“You do not need to accept everything as true, you only have to accept it as necessary,” wrote Franz Kafka.

Today marks 100 years since Kafka’s “The Trial” was published. Written during World War I in Germany, the book’s questioning of authoritarian power and over-bloated bureaucracy remains pertinent today. 

Kafka notoriously hated most of his work during his lifetime, so “The Trial” and many of his other pieces never saw the light of day until his death. Upon his death, Kafka asked for his remaining works to be burned by a close friend of his, Max Brod. Brod ignored the request.

“The Trial” follows a man named Joseph K., who is arrested on the morning of his 30th birthday without being informed of the crime he has committed. K., though put under arrest, is not imprisoned nor detained; he is simply under arrest. 

K.’s life quickly becomes consumed by the trial’s goings-on, though the exact events are often left to the readers’ imagination. 

Everyone he meets or has met seems to know of his trial and expresses the desire to help him, but never actually does. If K. presses these people for answers, they simply don’t have them. 

“The Trial” focuses on a dystopian court system, but its caution on faceless entities controlling aspects of life applies to many institutions. Kafka creates the weight of an oppressive government without anyone having to directly oppress. 

Kafka himself worked as a lawyer and insurance salesman, his disdain for which often spilled over into his writing.

“My job is unbearable to me because it conflicts with my only desire and my only calling, which is literature,” Kafka once wrote in his diary. 

As “The Trial” progresses, what K. has done becomes unimportant. The focus is rather on what impending doom a guilty verdict might bring him. 

“Do you want to lose the trial? Do you realize what that would mean? That would mean you would be simply destroyed,” Kafka wrote.

The story’s dialogue is unnatural; the characters constantly say so much while saying so little, unable to think outside the box that has been drawn for them. Many of the characters are represented not by their names but by their titles — they are not people, but supervisors, judges and deputy directors. 

“We don’t know how things look there and, incidentally, we don’t want to know,” Kafka wrote.

It is unclear who the actual enemy of K.’s story is: the ominous court or the individuals who play out its will. 

K. also rarely seems to be an agent of change in his own life. He’s more akin to a pinball being bounced around by whatever strands of knowledge are given to him. 

Details in the book are said in such a way that separates the reader from the characters. The characters’ emotions are stated, but they seem reactionary and surface-level, creating a nagging sense that the expressed feelings may be a concealment of something else. 

This detached writing style can, at times, create a feeling of anxiety, but it also has the amusing side effect of comedy. Kafka’s themes can often be depressing and overwhelming, but the words themselves can be quite funny. 

“It would have been so pointless to kill himself that, even if he had wanted to, the pointlessness would have made him unable,” Kafka wrote.

Kafka’s writing implores the reader to see the absurdity in the mundane and how fragile our societal position is. The emphasis on an intense work culture creates an extreme reliance on constant productivity. Kafka shows how if you are interrupted from that productivity, it is easy to be ostracized by others. 

The court of “The Trial” demonstrates how our institutions are inaccessible. Our systems’ retribution can be felt, but their inner workings are often concealed. The ignorance to believe that you are free prevents freedom. 

“K. was living in a free country, after all, everywhere was at peace, all laws were decent and were upheld, who dared accost him in his own home?” Kafka wrote.

Kafka never completed “The Trial.” The roughly 250-page read ends with many more questions than answers. By the end of the story, it is clear that K.’s faith in his questions ever being answered has deteriorated. However, the novel’s most vital takeaway is the understanding that you should never stop questioning.

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