The passenger

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The Passenger is a story by Franz Kafka that appeared in 1913 as part of the anthology Consideration .

content

A passenger , the first-person narrator , stands in an electric tram and thinks about his situation or his attitude towards life. He feels no justification for himself and he thinks that he has absolutely no claims in any direction. A girl stands near him, ready to get out. The passenger observes it closely and registers its entire appearance. In retrospect, he wonders why it remained silent.

shape

The text is a mixture of conventional and cinematic narrative form. The frame construction in which an ego thinks about itself is conventional. In the middle part the comparison is made with a girl standing next to him, whereby the camera perspective prevails here, which seeks as close as possible to the object. A tracking shot from the medium long shot focuses on the girl's right ear. The incident is described in the present tense, but at the end the narrator makes it clear that he is reporting from the retrospective ( I asked myself at the time ... ).

Text analysis and interpretation approach

The passenger cannot assign and justify his entire existence. He thinks he has absolutely no right to the usual things in life, here a tram ride and normal impersonal interactions between people. He sees himself in a judicial position of defense. Nobody expects that from him, but it doesn't help him to break out of his thought pattern. He thinks that he has no claims and can "justifiably submit". He is someone who apologizes, so to speak, that he even exists.

He observes the girl ready to get out meticulously, her clothes and her physicality. The scene corresponds to the prose piece Dresses from the same anthology Consideration . In contrast to his originally unsettled manner, the passenger is mentally direct, almost intrusive - but only in a voyeuristic way.

The narrative style now swings from the present to the past. In retrospect, the narrator wonders why the girl wasn't surprised about herself or why she didn't say anything. Did the passenger expect the girl to speak to him, that is, to take the first step and maybe show a kinship? If that had happened, it could only have been a short word, their ways parted at that moment. Was the non-binding nature of this moment of separation for the narrator the prerequisite for the hoped-for brief contact without further consequences?

We do not learn anything about the nature of the girl. It's hard to imagine that she shared the narrator's self-tormenting mindset. Perhaps she was someone who was calm and therefore didn't have to question or specifically address one's own being. In any case, he did not consider direct contact or even a more intimate exchange on his own initiative. So both remain silent.

Voyeuristic rapprochement and distancing are also expressed in Kafka's diaries and letters to his respective relationships, which never resulted in a lasting bond.

expenditure

Secondary literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Peter-André Alt : Kafka and the Film Beck Verlag 2009 ISBN 978-3-406-58748-1 p. 40

Web links

Wikisource: The Passenger  - Sources and full texts