In the Penal Colony Themes Frustration and Meaning. Any attempt to break these bonds could end up being disastrous, a reality which the explorer realizes as he sets sail off the penal colony. Kafka s In the Penal Colony has fostered countless debates over its meaning. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn't need that.” But we bet that … Now, we hope you haven't seen anyone get gruesomely mangled by a huge, deteriorating machine. It is suggested that the condemned man did not obey his superiors as he slept on duty and like other prisoners a message was cut into his skin and he had to die by way of an execution device. Everyone in the penal colony, then, is guilty (of something). Franz Kafka portrays the officer in a sympathetic manner. Summary. In the Penal Colony Essay. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service. " In the Penal Colony" "In The Penal Colony", Kafka illustrates the capital punishment of a colony run by a governor. He has come to figure out the usefulness of this machine, a device of punishment, torture, and execution. Kafka "In the Penal Colony" Essay The short story “In the Penal Colony” can be seen as an illustration of the social construction of reality as revealed in all of our perception readings so far; of course the machine is a physical object, a literal tool of power, but perception plays a powerful role in the story. BACK; Writer’s block can be painful, but we’ll help get you over the hump and build a great outline for your paper. The officer in story In the Penal Colony - Essay Example. In the Penal Colony "In the Penal Colony" is told from the perspective of an explorer who, much like the reader, is a stranger of the penal colony, Western educated and moderate. In his Parerga und Paralipomena, Schopenhauer suggested that it might be helpful to look at the world as a penal colony, and Dostoevsky, whom Kafka re-read in 1914, supplied Kafka with many punishment fantasies. For most of his life as a writer Kafka was employed at a workers' accident insurance company He wrote at night, on weekends, and on the holidays. SuperSummary, a modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, offers high-quality study guides that feature detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, quotes, and essay topics. Throughout the story, the officer who performs the execution reinforces all his actions by saying that this was how the previous governor used to do it or that this his how the previous governor would have liked it done. The people of the penal colony, after being rid of the forces of colonization, are confined by the unconscious bonds of their own culture, their new post-colonial identity. In the Penal Colony essays are academic essays for citation. In “In The Penal Colony,” evil is characterized by two attitudes: a zealous faith in authority, and dependence on the machinery of bureaucracy to dispense justice. "In the Penal Colony" ("In der Strafkolonie") (also translated as "In the Penal Settlement") is a short story by Franz Kafka written in German in October 1914, revised in November 1918, and first published in October 1919. The penal colony is encompassed by a sweltering heat and an inescapable glaring sun which appears similar to how one imagines the fiery tortures of purgatory.