Cindy Chan

It’s difficult to make definitive statements when analyzing The Judgment, for Kafka prized ambiguity over plot continuity. It’s no surprise that there are various interpretations of the characters and their significance in this story.

At first blush, the friend in St. Petersburg seems to have an unexpectedly significant influence over Georg and his relationships with his father and fiancee. Upon closer inspection, one may surmise that Mr. St. Petersburg is Kafka’s ego in a way. The friend has “virtually fled” to Russia, perhaps doing so to flee judgment, he is not successful, and has settled for the bachelor life. All of these attributes are reflected in Kafka on a subliminal level. Kafka resented his father’s disapproval of his writing. Although Kafka was successful as a senior executive at an insurance company, it was not the kind of success that satisfied him. Kafka was also torn by the notion that marriage was a betrayal of his literary lifestyle.

In the same vein, Georg and his father may also be interpreted as Kafka’s other alter egos. Georg may be seen as the part of Kafka desperately clinging to the concept of a normal, married life. On the other hand, Georg’s father may be seen as the part of Kafka that reprimands the part that dares to forsake art for normality.

I believe some of the many calculated points of ambiguity and plot discontinuity in the story lend credibility to this interpretation:

• “If you have such friend, Georg, you should never have gotten engaged in the first place.” (61)
  • This statement, which veers startling from the flow of the conversation, is perhaps a reflection of Kafka’s view on marriage.
• Why was George compelled to tell his father about a matter as trivial as a letter to a distant friend? Perhaps this development was to set the stage for the three way struggle (in a sense) between Georg, his friend, and his father.
• “…in order to satisfy your lust with her unhampered, you disgraced our mother’s memory, betrayed your friend, and put your father to bed so that he can’t move. But he can move or can’t he?” (69)
  • This may reflect Kafka’s unshakable feeling that romance betrays his passion for writing.
• “…he knows everything a hundred times better than you do yourself…” (70)
  • This may suggest that the part of Kafka that values literature outweighs the part of him that yearns for companionship.

Cindy Chan

I Am an Honest Man

I am an honest man
From where the palm grows
And before I die I wish
To fling my verses from my soul.

Out of the gate, Martí sets the tone for the rest of the poem — raw, poignant, and sincere.

I come from everywhere
And I am going toward everywhere:

Martí is a man who’s seen many things and been to many places.

Among the arts, I am art
In the mountains, I am a mountain.

He is one with all that he experiences. Martí is empathetic.

I know the strange names
of the herbs and flowers
And of mortal deceits
And of sublime pains.

He is familiar with the nature and of all living things, be they plants or human.

I have seen in the dark night
Rain over my head
The pure rays of lightning
Of divine beauty.

He has seen hope in his darkest of times.

I saw wings born in men
Of beautiful women:
And coming out of rubbish
Butterflies flying.

He provides symbols of hope.

I have seen a man live
With his dagger at his side,
Without ever saying the name
Of she who had killed him.

He knew a man who never spoke of the woman that broke his heart.

Rapid, like a reflection,
I saw my soul, twice
When the poor old man died,
When she said good-bye to me.

He recalls the events that rocked him to the core: his father’s death and his lover’s departure.

I trembled once–at the fence,
At the entrance to the vineyard–
When a barbarous bee
Stung my daughter in the forehead.

He remembers the time the fear he felt when his daughter was stung by a bee. This perhaps to alludes to Spain’s attack on Cuba.

I felt joy once, such that
Nobody ever felt such joy: when
The mayor read the sentence
Of my death, crying.

He felt the greatest joy imaginable when he knew of his eventual martyrdom.

I hear a sigh, across
The lands and the sea
And it is not a sigh, it is
That my son is going to wake up.

He hears the people’s despair, then he realizes it’s instead the rousing of a nation from its slumber.

They say that from the jeweler
I took the best jewel,
I took a sincere friend
And left love aside.

He has gained the treasure of friendship, which he values more than romantic love.

This poem is fraught with patriotic and intimate sentiments. Martí never explicitly expressed his political beliefs, yet we can sense their manifestation in his exploration of the human emotions. These are the cries of a man who loves and fears for his country.

N.B. This poem is not printed in its entirety in the anthology.

• Does the revolution address the rights of women? (Article I)
• Why are women unrepresented when half of the nation and workforce is made up of them? (Article VI, XIII, XVI)
• Why are women unable to claim their own property? (XVII)

• A child born out of wedlock has no legal protection, while a bastard child does. (Article XI)