The way home
The way home is a story by Franz Kafka that appeared in 1913 as part of the anthology Consideration . She describes a fantastic feeling that is lost when the narrator arrives at home in his room.
content
A first-person narrator is in high spirits on the way home. He feels at one with his surroundings, his city, the lovers. He feels so favored by fate that he has to blame it for injustice. But when he steps into his room, he becomes pensive without having experienced anything worth thinking about. It stays that way when he opens the window and plays music outside.
Text analysis and interpretation approach
The narrator is in a euphoric mood. Everything is related to him, he sees himself responsible for everything that happens around him and he feels an emotional connection with everything. You could also say that he feels pathologically manic . This mood is very unusual in a Kafka figure. The identification with the lovers and the clear naming of the various sexually occupied places where lovers meet is also unusual. But the euphoria subsides when he steps into his room. It also doesn't help that he reconnects to the outside by opening the window. Being alone in his room brings him back to normal.
The small prose sketch describes the opposite sequence of the story The sudden walk . In both cases, the outdoors is said to have a beneficial effect, while being at home is described as paralyzing.
expenditure
- Franz Kafka. All the stories. Published by Paul Raabe . Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, 1970. ISBN 3-596-21078-X .
- Franz Kafka The Stories Original version Fischer Verlag 1997 Roger Herms ISBN 3-596-13270-3
- Franz Kafka: Prints during his lifetime. Edited by Wolf Kittler, Hans-Gerd Koch and Gerhard Neumann . Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt / Main 1996, ISBN 3-10-038152-1 , pp. 25/26.
Secondary literature
- Peter-André Alt : Franz Kafka: The Eternal Son. A biography. Verlag CH Beck, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-406-53441-4
Web links
- Text of the story The way home