Take 10 minutes (until 12:45) to free-write on "In the Penal Colony." What is puzzling you about this story? What links can you make to the Nietzsche passages we've read? What links can you make to other Kafka stories and other books we've read?
Questions here are more valuable than answers.
what makes the machine fall apart? what troubles the explorer and what does he learn?
ReplyDelete"The condemned man had put his head down and looked peaceful, the soldier was busy cleaning the machine with the condemned man's shirt." Why does he look peaceful, is he glad that he is about to be tortured, does he think it is somehow just? And is there some sort of symbolism behind the soldier cleaning the apparatus, isn't this quite strange?
ReplyDeleteOne thing that confuses me is the setting, what time period this is, what the old governor was like, what the new governor is like, what are the people of the colony like, etc. Also, is the officer crazy or does he just really believe this is the right thing to do? It links to Nietzches passages of being human vs being animal, and what it means to be each.
ReplyDelete"Only around the sixth hour does he lose his pleasure in eating" (61) In a Hunger Artist, the artist would not eat because he could not find food that he enjoyed. Just as in the Penal colony, the condemned man could not eat because he could not enjoy his food any more. The hunger artist was capable of fasting for over forty days because of the pain he suffered, just as the condemned man. In our lives, would hunger and pain cause the will to no longer eat?
ReplyDeleteIn this story the machine reminded me of We, and how they take a lot of pride in what they make, like D-503 and his integral, and also because it was glass, just like everything else in We. This relates to the Nietzsche passage we read yesterday about needing an audience. The audience is needed to challenge what you are doing. Now that there is no more audience at the execution, it seems unnecessary to have something like the machine.
ReplyDeleteThe meaning of the story is kind of confusing to me. What does the end mean? Why does the traveller just leave the condemned man and the soldier. Why does the condemned man live and why does the officer kill himself? I don't see how this relates to anything now. What do the elaborate words mean?
ReplyDeleteI was confused as to why the killing of the condemed man was to be watched and admired. I also thought that the idea of people having power over people was pushed throughout the story. this relates back to the first story that is in this book. I was also confused by how the person running the machine could had no guilt about grousomly killing the condemed man and not telling him what was going to happen.
ReplyDeleteThe people in the Penal Colony are extremely devoted to their system of living. They explain that even if someone tried to take over and change things, that he wouldn't be able to. I dont know what their previous leader said or did to the people to make them this way, and how he is different from the leaders they had before him. He must have made some dramatic changes, but why are they so devoted to him? The death sentence is public and savage like it is in 1984. The officer becomes excited when he talks about his machine that torchers people who are comdemned to death. The story about why the soldier is being condemned to death seems altered, and not fully true. It seems as though somebody made it up just in order to kill him.
ReplyDeleteyes that is quite strange hugh
ReplyDeleteIn this story it is confusing that the men see no fault in their punishment, while the foreigner is able to see the injustice, what is different about the people of the penal colony?
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