An Examination of Justice and Power Dynamics in Kafka's 'Penal Colony'

This essay provides an analysis of the concept of justice within Franz Kafka's short story, 'In the Penal Colony.' It explores the themes of punishment, power, and the legal system through the lens of the story's narrative. The essay examines how the characters in the story use justice, particularly the officer, and how the prisoners are treated. The essay highlights the misuse of justice and the violation of legal codes. The essay also references the torture and execution machine used to execute the offenders. The essay also makes references to the works of other authors and scholars to provide a comprehensive understanding of the subject matter. The essay also discusses the violation of justice and the abuse of power in the penal colony.

Running head: CONCEPT OF JUSTICE IN KAFKA’S IN THE PENAL COLONY
Concept of Justice in Kafka’s In the Penal Colony
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1CONCEPT OF JUSTICE IN KAFKA’S IN THE PENAL COLONY
In the Penal Code is a short story written by Franz Kafka, which was written by the
author in the year 1914, but was published in the year 1919. The short storey tells the readers
about an unnamed penal colony and the use of a torture machine which was used to carve the
sentence on the convicted prisoner’s name before killing him. It is considered to be one of the
best stories to be written by Kafka.
The purpose of this essay is to describe about the concept of justice in the short
story In the Penal Colony written by Franz Kafka.
The concept of justice plays an important role in the short story, which was written by
the author Franz Kafka. In the short story, the theme of justice had been used as a means for
punishing those who were considered to be guilty. This is exactly what happens in the story,
when the protagonist of the story visits a penal colony to see how the justice works in that
colony. The readers are then given an example of the horrible reality of justice present in that
penal colony itself. The shorty story is an account of the exercise of the power by the
characters in the story in the name of justice. This is evidenced in the character of the officer
who believes that guilty people are supposed to be punished (Cumberland, 2013). He believes
in just punishing the guilty people without even informing them about their crimes. This is
evidence of the misuse of justice in the story as the officer believes the fact that people needs
to be punished just because of the fact that they are guilty. As a result, the prisoners are
convicted without any proper information. The readers also gets to know about the torture
and the execution machine used to execute the offenders as demanded by the officer. Thus,
these are clearly examples of the violation of the code of justice because the officer cannot
order the convict to be arrested and executed on his personal reasons (Kafka, 2002). It is thus,
from the discussions in the above paragraphs that the readfers can get to understand about the
misuse of justice in the short story by Franz Kafka himself. This is what has been presented
to the readers in the story itself

2CONCEPT OF JUSTICE IN KAFKA’S IN THE PENAL COLONY
Reference List
Cumberland, R. (2013). Inscribed Bodies: The Cruel Mirage of Imperialistic Idealism in
Kafka's" Penal Colony". Papers on Language and Literature, 49(2), 203.
Kafka, F., Mitchell, B., & Henke, D. (2002). In the penal colony. ProQuest LLC.