In the Penal Colony | Overview of "In the Penal Colony"
In the following essay, Thorn examines "In the Penal Colony" and asserts that ''first and foremost the story is a dream or a parable.''
For most of his life as a writer Kafka was employed at a workers' accident insurance company. He wrote at night, on weekends, and on the holidays. It was a routine which made the writing of a novel an arduous business. He did not enjoy writing novels. Indeed, he never succeeded in finishing one. But he did enjoy writing short stories. In 1912 he confided to his diary, having just completed a story called "The Judgment" in a single sitting, writing from ten o'clock at night to six o'clock in the morning: "with my novel-writing I am in the shameful lowlands of writing. Only in this way can...
[The entire page is 1600 words long]
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