In The Penal Colony
Author: Franz Kafka
Originally Published: 1919
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★
written by: Tina Nguyen | date: 4th March, 2025
“In the Penal Colony” is about a story of a condemned man who was accused of insulting the officer and was executed by a cruelly torturous machine. The execution machine was designed by the old commandant, who brainwashed the officer (the one who kept the machine as traditional punishment in the colony and called it “home”). The plot portrays the helplessness of the traveller, who had only been on the island for 2 days and saw himself as “no one” to have a say in the cruel execution. He clearly knew the machine was an inhumane way to punish the condemned man and was shocked when figured out that the man did not have a chance to defend himself — his back would be carved with his accusation using the needles and harrows of the machine.
“My basis for deciding is this: guilt is always beyond doubt.”
On the other hand, the officer — who was in charge of this punishment, proudly explained how the machine works to the traveller as well as experienced an adrenaline rush when using it. This part demonstrates a dangerous and disturbing effect of how easily it is to brainwash people — it digs and opens an inhumane and cruel core deep inside our nature that we did not know existed in everyone of us, how easily for this inhumanity to be passed on and influenced others.
“...intervening in other people’s affairs is always fraught with risks.
...
The injustice of the procedure and the inhumanity of the execution were incontestable.”
The contradictory between the traveller and the officer made the stark contrast of two human’s opposite polarities stood out in the story: humans do have empathy, but how easy is our empathy to be impacted and brainwashed by external forces until us, ourselves, reach to the other extreme where our devilish nature controls our minds to the point that we barely realise how cruel our actions could be?
“...on the contrary, your honest conviction moves me, while not shaking my opinion.”
Overall, I cannot describe how shocked I was while reading this masterpiece. Kafka’s blunt writing altered my brain and challenges me to realise that deep inside every one of us, there is always a devil, waiting to be discovered, just for it to take action. “In the Penal Colony”, to me, is an underrated book of Franz Kafka, where power abuses and oppression acted as the “enactment of justice”.