Franz Kafka the Cares of a Family Man Analysis
"The Cares of a Family unit Man" ("Die Sorge des Hausvaters") is a short story by Franz Kafka which deals mostly with a small creature called Odradek. The creature has drawn the attention of many philosophers and literary critics, who have all attempted to interpret its meaning. The story was written between 1914 and 1917. In 1919 it appeared in Ein Landarzt. Kleine Erzählungen (A Country Dr.), a collection of Kafka'south curt stories published by Kurt Wolff (Munich and Leipzig) [1] .
Contents
- 1 Plot
- ii Interpretations
- 2.1 Useless object
- 2.ii Critique to Capitalism
- 2.3 Objectification of retentivity
- 2.4 Religious interpretation
- two.5 Odradek as the antagonist
- three Etymology
- 4 References and allusions in Literature
- 4.i Odradek (play)
- 4.2 Odradek (music)
- five References
Plot
The story begins with a word of the unclear linguistic origin of the name Odradek, followed past a detailed description of the creature:
At first glance information technology looks like a flat star-shaped spool for thread, and indeed it does seem to have thread wound upon information technology; to be sure, they are only old, broken-off bits of thread, knotted and tangled together, of the about varied sorts and colors. But it is non only a spool, for a minor wooden crossbar sticks out of the middle of the star, and another small rod is joined to that at a right angle. [2]
The narrator goes on to describe the animate being's other characteristics, including its habits, environment, and manner of conversation, and in the stop wonders most the Odradek's future, and the painful notion that it might outlast him [3] .
Interpretations
Odradek depiction from [4]
As in all Kafka'southward work, this creature and its description can be read from dissimilar points of view. It is non possible to ascertain exactly what Odradek is, not even what Kafka thought information technology was when he was writing the story. 1 possible straight estimation is that Odradek represents whatever useless, harmless object which is kept around for no obvious reason. Nevertheless, many other levels of meaning can be extracted from this story.
Useless object
Odradek appears to represent an object with no clear purpose or apparent use. It could exist an almost exhausted spool for thread, only wounded by "old, broken-off bits of thread, knotted and tangled together, of the about varied sorts and colors". These sorts of useless objects are sometimes kept indefinitely in someone's home, in the hope that i day the bits of thread might be used to sew something. It could be that the story was inspired by an actual virtually empty spool in Kafka'due south domicile, that he ran across from time to fourth dimension. This could explicate the defining characteristic of an Odradek: it lives in crevices, margins and hallways, and has no real fixed dwelling house. The word odradek has been sometimes used since to depict an object which has no purpose and the reason for which it is kept around and not thrown abroad is unclear. Or perhaps it simply represents the unfinished threads of thought that litter a text, are never finished and sit down in the "margins" with no credible use.
Critique to Capitalism
Willi Goetschel analyses "The Cares of a Family Human" from several points of view. He states that upon the eye of Marxist literary critics this story could be seen as a critique to Capitalism in its ultimate stage. Odradek represents commodities, it is "what is left of life one time everything is reduced to materialism" [5] .
Anya Meksin agrees that this is appliable from a Marxist perspective. Odradek, being made of thread for mending, represents the world of manmade practical objects separated from the human work that produced them, and the relation betwixt the house father and Odradek represent the alienated relation between worker and commodities he has produced. The thought that Odradek will survive the narrator and the anguish this state of affairs causes to him can besides be interpreted as the idea of commodities being inherited and transcend the worker that fabricated them, merely in such a way that the worker himself would be completely ignored [four] .
Objectification of memory
According to Goetschel, from a Freudian approach Odradek tin be seen as "the psychological return of the repressed". In this example, information technology is a representation of leftovers of life, things that nosotros would like to forget, but come back again and again. Odradek may hide in night places just like human fears, or may lay in front of a doorway then every bit to warn us non to enter. These could exist the kind of things that the family man has to treat, the repressed memories that never go abroad entirely.
Religious interpretation
Another interpretation of the text tin exist seen under the religious optics, Goetschel indicates that taking in account the star-shaped form of the animate being, Odradek could represent tradition (specifically Jewish tradition), which is passed from generation to generation and gains some more than bits of thread in each generation.
According to Meksin, Odradek represents a rupture between the world of the family human and another transcendent realm. It is immortal, and hides in shadows carrying a message from generation to generation, and witnessing it all. Meksin goes on to betoken that the concrete description of Odradek with its wooden crossbar sticks joined to that at a right angle can also remind us of crucifixion.
Odradek every bit the antagonist
In the assay fabricated by Slavoj Žižek, emphasis is put on the fact that Odradek "in one case had some sort of intelligible shape and is now only a jerry-built remnant", and every bit such it should be role of a whole. The relation between the narrator (a family human being, a father) and the creature could be this whole, and thus Odradek could be the complement of the narrator, who would too be broken-down having part of him put into the form of Odradek. That is why Odradek is something a family human being has to care for [6] .
Several characteristics can be found to testify Odradek and the narrator as opposites, for example:
- The narrator is specially concerned with the fact that even when he dies, Odradek will survive doing exactly what it does now. Odradek is immortal while the family man has to die.
- Odradek has no purpose at all while the narrator is a human who is in charge of a family, having a well defined purpose.
- Odradek has no existent fixed abode while the narrator lives precisely in the business firm where he keeps finding Odradek.
