Amerika: The Man Who Disappeared, Franz Kafka
Posted: November 6, 2010 Filed under: literature Leave a comment »I hear that I started with the exception of the bunch when I chose to introduce myself to Kafka with this particular short, and fragmented, story. Given that assertion, I have no idea whether or not I “like” Kafka. Amerika was right up my alley- magical realism, tending towards the real, and a journey story.
I heartily enjoyed reading this book and was alternately tickled and aggravated by Karl, the 15 year old, naive protagonist, recently immigrated from Germany.
What I cannot decipher is where the naivete originates, with the construction of Karl’s character or perhaps Kafka’s own psyche. I do not know how old Kafka was when he wrote this character, but the character and his misadventures are portraits of Kafka’s deep suspicion of authority in all its guises-
1) Age- early in the book we learn that Karl has been exiled by his parents due his relations with a house maid who is atleast several years his senior. In his recounting of his seduction, he is more or less raped by the stronger older female and then punished by his parents when she turns up pregnant.
2) Governmental- on the ship, just prior to his arrival in America, Karl meets a stoker who is victimized by his supervisor. When Karl helps him make his case to the ship Captain, we discover the Captain to be a man with little character. The Captain is less interested in justice than the show that the hapless Stoker provides and his own reputation.
3.) Parental- not unlike the situation with his parents, Karl is later exiled by his uncle/ guardian when Karl fails to obey a less than clear order to stay home rather than visit with friends.
4.) Employers- when Karl finds employment with a hotel, his lot seems to be improving. However, when he makes a mistake in dealing with a bad situation, he is fired by an employer without having adequate opportunity to voice his side of the story.
These motifs appear repeatedly and in all situations. At the “end” of the unfinished story, Karl arrives in the wild west. I cannot help but wonder where Kafka was headed with this tale. Would the wild west be an anarchist haven where less authority gave Karl the freedom he needed to thrive?
Or would Karl eventually have lost some of his naive noblesse?
