"In the Penal Colony" and "The Thirst"

Our stories for this selection are "The Penal Colony" by Franz Kafka and "The Thirst" by Ivo Andric both of these stories have similarities in the characters and the development of the characters themselves. The point of view in both stories is third party omniscient, where the reader is allowed to see the story through more than one character in the story. In both stories there is one character who is witness to an injustice being done to another, what the character does or does not do tells the story. When we see an injustice being done do we step in, or do we look the other way?

What I felt after reading both of these stories is that two of characters in the story had a total lack of respect for the life of another human being. The commander in "The Thirst" was only concerned that he would be seen as a hero for capturing Lazar, it did not matter to him that Lazar was dying from the wound in his chest he still ordered Lazar to not be given any water or food. Lazar was a non person. The commander slept soundly in his bed while the prisoner, Lazar laid dying in the commander's basement crying out from delirium. While we get a small picture that Lazar was not a nice man, we also know that they had been at war. In "The Penal Colony", the officer was so fascinated by the machine that he disconnects with what is happening to the condemned man. The fact that the condemned man did not know that he was being sentenced to death, or that he been sentenced shocks the explorer but to the officer he is only upset that explorer might delay the execution by asking too many questions.

While the point of view of the explorer and the wife show a different side of the events. Both characters question whether they should get involved with the grievous injustices being done to the two prisoners. If they were to get involved, what exactly could they do? The explorer , in "The Penal Colony" points out he is not part of the penal colony or even the county it belongs to, so who would listen to him. While the wife, in "The Thirst" feels she doesn't have the right to wake her husband to tell him to stop the torment of the prisoner.

In the "The Penal Colony", we know very little about the explorer, and that is by design because the focus is the officer. The officer is unraveling as his place at the penal colony is changing, it drives him to take his own life in the machine. While the wife in "The Thirst" who we first see as this young woman that her only concern is how her bedroom looks at the beginning of the story, becomes a woman struggling to understand what is right and just in a world that is not always just.

Of all the stories we have read thus far I think these two are my least favorite, at the end of each story I felt sickened by the human depravity. I had the same feeling with the "The Shawl", it left this emptiness.