Blog Post #1- Carolina Hernandez

In Frank Kafka’s “Before the Law,” the story tells the reader about a man from the country that tries to go before the Law, but is stopped by a gatekeeper up until the moment he dies. My group was initially divided on which literary response was the most appropriate for this short story, but in the end, we decided on the Marxist approach. Another approach that I think could also be used is the Psychological approach.

My group decided on the Marxist approach because of small details throughout the story. The first one was that the man was from the country which connotes that the man is of a lower class. The next reason was that the man at one point thinks that, “the law should always be accessible to everyone.” My group thought that this line was in response to how the social hierarchy limits what the lower class people have access to, and how this is unequal. We also used the fact that the gatekeeper was wearing a fur coat as a way to show that he comes from a wealthy background since only the rich at that time can afford a fur coat. The gatekeeper himself seems to represent the top people in society, proclaiming their power as a way to intimidate those beneath them, the workers. This can be shown when the gatekeeper proclaims, “I am powerful,” and the man from the country decides that it is better to obey the gatekeeper even though the gatekeeper displays no real threat.

The other approach that I chose for this story was the psychological one and that is because of the complex nature of the story and how it helps give deeper understanding on how the characters are feeling and thinking throughout the story, specifically the man. I also thought that the story helped us understand our own thoughts. The man from the story clearly has a motivation to go before the law, and although we do not know what it is, the story shows that his motivation was strong enough that he left the country. We can see that he is a patient man, a law abiding man. However, his determination to go past the gate leads to his downfall. He ends up spending years in front of that gate, making it his main focus in life. He ends up dying in front of the gates all because he was too obsessed with going before the law. I think this in a way helps me see that the man could not go before the law because he had no need to go before it. He obeys all that is said and broke no laws. His own good nature prevented him from ever needing to go before the law.

Despite my group choosing the Marxist approach to understand “Before the Law” better, I think the psychological approach is the best one in regards to this story. The main reason why I believe this is because although the Marxist approach offers a good explanation for most of the story, it fails to offer a clear explanation of the ending. The ending is probably the most important part of the story since it shows that the gate was only for that man, and that in the end, he died for nothing.