“Live by the sword, die by the sword.”
In Franz Kafka’s case, the “apparatus,” a cruel and unusual torture machine, replaces the sword.
Kafka’s short story “In the Penal Colony” tackles the challenge of reform and justice. The story is told through four main characters: the explorer, the officer, the soldier, and the condemned man. The officer, desperate to keep the apparatus in use, explains how it works to the explorer. It is a twelve-hour process where the prisoner is tied down, and needles repeatedly carve their sentence into their body.
After the death of the previous Commandant, the officer is the last remaining advocate for the apparatus. Instead of seeing the machine as cruel, the officer admires its every aspect. As he passionately explains the separate parts, the explorer considers voicing his opinion of the machine’s cruelty. However, the explorer believes that as a traveler, his only responsibility is to observe and learn, and he shouldn’t attempt to change the system.
The explorer soon learns that the condemned man is unaware of his sentence and has no trial.
Trying to carry out the condemned man’s execution, the apparatus twice fails, due to its age and lack of proper maintenance. The officer asks the explorer to talk to the new Commandant, offering an outside perspective to advocate for the apparatus.
The explorer finally decides to voice his opinion, claiming that the apparatus is cruel and unjust.
Understanding his situation, the officer accepts that the apparatus will not regain the support it once had. Setting the condemned man free, the officer places himself into the apparatus. Instead of the tortuous twelve-hour carving, the apparatus malfunctions, stabbing and killing the officer immediately.
The soldier and condemned man take the explorer to the old Commandant’s grave, where there is a prophecy that the Commandant will “rise again” to “recover the colony.”
Using a complex, changing justice system, Kafka tells an unsettling story about a struggle for justice reform and the difficulty of change.
Using a short story with only four unnamed characters and one main setting allows the reader to focus on the story’s message, rather than getting caught up in unnecessary details.
Kafka also writes this story simply. He is straightforward with the plot. However, he is limited in that this story takes place in dialogue. Kafka sets up an entire justice system through a two-person conversation.
The story was written in German, meaning some details may be lost in translation. Also, since Kafka wrote the story in the early 20th century, the writing style is sometimes hard to follow.
Although the new Commandant and most people agree that the apparatus is cruel and unjust, no one can do anything about it. Funding is cut off, but the apparatus is still in use. There is no clear line between old and new, or unjust and just.
Even the explorer’s valuable outside opinion is hesitant, as he feels it immoral to play a role in another land’s rules.
The apparatus seems to be shut down at the end of the story, signaling a change for the better in the Penal Colony’s justice system. The old Commandant’s prophecy of return, however, implies that conversations about reform are not over. Change and reform are cyclical, after all. The old Commandant “returning” shows how, in time, the new justice system will also be scrutinized.
In contemporary America, the same argument arises around our prison system and, especially, the death sentence. Many believe that the death sentence is an old and unjust way of meting out punishment. Some Americans believe that taking a human life is cruel, no matter the circumstances. Some would argue that prison itself is unjust, as humans shouldn’t be able to lock away other humans based on what they believe is right.
Kafka makes one thing clear: there is no clear answer to this never-ending debate.
