In the Penal Colony by Franz Kafka -- Summary

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The penal colony is an isolated valley (interestingly, the opposite of an island). A Traveler comes, out of politeness, to witness the execution of The Condemned, a soldier who disobeyed and insulted a superior. The Officer is eager to show the Traveler the apparatus, which is a huge fixture, but the Traveler is vaguely disinterested. The Officer does explain that the apparatus is made of three parts: "The one underneath is called the bed, the upper one is called the inscriber, and here in the middle, this moving part is called the harrow." Even though the explanations are in French, a language which the Condemned doesn't understand, the Condemned tries to garner clues about the apparatus.

On the bed, the condemned is to be tied naked face down. There is a piece of felt, whose purpose is to silence the condemned, which the condemned must bite or he breaks his neck. The interest of the Traveler in the apparatus grows. The Traveler inquires about the nature of the punishment and the crime. The Officer tells the traveler that the Condemned has no idea as to his sentence, his execution, wasn't given a chance to defend himself. He says that he is the sole judge in the Colony. He explains what the Condemned did- fell asleep on duty and was rude to the officer who discovered him sleeping. He explains that giving the soldier a chance to defend himself would have resulted in a troublesome process.

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