Post #1 Topic #1

The story composed by Franz Kafka, “Before the Law” tells a tale of a man who approached a gate that lead to the “law”. Guarded by a gatekeeper, this man waits before the gate until the gatekeeper will allow him entry. The story is filled with much ambiguity and very little explanations. To interpret the story and understand it using the literary theories we could get some idea to what Kafka was writing about. My group believed that one of the best theories was reader-response due to the stories major gaps which is open to interpretation by anyone. However, there is another theory that would also work, the Marxist criticism. The reason behind this is throughout the story there are clues throughout that show the readers the hierarchy that may be in place, poor and rich. Of the two the Marxist criticism has a more solid backing as the reader-response theory is based upon the different interpretations of the readers. Marxist has textual evidence where the other is conceptual.

If one is to analyze “Before the Law” by using the reader-response theory then there can be multiple variations on someone’s take on the story. For example, “the law” the reason why the man journeyed far, during the story we don’t get any explanation of what it is. Few mentions of “the law” make it hard to guess, one clue given is near the end of the story. “Everyone strives after the law, so how is it that in these many years no one except me has requested entry?” This line lets us know that “the law is very valuable and what it is exactly is up for interpretation. Perhaps “the law” is some power bestowed upon making whoever has access a ruler or it could be some knowledge of all things in the world and why it’s the way it is. “The law” could also just be a law of the land and whoever is able to receive it will be as powerful as the gatekeepers. With the lack of details this allows the readers to alter the readings in their own minds due to everyone’s unique experiences.

While my group believed that reader-response was a reasonable theory a more textually supported theory was the Marxist criticism. The evidence of this criticism is the difference of class between the man and the gatekeepers. The gatekeeper in the story tells the man “I am only the most lowly gatekeeper…room to room stand gatekeepers, each more powerful than the other.” This shows an obvious division of power and possibly class hierarchy, that the man is lowest in comparison to the gatekeepers but there is a sort of caste system among the gatekeepers. Another point in the story is when the man begins to give the gatekeeper all his possessions to let him in, this shows that the Marxist criticism based upon the idea that the interactions are economically driven. The man got desperate to obtain “the law” and gave everything he owned to possess one thing, believing that what he had was of equal value to enter.

The text itself helps support this claim where the reader-response theory is based upon a concept of an open interpretation. Marxist has solid evidence and easier to convey to others what is going on in the story. Reader-response theory is a bit ambiguous itself making it hard to express the endless ideas that many readers have. While it isn’t wrong to think that reader-response theory could work but, an argument could be said that this theory could work for almost any literary work. Each story, poem, or excerpt could have a different interpretation depending on who is reading. Marxist has definitive clues and ideas that can be found in such as “Before the Law”