The Wisdom of Franz Kafka’s On Parables :: Kafka On Parables Essays

The Wisdom of Franz Kafkas On ParablesIs it even possible to gain a better life through knowledge and wisdom? Should we listen to the lyric poem of the wise? Franz Kafka tries to answer these questions in his short essay On Parables, with a resounding No In this Kafkan world, one filled with the daily struggles and c bes of life, the notwithstanding thing we can know is the incomprehensibility of it all. He estates that all wisdom is uttered in emblems then destroys any hope we may have by trouncing the authenticity of parables. But then he does something strange, vividly illustrating his blockage by using the very method he hoped to discredit.The eldest divide of On Parables provides Kafkas main point the words of the wise are always merely parables and of no expenditure in daily life. How does he set out to this conclusion? He first first asserts that the words of the wise are always parables then explains why all parables are useless. Finally, he concludes that the wor ds of the wise, since they are all parables, are all useless for daily life.Kafka first assumes that the words of the wise are always merely parables, and expects the reader to come up this assumption rigidly throughout the work. Notice that there is no wriggle room for the wise their words are always parables. So dont complain, dont object. It is so, at least within the scope of his essay.Kafka does however state why the sages use parables. Since sages themselves are incapable of communicating wisdom, they speak in imperfect parables in a futile attempt to communicate that wisdom. Kafka further hints that this may be because even the sage doesnt understand such wisdom. The words of the sage, Go over, propose that the sage is not currently where he wants the people to go, but may himself yet be stuck in this world of daily cares, struggles, and hardships. If he were where he wants us to be, he would have used the words come over instead. everywhere where? you may ask. Kafka answe rs this question by posing what I will link to as three lands of life related to parables. The first, the most real one, refers to the state of a persons life before encountering a parable. The second, a potential land, is the parable itself and the resulting actions and consequences a person derives from the parable.