does he nonetheless have some general idea that he’s

been condemned?” “Not that either,” said the Officer, and he smiled at

the traveler, as if he was still waiting for some strange revelations from

him. “No?” said the Traveler, wiping his forehead, “then does the man

also not yet know how his defence was received?” “He has had no opportunity

to defend himself,” said the Officer and looked away, as if he

was talking to himself and wished not to embarrass the Traveler with an

explanation of matters so self-evident to him. “But he must have had a

chance to defend himself,” said the Traveler and stood up from his chair."

"The Traveler looked at the harrow with a wrinkled frown. The information

about the judicial procedures had not satisfied him. However, he

had to tell himself that here it was a matter of a penal colony, that in this

place special regulations were necessary, and that one had to give precedence

to military measures right down to the last detail. Beyond that,

however, he had some hopes in the New Commandant, who obviously,

although slowly, was intending to introduce a new procedure which the

limited understanding of this Officer could not cope with."

Why is it so important to be able to see the pain?

"Now, to enable someone to check on how the sentence is being carried

out, the harrow is made of glass. That gave rise to certain technical

difficulties with fastening the needles securely, but after several attempts

we were successful. We didn’t spare any efforts."