Blog Post 1, Topic 1

         For “Before the Law,” my group chose to use a Marxist reading. We chose this for a multitude of reasons, most convincingly because the gates that the countryman had to go through seemed a very clear representation of the divide of social classes. The fact that we also only know the main characters by their job titles, gatekeeper and countryman, also suggest that social class is more important than a name or a soul. The gatekeeper in the story seemed comparable to the struggle of attempting to move up in the class system or gain civil liberties. Also, the gatekeeper could represent the so-called 1%. This is especially evident when he says “I am taking this only so that you do not think you have failed to do anything.” It is comparable to when lower social classes demand social justices, and the wealthy respond by giving small amounts back, just to satiate their demands. The fact that the countryman is actively trying to gain entry to the gate and never gives up also represents how the lower classes are usually the ones putting in the effort only to succumb to the power of the gatekeeper.

            Another approach that could be used to analyze “Before the Law” is a psychological reading. This reading was my initial thought, before the Marxist reading was brought to my attention. This whole scenario seemed to me to be the inner workings of one’s mind and thoughts. The gates and the gatekeeper reminded me of a mental struggle, like depression, because often that disease truly manifests itself in one’s mind. The gates seemed to mimic the fact that rarely are mental struggles easy to overcome; it often takes time and many levels of understanding to progress through the gates in your mind. In the end, when the man is dying and the gatekeeper says his final words about the gate being solely for the man, it furthers the idea that this scenario is psychological. One’s mind and depression belongs only to them, thus the statement, “Here no one else can gain entry, since this entrance was assigned only to you.”

            I think even though the psychological approach makes more sense to me, I do think the Marxist reading is more convincing. The emphasis of countryman and gatekeeper as the roles of the men in the text is one of the most convincing points to me. The only identifying feature of the two men in this story is their class level. Also, when the gatekeeper points out that he is only the most lowly gatekeeper, it seems to again set up this idea of classes and a social ladder that is there or gates that must be gone through. In addition, after researching Franz Kafka’s life a little bit, a Marxist reading makes more sense. Kafka was raised in an upper middle class Jewish family. Kafka lived from 1883-1924, which also happened to be when Germany was doing a lot of colonizing. There is no evidence that Kafka had any mental issues; this lack of evidence of a mental struggle combined with the very evident class struggle that was Germany in the late 1800 to early 1900s, it makes sense to approach this piece with a Marxist point of view.