"Letter to his father"--Franz Kafka

Kafka, in Berlin a few months before his deathIt’s interesting that Kafka is so associated with Prague, when in reality Kafka didn’t really enjoy living here that much. In fact, the “happiest” Kafka ever was when at the very end of his life when he moved to Berlin for a few months prior to dying an early death. In “Letter to my father”, Kafka writes a letter to his father explaining his grievances about how he was reared as a child. The discussion of religion comes about throughout the text, but one in particular instance Kafka laments that it was his father who hindered his practice of Judaism. When people talk about the Jewish quarter in Prague, Kafka is often included in that situation—the old/new synagogue prides itself on having Kafka be a visitor. Kafka grew up right in Old Town Square around the corner from St. Nicholas Church where hundreds of years ago, public hangings occurred. As a child, when Kafka was complaining one night for nothing but attention (he was about four years old), his father put him outside of the apartment for hours. Kafka claims that it was this rearing that led him to hate his father. Prague was kind of a “home-base” for Kafka. Since his relationship with his family wasn’t good and he lived with his parents almost his entire life, getting out of the country was a heavy weight lifted. Another issue in Kafka’s life that he writes is the relationship he has with women. He fell seriously for two, but could never commit for what I believe to be selfish reasons—that he didn’t want to interrupt the work of his writing (which at the time he felt was crap) and that a commitment so strong was bound to break. Learning about Kafka’s history do make his works easier to understand. For some reason, it always seems easier to understanding something complex when we know the person who created the complexity. But the downside to this is that I know dislike Kafka. The tribulations he expresses to his father seem like something a bratty kid would say if he couldn’t get more ice cream—that and the letter is 90 pages. Clearly, Prague would not be the same without Kafka, but I doubt the reverse is true.