Themes of Existentialism in Kafka's Four Short Stories 'A Country Doctor, Josephine The Singer, or The Mouse Folk, A Hunger Artist, and A Report To Academy'.

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ABSTRACT

Empat cerita pendek yang dibahas dalam tesis ini adalah A Country

Doctor, Josephine the Singer, Or the Mouse Folk, A Hunger Artist, dan A Report

to Academy, yang ditulis oleh Franz Kafka. Kafka dalam empat cerita pendek ini

bermaksud menyampaikan tema mengenai manusia bersama dengan ketetapan

hatinya dalam memilih suatu pekerjaan, dan menjalaninya dengan

sungguh-sungguh. Tema dalam keempat cerita pendek ini berkaitan dengan teori

Eksistensialisme.

Eksistensialisme adalah teori mengenai keberadaan manusia yang

ditentukan oleh setiap pilihan dalam hidupnya. Dalam pilihan tersebut manusia

dapat menemukan makna hidupnya di dunia ini. Eksistensialisme juga

menekankan bahwa setiap manusia memiliki kebebasan untuk menentukan pilihan

apapun dalam menjalani hidupnya.

Dalam keempat cerita pendek ini teori eksistensialisme dapat terlihat

dengan jelas melalui pilihan hidup yang diputuskan oleh setiap protagonis dalam

setiap cerita. Teori eksistensialisme yang menonjol dalam keempat cerita pendek

ini adalah teori Jean-Paul Sartre yang menyatakan bahwa manusia lahir tanpa

terikat oleh nasib atau takdir. Dan manusia memiliki hak untuk tidak

menyesuaikan setiap keputusan yang diambil berdasarkan keadaan

lingkungannya.

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Semua protagonis dalam keempat cerita ini mengalami suatu kondisi

ketika masyarakat menginginkan mereka memilih setiap hal dalam hidup mereka

sesuai dengan standar mereka. Walaupun begitu setiap protagonis dalam keempat

cerita ini memiliki ketetapan hati untuk bersikukuh dalam setiap keputusan yang

diambilnya dan menjalankannya secara profesional. Tema dalam keempat cerita

ini sangat jelas manggambarkan kesungguhan setiap protagonis dalam memilih

suatu hal dalam hidup dan menjalaninya dengan sikap profesional mereka

masing-masing.

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APPENDICES

Summary of Four Kafka’s Short Stories

A Country Doctor

It tells about a doctor in a small country who receives an emergency call at

night to cure the injured boy. That day the weather is not good and the distance is

so far to get to the patient’s house. When the doctor arrives, the entire family of

the boy and the villagers are already waiting for him, they put their hope on the

doctor for the boy’s recovery. Then the doctor examines the boy, he finds the

wound is infected by worms, and he cannot cure the boy because it is too late. As

a result the doctor is humiliated and blamed by the villagers because he fails to

cure the boy. In the end he runs away from the patients’ house then goes home, he

feels his effort is meaningless.

Josephine the Singer or the Mouse Folk

It tells about Josephine whose work is singing among a community whose

people are hard workers. First, people like her singing and think she is special,

then people think that she becomes boring and people think that she is lazy. On

the contrary, at the same time people think she is a gift to the community. One day

she injures herself accidentally, as a result of which she cannot sing well anymore,

no one tolerates her carelessness, eventually she is missing, and no body could

find her.

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A Hunger Artist

In the story people like to observe the artist as he fasts. Some of them

watch carefully to prevent the artist from secretly snacking. In those times 40 days

was the limit of fasting. On the 40th day, the artist's cage will be decorated with

flowers as he emerges to the aid of doctors and the crowd's applause. But then the

public has lost interest. The artist leaves his impresario and hires himself out to a

circus where his cage is placed near the cages of animals. He is worried about the

reaction of the visitors at that time, some of whom would stop to watch him, but

others rush right past him to see the animals. Finally, the keeper finds the hunger

artist among the straw when he enters the cage. He dies and is replaced by a

panther.

A Report to an Academy

The story tells about an undercover soldier who presents his report to a

meeting of the scientific Academy. Less than five years ago, he is captured by

primitive people in the jungles of West Africa. For the primitive people the soldier

appearance looks different from their society. The soldier is being prisoned and he

is trapped within the foreign custom in the primitive society. Then he plans a way

out from that society by following the primitive society’s customs. He follows all

the custom, until the society thinks that he is the same as them. Finally he can go

back to England.

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Biography of Franz Kafka

Franz Kafka was born in Prague in 1883 of Jewish parents. He was the

oldest of six children – two boys died in infancy, and three girls were murdered by

the Nazis in the early 1940s. His father, Hermann, was a successful businessman

who had no time for his son’s intellectual and literary interests, and insisted on his

studying law at university. Kafka completes his studies in 1906, and two years

later took up an appointment with an insurance company in Prague. Although he

worked in insurance, he always resented the time it took away from his writing.

