“In the Penal Colony” by Franz Kafka
This is a story about a particular execution device in a penal colony located in an unnamed island. It is a brilliantly-written conversation between a visiting Traveler and the Officer of the colony, which describes the mechanism of the torture device in details.
The device was created by an Old Commander, whom the Officer is a devout follower. But after the Old Commander’s death the device had fallen out of favour by the new Commander due to its cruelty. Hence, the presence of the Traveler whose role was never explained but I suspect to be some kind of an overseas auditor or consultant, due to his nature that examines the device from a detached position.
It is a pretty simple short narrative, but like any other Kafka’s masterpieces the story has larger meanings behind it. It is analogous with the concept of a governmental “machine” that abuses its power and executes innocent citizens with impunity. It is also a conversation about morality, which is projected by the shock and disbelieve of the Traveler and his dilemma between paying respect to how things have always been done, no matter how wrong it is, or speaking up against it.
The Officer’s blind allegiance to the Old Commander is also telling, where the Officer can only sees the inherited device that his former boss created and the task-in-hand to operate it, without looking at the humanity of the victims. And at the end of the story it even revealed that he believes in a prophecy that the Old Commander could bizarrely rise from the dead, which is why the Officer is fighting for the device to be preserved for the Old Commander’s second coming.
All in all, the story explores the themes of injustice and the justification for brutal punishment, a familiar Kafkaesque environment. But the difference with this story is in this one the crime of the Condemned Man is clearly described, although a very minor one (a soldier must stand up for 12 hours in guarding a door and saluting the Commander but he fell asleep), which is not at all worthy of a torturous death.
It is yet another Kafka classic, which this time sees injustice from the vantage point of the executioner, who is conducting the whole atrocities by focusing only on glorifying the device and nothing else.
THE CHAOS THEORY 