In the Penal Colony

"In the Penal Colony" (German: "In der Strafkolonie") is a short story in German by Franz Kafka. It is set in an unnamed penal colony. Some commentators have suggested Octave Mirbeau's The Torture Garden as an influence. As in some of Kafka's other writings, the narrator in this story seems detached from, or perhaps numbed by, events that one would normally expect to be registered with horror.

Plot

In the Penal Colony is a story about the last use of an elaborate torture and execution device that carves the sentence of the man on his skin in a script before letting him die, all in the course of twelve hours. As the plot unfolds, the narrator learns more and more about the machine, including its origin, and original justification. The story has only four characters, who are named only according to their role in the story. The Officer is the machine's operator, the Condemned is a man scheduled for execution, the Soldier is responsible for guarding the Condemned, and the Traveler (called "der Reisende" in the original) is a European dignitary and visitor. The story is told from the point of view of the Traveler, who—like the reader—is encountering this brutal machine for the first time. Everything about the machine and its purpose is told to him by the Officer while the Soldier and the Condemned (who is unaware that he's been sentenced to die) placidly watch nearby. The Officer tells of the religious epiphany the executed experience in their last six hours in the machine. Eventually it becomes clear that the use of the machine, and its associated process of justice where the accused is always instantly found guilty, has fallen out of favor with the current Commandant. The Officer is, in a cruel sense perhaps, nostalgic regarding the torture machine and the values that were intially associated with it. As the last proponent of the machine, he strongly believes in the machine's form of justice. The Officer begs the Traveler to speak to the current Commandant on behalf of the machine's continued use. When he refuses to do so, and instead says that he will speak against it, the Officer realizes that this will be the machine's last use. He frees the Condemned and sets up the machine for himself, with the words "Be Just" to be written on him. However the machine, in heavy disrepair, malfunctions, and instead of its usual elegant operation it quickly stabs and kills the Officer. ^[1]

References

• Kafka, Franz (ed. Nahum N. Glatzer). The Complete Stories. New York: Schocken Books, 1995. ISBN 0-8052-1055-5
• Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis and Other Stories, trans. Donna Freed. New York: Barnes & Noble. ISBN 1-56619-969-7

In popular culture

Frank Zappa, in the liner notes of the Mothers of Invention album "We're Only in It for the Money", recommends reading the short story before listening to the album, which has some similarities of theme.

Footnotes

1. ^ Kafka,Franz. "In the Penal Colony," The Complete Stories. New York: Schocken Books, 1995. p. 140-167

External links

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

In the Penal Colony

• Original German text (In der Strafkolonie)
• An English translation of the story
• Zoetrope at the Internet Movie Database
• In the Penal Colony (2006) at the Internet Movie Database