Etymology
In the first paragraph of "The Cares of a Family Human being", Kafka introduces vague concepts almost the etymology of the word "odradek". Information technology says that it could come from slavic or High german origin, but neither attempts to discover the root of the word could give an intelligent meaning. Meksin points out that this first paragraph is both a joke played on future scholarly efforts at agreement the story, and a clue to the significant of the word. An antiquated slavonic verb "odradeti", which means "to counsel against" could exist the root of the word. This would indicate that the name odradek itself points at something that tries to dissuade the reader to empathize its meaning. Odradek would exist, in this case, a way of naming something that is meaningless, a kind of semantic paradox.
Jean-Claude Milner notes in, "Odradek, la bobine de scandale," that the odradek is also part of an anagram for the Greek word dodekaedron. This estimation of the word is as well consistent with the fact that Odradek seems to be a broken-downwards remnant of something.
Some other possible meaning of the word is proposed past Goetschel, based on the fact that Kafka often played with names and used his own name equally part of the names of his characters. He indicates that odradek contains the Czech discussion for "crow", which is besides a translation of Kafka's proper noun. In this instance the Odradek refers to Kafka himself, the aforementioned way Gregor Samsa in The Metamorphosis, Josef 1000. in The Trial and Chiliad. in The Castle likewise refer to him.
References and allusions in Literature
- The Odradek is featured in the modern bestiary The Book of Imaginary Beings by Jorge Luis Borges, which merely quotes the consummate story, along with 2 other creatures imagined by Kafka - the half-cat, half-lamb Crossbreed and the kangaroo-like creature described in Wedding Preparations in the Country.
- The Odradek is also referenced in the title and index of Harry Mathews's novel The Sinking of The Odradek Stadium.
- The Odradek as well served equally inspiration for the "Kedardo" which appears in S. 1000. Azoulay's brusque story "Park on the Street." The object is given to the narrator by his father and is described as "a small white disc, no bigger than a Half Dollar, made of what seemed to be plastic, with 3 nails stuck out of i side, bent inward, towards the center of the plastic disc, and a unmarried straight nail stuck out of the other side, right through the heart." [7]
- Odradeks as well make an advent in Enrique Vila-Matas' work, Historia abreviada de la literatura portátil (1985).
- The short story is also explicitly quoted in a work called 'Odradek, Táboritská viii, Prague, 18 July 1994' (1994), by the Canadian artist Jeff Wall.
- Is used for the title of an anthology by Daniel Menche, 2009, which depicts a rendering of Odradek in the cover art, illustrated by Markus Wolff. The back cover has the entire brusque story printed on information technology.
- In the novel Blameless in Abaddon by James Morrow, the protagonist Martin Candle, who likes to run across himself described as a passionate student of life'southward deepest mysteries, is urged past his doctors to take a drug called Odradex to fight prostate cancer. The side effects of Odradex, nevertheless, are profoundly hampering the thought process of Candle (who is preparing to put God on trial for crimes confronting humanity), and therefore he refuses to take the drug.
Odradek (play)
Odradek is a play by Brett Neveu which premiered at The Firm Theatre of Chicago on January 8, 2011. The play tells the story of a single male parent from a small Iowa town concerned with his son's declining mental heath. After a visit with a new doctor, the boy returns home and develops a friendship with an "Odradek," a creature of twine and rags that lives nether the stairs [8] . The play was met with mixed reviews. [9]
Odradek (music)
Odradek is an improvising trio of multi-instrumentalists operating in Toronto, Canada, since 2003. Their practise focuses on the subtle alloy of disparate sound sources, dissolving the hierarchy between traditional instruments, electronics, constitute objects and invented and bootleg sound sources.
References
- ^ Kafka, Franz. The Complete Stories. Translated by Willa and Edwin Muir. New York: Schocken Books, 1995. 473.
- ^ Kafka, 428.
- ^ Kafka, 427-429.
- ^ a b Meksin, Anya. The Kafka Project, Ragged Bits of Meaning, Wound on a Star-Shaped Spool for Thread
- ^ Goetschel, Willi. Columbia University, Kafka's Dis/Enchanted Earth
- ^ Žižek, Slavoj. The Parallax View, published by MIT Printing, 2006, ISBN 0-262-24051-3, 9780262240512
- ^ Azoulay, S. K. Park on the street
- ^ Odradek - show's page at The House Theatre of Chicago website.
- ^ Review of Odradek at New City Phase, January 17, 2011.
Odradek - review by John Beer, Time Out Chicago.
| Works past Franz Kafka | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Novels | The Trial· The Castle· Amerika | ||||||||
| Short stories |
| ||||||||
| Short story collections | A Hunger Artist (1924)· The Complete Stories· The Sons· The Penal Colony· Parables and Paradoxes· The Great Wall of China· Dearest Begetter· Description of a Struggle | ||||||||
| Diaries and notebooks | The Diaries 1910–1923· The Blue Octavo Notebooks | ||||||||
| Letters | Alphabetic character to His Male parent· Letters to Felice· Messages to Ottla· Letters to Milena· Messages to Family, Friends, and Editors | ||||||||
| Professional person writings | The Function Writings | ||||||||
| Bibliography | |||||||||
Source: https://en-academic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/5235759
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