LAST SHORT ESSAY-KAFKA TOPIC

     Kafka’s “Before the Law,” discusses the story of a man who wants to seek the knowledge and access to the law. The man is not let access to the law, he states that the law is something that should be accessible to everyone and anyone can reach it. The man is given a challenge to try and get past the doorkeeper in order to get to the law. Then the man becomes old and dies without accessing to the law. Before the man dies, the doorkeeper tells him that the entrance is made just for the man and since the man is now dying the entrance to the law will also be closed. The doorkeeper can be seen as a professional and if you are not able to demonstrate to the him why you should win the case, you will not have enter in your favor. As such, if the man is not able to get past the gatekeeper he never accesses to the law. The same can be seen for those fighting to change how laws are in society. People can try several times to make changes; however, many are not able to get the changes they seek.

     The man gives up possessions and items and he brings to try and win over the doorkeeper. This is similar to people trying over and over again to make changes or to try and achieve a specific goal yet, only to wear themselves out. However, the doorkeeper takes the items but tells the man he is only taking them so that the man would not feel like a failure, as he puts everything he had into getting to the law. It is similar when people try to achieve specific goals in life however fail. Even though the outcome of accomplishing the set goal was not met, but as long as they put in all their effort, they will not feel like failures because they put in all the effort that was possible. For example someone may have dreams of becoming a judge. They may exhaust all their resources to become one, such as spending time and money to become a lawyer first. Afterwards, they may go onto practice for many years as a lawyer hoping that one day they will become a judge. That individual may do everything in their power that is needed, but not get onto the bench. However, all the effort did not go to waste. They were still able to accomplish the first step, which was becoming a lawyer.

     Finally giving items to the doorkeeper can also be seen as bribery. In life sometimes we as humans want to try and make problems go away quickly, in this case the problem was getting past the doorkeeper. The best way was seen as giving stuff to the doorkeeper, which can also be seen as bribery. The man thought that if he gave items to the doorkeeper, it may cause the doorkeeper to slip up and let the man go past the door. Although it can be seen as though Kafka tells the readers to try anything and everything to get to their goals so they do not have to feel like failures. It can also be seen as saying to try bribery. This type of corruption can be found in the government system, which creates laws in today’s society. Officials and authority figures may be corrupt, and they may take bribes from individuals who are trying to get ahead in life without having to wait or go around obstacles.