Franz Kafka, in 1912, decided to undertake the project of writing a novel about
America. He was 29 years old at the time, and it was to be his first
novel. At the time of his writing, he was a lifelong resident of
Prague and had never travelled beyond Paris. The
United States of America was just beginning to gain world power at this time and had already accumulated a sort of grandeur abroad.
Many wonder at Kafka's purpose in so writing, as some sources claim that he read books about the country, went to lectures and did extensive research in preparation for his work. For this reason, many scholars think that he set out to create a realistic depiction of the country. However, in examining the text itself, this notion is called into question.
" ... a sudden burst of sunshine seemed to illuminate the Statue of Liberty,
so that he saw it in a new light, although he had sighted it long before.
The arm with the sword rose up as if newly stretched aloft,
and round the figure blew the free winds of heaven."
From the outset of the novel, on the very first page; Kafka's usual blend of realism and distortion dominate. Here, a particularly interesting image of America's beloved Statue of Liberty is shown, not bearing a torch, but a sword; it is not holding the fire of Enlightenment thought as a beacon to the world, but rather a blade of metal to those entering the harbor.
The narrator who describes the sight so lovingly is Karl Rossmann, a 16 year old boy who was banished from his parents' house in Europe and sent abroad to make his way alone. Rossmann, being still quite an impressionable young man as characterized by Kafka, is blown about haphazardly throughout the novel, being influenced, persuaded, and sometimes enslaved by various individuals. He encounters a broad range of people, from a poor stoker on the ship that he travelled on, to his rich uncle, a Senator, to a spoiled upper class girl who attempts to force him to make love to her.
Kafka seeks to create a chaotic sort of world throughout the novel. Rossmann constantly encounters such scenes, and he observes the street below his uncle's house shortly after his arrival in New York City:
"From morning to evening and far into the dreaming night that street was the channel for a constant stream of traffic which, seen from above, looked like an inextricable confusion, for ever newly impovrished, of foreshortened human figures and the roogs of all kinds of vehicles, sending into the upper air another confusion, more riotous and complicated, of noises, dust and smells, all of it enveloped and penetrated by a flood of light which the multitudinous objects in the street scattered, carried off and again busily brought back, with an effect as palpable to the dazzled eye as if a glass roof stretched over the street were being violently smashed into fragments at every moment."
The end of the book has a particularly humorous and unexpected ending. After having been through countless experiences of being betrayed and pushed around, Rossmann mysteriously escapes from the hands of several slothful individuals who barred him from the outside world. However, he gains a new opportunity to gain employment at "The Theater of Oklahoma." He takes a train to the race-course where they are calling people who wish to obtain a position. Upon arriving there, he is greeted not by the abundantly rich scene he was expecting, but rather the ridiculous sight of several women standing on huge pedestals, dressed in flowing gowns and blowing into trumpets completely out of harmony with one another. It is an amusing image of supposed grandeur that actually looks quite silly. Despite this, Rossmann is able to obtain employment as a technician with the theater which ends the novel.
Kafka's perspective as a foreigner and detached observer makes this work extremely enjoyable, and his humorous depictions of aspects of American culture are both entertaining and highly intriguing.