Franz Kafka was born in Prague in 1883 he belonged to a jewish family which was regarded as prominent in the German speaking circles of Prague. His father, Herman Kafka behaved like a dictator in the family and on many occasions directed his anger against his son. Kafka had three sisters all of whom perished in Nazi camps. His growth was filled with family and social tension as he experienced rejection of jews by the Germans. Reacting to this he writes “’What have I in common with Jews? I have hardly anything in common with myself and should stand very quietly in a corner, content that I can breathe.’’ Kafka was a lawyer by profession, his early writings reflected his profession in the legalistic language he used.
His relationships can be clearly seen in his short stories. His most famous short story The Metamorphosis begins As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. In this story he sees the world with a compound eye. His love for his sisters and his mother and his bitter relationship with his father is clearly reflected. In the story after his transformation it is only his mother and sister who love samsa, they hope that one day they may see him as he was. His father hates him and one day while pushing him back to his room he throws apples at him, one of the apple gets stuck in the body of the bug and it slowly starts decaying and eventually leading to the death of the bug alias Gregor.
Similarly his association with Felice Bauer is reflected in the story The Judgement. Kafka had many relationships during his short life. World War I had its effects as Kafka stopped writing novels and short stories. His loss of faith in justice is visible in his novel The Trial. The hero of the novel Joseph K. gets arrested without any act of crime against his name. He finds himself framed in the trial he says ’’You may object that it is not a trial at all; you are quite right, for it is only a trial if I recognize it as such, ’’ In the final chapter two men take him away and kills him by stabbing him through his heart.
Kafka’s famous works are
1) Meditation
2) Judgement
3) The Metamorphosis
4) Letter to his father
5) The Trial
6) A Country Doctor
7) The Castle
In 1917 he is diagnosed to be suffering from tuberculosis from this time onwards he spends most of his time in various hospitals and sanatoriums and his death occurs on 3rd June 1924. Kafka had a good friend Max Brod who says that Kafka had asked him to destroy all his writings after his death but against his friends wishes Brod not only preserves Kafka’s writings but get them published and make Kafka one of the most loved German writer.