The Judgment by Kafka Online-Oral Presentation

We choose to create a visual piece because like the saying, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Mark: Kamran why did you choose this photo for the background of the project?

Kamran: I believe that the most important parts of The Judgment by Kafka took place in Georg’s father’s room so I found a picture online of a dimly lit bedroom to represent it.

Kamran: Why did you guys choose those quotes for this project?

Vyonna: Mark and I felt that the story had a lot to do with a lack of self-realization, lack of understanding, tolerance, and fear. After we created a list of the quotes we found online and narrowed them down to the ones that best portrayed the themes or emotions we noticed.

Mark: Why did you edit the photo this way?

Vyonna: I took the photo Kamran found and edited it to look like it would actually be part of a storybook and made all of the quotes have shadows because it looked pleasing to the eye and tied in with the morbid theme that Kafka has. I also add hues of blue to intensify the darkness in the room, to make it almost look mysterious. I also wanted to emphasize the lamp in the room to represent that you cannot have darkness without light and vice Versa. And today suicided is still not taken seriously but commonly occurs, and while I was editing it reminded me of something Dumbledore said in the Harry Poter series which was, “Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times. If one only remembers to turn on the light.” so I wanted whoever was looking at it to still be drawn to the light and always find their light whenever they need to.

Vyonna: What quote stood out the most to you Kamran?

Kamran: Phil Donahue said that suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem, and in many cases, this is proven to be true. Often times, people commit suicide to deal with a problem they are having in their life such as bullying, money problems, etc and when they finally commit suicide, its due to that temporary problem. This quote fits perfectly into the life of Georg, as his life changes with the death of his mother. However, along with this change, Georg has to deal with the many torments of the relationship with his father as well as the relationship with himself. Eventually, Georg loses the struggle with his father and allows himself to succumb to his subservient side by committing suicide. The inability of Georg to fix this temporary problem and cope with this issue leads to his eventual suicide.

Kamran: Mark, why did you choose the quote by Paulo Coelho?

Mark: I chose that quote when I saw it because it was pretty clear to me in the story that Georg was scared of his father, the moment he walked into the room and said, “My father is still a giant” to himself and that was before they got into the whole argument. But in the story it says the father’s eyesight is diminishing, he could barely finish a plate of food and physically looked weak, so if the father can physically look like that but still raise fear in his son he clearly still has control over him. And some think that Georg only sees his father as a giant but that isn’t necessarily true because he picks up on the dirty underwear and him not being able to eat everything and even scolded himself for not thinking about his living arrangements after he gets married.

Mark: and Lastly, Vyonna which quote related to the story in your eyes?

Vyonna: The quote about two souls being housed in one breast or chest related to the story for me based on what the father said to Georg. “Sure I know your friend. He would have been a son after my own heart. That’s why you betrayed him all these years… But no-one needs to teach the father to see through the son. The moment you thought you had succeeded in pulling him down, so much so that you could sit on him with your bottom and he couldn’t budge…” Here I felt that the father was pointing out the internal struggle he knows his son has, almost like the two souls from the quote, one son wants to make the father proud and the other wants to branch off and live for himself. The son that is living for himself won but the other peaks through and that is why Georg  writes the letters, I believe to himself as if he is letting his other soul know what is going on in his actual life and maybe it is his way of releasing his guilt about what he is doing but it is also why he hasn’t been able to tell his friend the important matters that go on and only about the “insignificant occurrences”.

Thank you,

Vyonna, Kamran, and Mark