The relationship between Kafka and his father was lukewarm. Kafka hated his family mainly because his father was autocratic and his mother supported him. He had a deep sense of emotional and financial needs that his father couldn’t meet and this complicated his life very much. Therefore, he hated his father whom he saw as an impediment to his normal development. His father also set high standards for Kafka to achieve and these standards were way above the ones that Kafka had set for himself.
This is why Kafka never developed feelings of love towards his father. His mother also supported his father and Kafka was leaving Kafka without anyone to defend him. His father was very autocratic and never let Kafka make independent decisions He controlled his entire life (Brod, p. 40). Kafka would often contemplate rebelling against his father and the close relationship that he developed with his only sister was a conspiracy against their dictatorial dad. The father was a burden to him and though at times he was to be good to the son, his deep feelings of hatred towards his father wouldn’t be shaken by any good gesture from the dad. The father had kept him inside a cocoon and he never grew up like the other boys.
Kafka’s Profession
Kafka went to the university and studied law up to a doctoral level. He worked at the courts without a salary. He later took a job at an Italian insurance company. The job was not lucrative and it had very strict regulations from the dictatorial management. He would work overtime in that thankless job and he was not comfortable with his workplace. He later moved to another Austrian-run insurance company. However, he was a very committed and straightforward lawyer. He would empathize with the people he represented and represent some of them free of charge. He was a very responsible worker who related well with other employees and his seniors.
With his diligence, he earned a promotion while working at the insurance firm. The promotions gave him more time off the job and he used this time to write articles. He published his first article in 1908. Many of his articles were later published in a bi-monthly magazine n his hometown. He started writing more pieces for magazines; the pieces were very bold and impressionistic a factor that made them very popular
Relationship with Max Brod
One of his friends was Max Brod. He was one year younger than Kafka and the two had little in common. Despite his deformations, brod was popular with the ladies. The two started their friendship after a lecture where Brod had challenged some literary theories that Kafka had presented. This friendship lasted for a very long time though Kafka before Brod.
The two developed a very strong relationship. Kafka did not introduce his friend to his works immediately after they met. The moment he was introduced to Kafka’s works, he discovered that he was a writing genius and he encouraged him to write more and more. He was the one who encouraged him to publish his works because Kafka would write and destroy the manuscripts. The relationship between the two men cannot be underestimated especially when it comes to Kafka and literature.
After the death of Kafka, Brod gathered Kafka’s works. He edited those works and later published them. He also made sure that the works survived the holocaust during the Third Reich. Max Brod made sure that the world experienced the creativity of his friends and also helped him to make a name in the world of literature, though posthumously. Brod was also a prolific writer and worked with Kafka but the world does not remember him because of his own works but because of his contribution in the preservation of Kafka’s work and being his biographer.
How Kafka Died
Kafka had a long-term illness that kept away from his job and away from his passion of writing. He would take extended leaves because the illnesses weighed him down. By 1924, his illness had deteriorated to critical levels. His parents and his wife took care of him as he continued to write while ailing. He was diagnosed with acute tuberculosis later in the year and the disease had already wrecked his body by the time it was diagnosed. This disease gave him painful experiences because it affected his throat. The throat would hurt him especially when he was swallowing.
He spent his last days in agony and hunger because he could barely eat. He started wasting away due to chronic starvation. Though the tuberculosis was curable, its effects on the throat led to the death of this lawyer cum literary giant. He died before any of his works was published
The Metamorphosis and Inspiration
One of his most popular works of art is The Metamorphosis. The metamorphosis was inspired by his own life experiences, especially the relationship with his family and his attitude towards religion. His parody of bureaucracy in the book is a criticism of is own father and the religious hypocrisy that he had tried to fight when he was in school. He was creative in the way he took up some elements of his life and compacted them in a manner that reflected tensions in the outer society.
The author never used simplistic interpretations in his works and it is hardly impossible for anyone who has not read his biography to connect the events in The Metamorphosis with Kafka’s own life because of the creative way which he wove the plot of the book to create a universal appeal. It is highly likely that the Samsa character in his work is Kafka himself because his life experiences are similar to the life experiences of this character (Kafka, p. 112).
Kafka remains of the most illustrious literary artists and though he did not live to enjoy the fruits of his works or hear people criticize what he wrote, his good friend Max Brod ensured that the art lived longer than the artist by making sure that the world had the chance to experience the many works that Kafka had written while alive. His biography by is one of the most exciting works of art because of the way it lays out his life and the role of max Brod in his life
Works Cited
- Brod, Max. Franz Kafka: A Biography. New York: Schocken Books, 1960.
- Kafka, Franz. Metamorphosis. New York: Praeger Publishers. 1971.