Blog Post #1: “Before the Law” Response

            Within our group discussion of “Before the Law” we were able to agree on one thing and that was that the man and the gatekeeper being two separate entities are connected to one another. That is because one has the desire to protect while the other has a desire to take; calling back to how near the end the gatekeeper asks him how he could satisfy him before he dies. The gatekeeper then says that everyone seeks the “Law” but only “the Man” has so desperately tried getting it. Which led to our groups common idea that the gatekeeper is probably like the protector or God who is the only one who lets people into heaven. And that “the Man” is the people of the world who they are all trying to get to the afterlife/heaven.

            The Critical approach we used all varied but from Formalism to Psychological to Structuralism as well as Post-Structuralism. But we agreed upon one which made the most sense to all of us Reader-Response; because it allows for everyone to include a piece of their own take on the story and then make a whole out of it. By a whole, I mean that we all find common ground in which all our opinions somehow make sense but even if there is too much of a difference, we can make all opinions work and make the whole story become one that makes sense.

            But even if we could find common ground, I believe that there is another critical approach that would work better with the text that is: Psychological. Firstly, the guard only tells the man that he is there to guard the law but the gates to the Law are open at the moment. This is where it gets interesting and where the psychological part. As the man tries peeking into what is beyond the gates the guard responses to this saying “‘if it tempts you so much, try it in spite of my prohibition. But take note…from room to room stand gatekeepers, each more powerful than the other. I can’t endure even one glimpse of the third’”. This piece alone can be taken in many ways when looking at it in the psychological lens, one of these ways is studying the actions/words of the characters. As well as looking at what or why these two men are thinking unconsciously and what drives their desires. If we are to combine these two perspectives, we would get a very clear view of what the message in this part of the reading is. And what is the point of reading if not to learn something from it, and that is exactly what the psychological approach does in this instance. We see a man trying to obtain something he can’t have and a another keeping him from it, but we don’t know their motives behind it. A simple way to look at this is Man Vs. Nature if you want; but Man Vs. Man also fit the example above. While one man: gatekeeper is doing his job, the other man is struggling not only with himself but with the gatekeeper. The countryman wants to get in and he wants to know what the law has and is, but he also knows that he can’t break the rules that have been given to him. Thus, he is struggling with wanting what he desires, and he is also struggling with this guard as well as the others who will stop him.

            Next, we can briefly discuss why might the author wrote this piece. Briefly because this approach like others can do the same therefore it wouldn’t be effective to say that this approach does that better than the others. But we can say that with the background of this approach we can look at the motives of the author at another level. Not just in the sense of what the is given and what should be deciphered but a look into the mind of the author. In that sense psychology is the best, because psychology is the study of the human mind. Kafka as far as we know might have written this story knowing that it would be used to teach others whether it be morally or in simple lessons of life. Because no matter how you look at the story it is in a way a sort of fable or parable. But overall this approach works best because of its broad view of things, not only can it be used to study the character and their motives but also the author and their motives as well.