He usually wrote at night, sometimes through the night, thus working himself into

a state of exhaustion that must have contributed to his early death.

In 1917 he was diagnosed for tuberculosis and spent the final stages of his

illness in a nursing home at Kierling, and died on 3rd June 1924, aged forty. He

published little in his lifetime and gave instructions in his will that all his writings

should be destroyed. Fortunately for posterity, this directive was ignored by his

friends and executor Max Brod, who immediately after Kafka’s death prepared

both the trial and the castle for publication, in 1925 and 1926. Kafka himself only

published a few shorter works in his lifetime: Metamorphosis (1915), The

Sentence (1916), A Country Doctor (1919), and In the Penal Colony (1919).

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

I. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Questions on the meaning of life, existence and whether a human has a freedom

to choose, have become debatable questions for centuries. Existentialism, as one of the

philosophical thinkings, deals with human existence in the world which emphasizes

individual existence, freedom, and choice. Existentialism also examines the

determination of choice and personal responsibility which is based on his/her

experience, beliefs, and biases. Those questions above and existentialist theory make

me interested in analyzing literary works based on existentialism.

In this thesis I choose Franz Kafka, who is one of existentialist thinkers that

expresses loneliness, frustration, and despair of an individual threatened by invisible

power behind his ability. Kafka’s characters usually feel a sensation of anxiety and

shame; he sets his major character in a state of loneliness and frustration. He also

makes his work painful or tragic.

I choose four of Kafka’s short stories entitled A Country Doctor, Josephine the

Singer, Or the Mouse Folk, A Hunger Artist, and A Report to Academy. I choose to

analyze the themes of existentialism.

In these four Kafka’s short stories, all the protagonists struggle to determine

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what they want in their life regardless of the opinion of the society. All of the

protagonists face the obstacles in achieving their own freedom.

Existentialism is a philosophical thought that learns about a human and his/her

existence which appears in the middle of the 20th century. This philosophical thinking

refers to humans as individuals who try to find the purpose of their life, to live their

life. Humans as individuals have a choice and freedom to show their existence.

Existentialism emphasizes free will, choice and personal responsibility.

People make their choice based on their belief, experience, and their assumption. In

existentialism, it is explained that a human’s choice is subjective, because individuals

finally must make their own choices without the help from external standards as laws,

ethical rules, or traditions. As a result, individuals are free to determine their own

choice, despite this fact; they are completely responsible for their choices. The

existentialists criticize the fight of freedom and responsibility into self-deception. They

insist that individuals should accept full responsibility for their behavior, no matter

how difficult it is. If an individual is to live meaningfully and faithfully, he/she must

become fully aware of the true character of the human situation and bravely accept it.

Jean-Paul Sartre, a famous philosophical thinker in the 20th century, is famous

for the slogan of existence precedes essence. It means that, individuals have no

predetermined nature or essence that controls what they are, what they do, or what is

valuable for them. They are totally free to act independently of determination by

outside influences. An individual creates his/her own human nature which means that

the individual comes into his/her existence without predetermined nature but then the

individual creates his/her nature or essence through his/her actions in free choices.

The individual must create his/her own essence. This means he/she is living in the

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world, suffering there, struggling there, that he/she gradually defines himself/herself,

and the individual will create his/her values through these choices.

Existentialism has a strong relation with the society. In existentialism, society

acts as judges who assess the individual’s choice in doing his/her task. Everything that

the individual does is judged by the society; sometimes the society cannot accept the

weakness of the individual. There is no perfect individual, sometimes he/she cannot do

what should he/she do because of something beyond his/her power, and this is his/her

weakness. If the individual has a weakness in doing his/her task the society will reject

him/her. And it makes the individual lose his/her freedom of choice. The weaknesses

also make the individual’s choice to be meaningless and hopeless which is followed by

rejection and dissatisfaction. As a conclusion the society restricts the individual to act

freely, and makes one’s lose freedom to choose. Despite this fact the individual must

not conform to society what ever the situation and condition are, the individual must

choose wisely what he/she wants to do in his/her life to get a value of it.

II. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

1. What is the theme of Franz Kafka’s A Country Doctor, Josephine the Singer, Or

the Mouse Folk, A Hunger Artist and A Report to Academy?

2. How is the theme revealed through the protagonists?

III. PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

1. To show the theme of Franz Kafka’s A Country Doctor, Josephine the Singer or the

Mouse Folk, A Hunger Artist and A Report to Academy.

