"Before the Law" and The Giver

In Franz Kafka’s “Before the Law” there is not just one theory that fits the story. While in class my group and I all had different ideas and views as to what the short story was trying to convey, while I said psychological, someone else said Marxism, another said formalism and the last one said post-structuralism, which honestly, all fit into the “theme” of the story. Overall, once discussing and arguing all of our sides of the story, we felt like there was no right answer as to what the general theme of the story was, but we could all agree that Marxism was one of the best fits because the story showed the idealism that physical objects will fade away and when we pass, everything that we thought was valuable will be nothing, we cannot exactly be buried with everything that we own, so why worry about possessions when we can enjoy what we have now and just hope that all of the materialistic idealisms that we deal with go away. Also, the guy in the story was under a power dynamic, he does not feel like he was strong enough to go through the gates, he had this idea that giving up all of his material items would be able to persuade the gatekeeper that he was worthy of going through the gate, but because he himself does not feel ready to go through the gates he never went through and died waiting for the gatekeeper to let him in. A story that I find relates to this story would have to be The Giver by Lois Lowry is a perfect example of Marxism that captures the essence of Kafka’s “Before the Law”. In The Giver, there is a power play where people are not allowed to feel emotions, because it would make them do crazy things, like give up everything they have. When the giver is giving the receiver all of the knowledge that he has, it is a power play because the receiver can only take so much before he starts losing his mind with all of the new emotions he is feeling after he stops taking his daily shot of emotion neutralizers. In both The Giver and “Before the Law” we see how having nothing does not make a difference in status. Jonas, the main character in The Giver stops taking his mood stabilizers realizing that it is dwindling his ability to think for himself and stand up for what he believes in and to his superiors. Jonas, like the old man in “Before the Law”, both desire nothing valuable, they desire the knowledge of something that is so far out there that they cannot get because they feel like they do not have the mental strength to get there. Unlike the old man, Jonas is able to escape his dystopian society and break the barrier that stops the effects oMarxismsm, whereas the old man, just dies trying to break the boundary of his own mind. Personally speaking, I feel like The Giver is a more convincing reading than “Before the Law” because it actually tells a detailed story of a dysfunctional society that believes they are doing what is best or their people, when in reality they are just oppressing them and their minds. However, there is the fact that in the novel the theory of marxism does not exist, they do not have a capitalist government, but it just has that broader approach that leads up to there being an idea of a capitalist government. In the novel, Lowry clearly identifies the levels of the “hierarchy” that exist within the society. In the short story, we see how desperate the man is to get within the gates, giving up his materialistic items is a power play on himself. His mind believes that he would be able to gain entry into something that seems so pure and greater than life itself, but because he believes that he cannot get into the gates it kind of shows the power that the gatekeeper has over the old man and the assumption of authority that the gatekeeper has. In the novel, it has a similar dynamic with the assumption of power, except for the fact that because everybody believes that the person who assigns what everyone’s career is going to be is the symbol of authority nobody questions it. Both stories all in all have their own view of marxism, but personally speaking, The Giver just portrays the power dynamic a lot nicer and a lot more detailed, meaning an actual story.
Word Count: 767
*PSA to whoever reads this, this makes sense in my head, but if it sounds confusing let me know! I will try to clarify it without it sounding anymore confusing. I also really hope you understand at least somewhat, the point that I am trying to make.*