Third Essay

Hello everyone,

I believe that this is going to be our last blog entry. First of all I would like to say that I am thankful to everybody who has contributed to this blog and helped me by their comments.

My last essay is going to be one of the parables of Kafka: On Parables.

The reason I have chosen this one is highly likely because of its catchy name; anyhow in this short essay written by Franz Kafka, he begins his essay with the strict statement where Kafka says that "the wise are always merely parables and of no use in daily life". So far these words are not open the any interpretation since Kafka gives his opinion where he his speaking in a certain language not leaving any chance of interpretation (commentary) to the reader. In his parable, Kafka points out that when a "sage says: 'Go, over', he does not mean that we should cross" some actual place, instead the sage means some place "that he cannot designate" either. Thus, Kafka claims that the parables told by the wise man are containing ambiguity since they are not aware of the conclusion. Therefore these parables would help us "in the very least".

In the second part of the parable, the impression of the parables on the audience of this essay is somewhat changed. Franz Kafka has played a mind game on the readers. In this part the claim of the another man is perfectly valid based on the comments made on parables in the first paragraph. Words like "parables" in parables, in fact may be parables themselves. Somewhat like a recursive call using the operand "parables". The second man approves the idea of the first man and he has got the idea of what is a parable. However at the end of the story the first man says "No, in reality" therefore again gives the impression to the audience that the parables are not in use of daily life.

The another man's interpretation about the parables is that he is not really understanding what the second man is saying. Since the sages do not want us to follow the parables, (Go, over - not clear) the second man gets the idea. The second man's interpretation on the parables is that they are "words of wise" and that they have "no use in daily life".

"On Parables" is one of in depth works of Franz Kafka. His work covers many themes about truth and knowledge. It is an essay that forces the reader to think more than once in order to understand what Kafka is saying.