As part of growing up in our society, we are taught to respect the law and all that it stands for. People know that they should avoid doing certain things to avoid trouble. Interestingly however, the idea of being protected by the law is not always clear. The notion of forgetting about the protection the law provides can be best explained when observing how we act in front of police officers. In such a case, instead of feeling safer when walking past a police officer, we almost feel unsafe. We are worried that the police officer may find a reason to arrest us- because we know he can- as opposed to thinking that his presence will act as a driving force to keep us safe from other people and the harm they may bring.

In his short story called “Before the Law”, Kafka plays with the same idea. The man is trying to enter into the law, however he feels uneasy about doing so because of the intimidating police officer. While deciding to spend many years in front of the gate waiting for permission, the man deteriorates to the point of not being to get off the ground. It is not before he is about to die that the officer finally tells him that the gate was built specifically for him. The fact that the gate was built for this particular man alone proves to show that the man read the ‘message’ from the police officer wrong.  It seems as if the police officer was simply telling him that the law is protective when giving the man a hard time. Unfortunately, in the same way we do today, the man failed to understand that the law also protects him- instead of only critiquing and protecting from him.