Since I didn’t attend class on Thursday because of work, I’m not really sure what was the conversation that we had in class. But, after reading Kafka’s “Before the Law”,  it’s clear that having power is a major factor here. The reason being that the only reason why the man from the country didn’t challenge the gatekeeper in crossing the gate was because he was intimidated by the gatekeeper’s power. In the text it describes how the man gets denied and immediately thinks about passing the gate without the gatekeeper’s permission, but doesn’t because of the comment that the gatekeeper says about how he has power and if he passes the gate he’ll meet other gatekeepers that have more power then him. This story kind of reminds me of a tale that I heard about in church school of a man that had to do obstacles in order to pass the gates into heaven. Although the man from the country didn’t have to do obstacles, in a way he did because he waited for the gatekeeper to give him permission to pass the gates. Being patient throughout the years and still being denied showed the patience that the man had and how badly he wanted to get through the gates. It even went to the point that the man started to do things for the gatekeeper to try to manipulate his decision. At the end it shows that patience can only last for a certain amount of time because at the end the man runs out of it and goes through the gate without the gatekeeper’s permission and faces the consequences.