I found the passage on page 60 to be very significant. Here Georg talks about how “he had firmly made up his mind to watch closely every least movement (of his father) so that he should not be surprised by any indirect attack, a pounce from behind or above. At this moment (in which his father unexpectedly stood up and kicked his legs out while resting upon his bed) he recalled this long-forgotten resolve and forgot it again, like a man drawing a short thread through the eye of a needle.” This simile used by Kafka is one that struck me due to the fact that I myself have experienced that same thought when it came to watching how my own father dealt with me, thereby making me more observant of his every action so that I could anticipate what he was going to do and say to me at any given moment, in order to be prepared for his wrath or praise. Often times however, it was his wrath that I dealt with and not his praise, just like the relationship Georg has with his father and I’m assuming Franz Kafka had with his own father, Hermann.
The concept of wish-fullfillment , associated with Frued (or "Siggy" as he is referred to as in the film "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure.") highlights the father-son relationship/dynamic that is at work here in this story. This story is in essence a vehicle that Franz Kafka uses to describe his own relationship with his father, Herrmann Kafka, through the characters in the story.
The aforementioned universal Oedipal theme (reminds me of some Harold Bloom stuff as well) of the son surpassing the father (i.e. Luke Skywalker surpassing his father, Anakin), for the pop-culture buffs out there, like myself) has a mass appeal that I’m sure has struck a cord with many other male readers who have undergone a similar relationship with their own fathers. One could ask if this theme that is explored by Kafka in this short story as exciting and pertinent today as it was in Kafka's time or does it somehow bore the reader in the manner in which it is presented? I for one find extrememly engaging, yet that's only one dude's opinions, and we all know what they say about opinions, they're like #$$@#%*#$, everyone has one...
P.S. clcik here for some more information regarding Franz Kafka's relationship with his father Herrmann
Comments (1)
Here's a tangent I just want to play with from your interesting blog post. I'm glad you brought up that quote about the thoughts being like a shoe string passing through the eye of a needle. It reminded me how many thoughts come in and pass out of the mind, often making their quick mark on the conscioussness, only to be whelmed over again in a sea of other thoughts, and added back to the subconsciouss material. So much of what we think, and have thought, once we think it, is pushed to the back of our minds, buried under the layers of other things going on from both above and below our consciousness,and it is amazing to think how much stuff we actually have in there that we have merely lost the connecting threads for. This forgotten part of our consciouss lives contains a wealth of associations and potential connections that when we dream must come into play, during our state of what Hartmann describes as broad net, wide association-making. Could this be behind the feelings of deja vu we all experience from time to time? It is interesting. Think about how these short threads and unfinished thoughts play themselves out in our dreams, and influence our conscious feeling about ourselves, the people in our lives, and the world around us.
Posted by Mr. Mxylplyx | September 28, 2006 3:04 PM
Posted on September 28, 2006 15:04