Jackals and Arabs (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Franz Kafka
- First Published: 1917
- Type of Plot: Parable
- Time of Work: Unspecified
- Setting: An oasis in the North African desert
- Principal Characters: The narrator, An old jackal, An Arab caravan driver
- Genres: Short fiction, Parable
- Subjects: Culture, Surrealism, Animals, Deserts, Mammals, Arabs
- Locales: Africa
The Story
At night in a desert oasis, the narrator, traveling with an Arab caravan, tries to get to sleep. The distant howling of jackals causes him to sit up again, and in no time the pack is swarming around him. One of them presses close against his body, then stands before him and speaks. It is the oldest in the pack, and it assures the narrator that his arrival here has been awaited for a long time, by countless generations of jackals, in fact. This sounds curious to the man, as he has only come by chance and on a short visit to the African desert.
As if to cast the...
[The entire page is 1295 words long]
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