2. To show how the theme is revealed through the protagonists.

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IV. METHOD OF RESEARCH

In writing this thesis, I use both library and internet research. First I read and

analyze the primary book that has been chosen. Then I proceed to read supporting

reading on the theory related to the chosen approach that will be used and applied to

the analysis of the thesis. Furthermore readings on related subjects related to both the

primary reading and applying theory are done through internet sites research and

readings. Afterwards, I use all the information for the analysis of the topics I choose

for my thesis.

V. ORGANIZATION OF THE THESIS

I organize my thesis as follows

Chapter One is the Introduction, which consists of the Background of the Study, the

Statement of the Problem, the Purpose of the Study, the Method of Research, and the

Organization of The Thesis. Chapter Two is the Analysis of the Theme through the

Protagonist. Chapter Three is the Conclusion, which is about the similarity of the

themes in each of the short stories of Kafka’s. Then I arrange every book and website

that I have read into the Bibliography, I write the Summary of four Kafka’s short

stories, and end with Franz Kafka’s Biography.

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CHAPTER III

CONCLUSION

After I analyze the four themes of Kafka short stories, I conclude that there

is a similarity of professionalism determination in each protagonist in the four

short stories. The similarity is the protagonists have professionalism determination

to choose what they want to do. These are the themes of each story and how the

protagonists reveal the theme.

The first short story is Josephine the Singer, Or the Mouse Folk The theme

is professional determination is independent of public sentiment. The protagonist

whose name is Josephine determines to sing for her career and her singing is

subject to public sentiment. After she gains respect from the public, she gets an

accident that makes her limp and she cannot do her job professionally.

Josephine’s fans want her to keep singing but she decides to resign from her job

because she can no longer do it professionally. Josephine’s decision to stop

singing once again makes her to be a subject to public sentiment. Josephine has

independence to decide whatever she wants. Nevertheless, she chooses to go

against her fans’ thought and she stops singing in order not to disappoint them.

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The second short story is A Country Doctor, the theme of which is

professional determination is of individual conscience. It is revealed from the

protagonist, a doctor, who has his own conscience in doing his job professionally,

and suffers from the society’s judgment; because he chooses not to cure the boy

because his conscience says that the boy comes too late to be cured.

The doctor faces a dilemma; it means everything that happens will be

considered wrong. When he determines not to cure the boy, he is humiliated by

the family for the consequence of his action. And the doctor has the right to

choose what ever he wants to respond the consequence which is given by the

family. He does not accept the consequence and run away for safety.

Then the third short story is A Hunger Artist, the theme of which is

professional determination is not only about money but also for satisfaction. It

reveals from the story that the protagonist who is an artist feels alienated from the

society. The society ignores him because the artist chooses fasting as his job and

the society thinks the artist’s job is too old fashion. In spite of the fact, the artist

determines to keep on fasting; when he fasts professionally he gets his own

satisfactions. No matter where the place is to fast, the artist will fell satisfied if he

can fast professionally, even if it does not bring him money.

The last story that I analyze is A Report to Academy and the theme is

professional determination is not only for money but also for survival. The

undercover soldier is captured by primitive people on his way back to the

academy. He determines to imitate to the society to flee from the primitive

people. He does not have difficulty to imitate the primitive people, because he is

a professional imitator. And his professionalism determination of job does not

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always bring him money but it can also save his life. So the soldier’s

determination in choosing the way to survive by imitating the behaviors of the

primitive people, looks like conforming to the society, but actually it is only a part

of his professional job as an imitator, which has saved his life.

From the analysis above I conclude that Kafka makes certain that such

stories are to show that one’s existence is made by one’s own professional

determination on choice. Relating to Sartre’s existentialism theory which

emphasizes on individual, who has no predetermined nature, it means that

everyone can create his/her own essence by choosing his/her choice freely; he/she

has free will, and has to run it professionally.

These four short stories of Kafka reflect the anxiety of life in every

different society. Kafka emphasizes that every person has freedom to choose what

he/she wants for his/her life and the personal professional determination in doing

his/her profession will create a value to life. And through these short stories

Kafka has successfully revealed the themes of existentialism through the

protagonists’ freedom of choice in determining to be professional in their jobs.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

References

Soll, Ivan, Ph.D. World Book Multimedia Encyclopedia. World Book, Inc. 2001

Sartre, Jean-Paul. Eksistentialism and Human Emotions. New York: Kesington

Publishing Corp. 1987

Warburton, Nigel. Philosophy the Classics. New york: Routledge. 1998

Primary text

Kafka, Franz. The Complete Short Stories. Trans. John Updike. New York:

Schocken Books, Inc, 1995

Internet reference

http://www.fcps.k12.va.us/westspingfieldhs/academic/english/1project/99exist/sartre.ht

m/

http://www.gnooks.com/discussion/albert+camus.html/

http://www.littlebluelight.com/blphpl/crit.php?key=3/

http://www.tameri.com/csw/exist/exist.htm/

http://www.thecry.com/existentialism/