In Kafka’s The Judgment, the elusive “friend” is a topic of much discussion. The “friend” is a more hazy and murky character, never really defined or given much of a back story. The reader does not know much except for the fact he is in Russia, is not successful in his business, and is sickly. The way Georg, the protagonist and narrator, refers to this friend is in a way that does not convince readers of amicableness. Georg seems to be rather pretentious in his manner towards the friend, as if he is better than him. The friend seems rather indifferent and even impersonal to Georg. Either way, for two people who are supposed to be close because they grew up together, they seem as if they are no longer friends. In the beginning, I believed that the friend was just a technique used by Kafka to encourage the reader to finish reading the story. As discussion continued in class, however, I realized that there was more to the “friend” that I had originally thought. A suggestion made in class was that the friend, juxtapositioned with Georg, was an image of Kafka’s life and the struggle between safe and secure and a life filled with passion for his chosen wanted career. This is evident when a reader makes the parallel between Georg, his relationship, his response to his relationship in regards to his “friend”, and Kafka’s life. Georg is engaged to a Frieda and it is implied that the relationship is one of convenience. Georg does not want to mention this relationship to hi friend in Russia for many reasons. Mainly, he doesn’t want to flaunt his relationship, and subsequently his great life, to a friend who has nothing. It is also implied that perhaps there was something going on between Frieda and this friend. In relation to Kafka’s life, in class it was mentioned that Kafka did not believe in marriage and that even though he had a fiancée at one point, he broke off the engagement because he could not bring himself to marry her. Perhaps the apprehension to tell this new to the friend is the same apprehension that Kafka had when he broke off his relationship with his fiancée. It is due to the obvious connections between Kafka’s life and Georg that I strongly believe that the sole purpose of the “friend” is an outlet to describe Kafka’s dream life.