What do you all think? I think it's kinda lazy to interpret this book simply as a critique of bureaucracy and the justice system itself. I might be way way way way off but I just wanted to get that out there. The Law is religion, the doorkeeper is the servant of religion, the door itself is the door that leads to heaven and the man is us. Someone must have been telling lies about Josef K., he knew he had done nothing wrong but, one morning, he was arrested. Kafka is credited with prophetic powers, because he predicted, through his novels The Trial and The Castle, the totalitarian regimes that arose after his death, especially that of the Soviet. I think the door keeper story is basically a big allegory to how we view God and Heaven and religion. The same way the universe or the world or universe can often seem so big and complex and can so easily overwhelm us. The Court or the justice system itself is described so chaotically with so many contradictions that the reader can't help but feel overwhelmed at trying to understand it all, just like K. is accused of being guilty of a crime he doesn't even know he committed, the same way we are all condemned to live life without knowing why. In the end I ended up thinking 'The Trial' is just living life itself and the justice system is the world or the universe. This classic account of bureaucratic tyranny resonates in any time and any place which is to say, all times and all places where people are. I just finished reading it and I wanted to know how people interpreted it.

The trial of franz kafka