Kafka's Namesake (page 60-63)

This is quite central to the story I'm sure, so I felt it needed its own chapter. I previously described Kafka Tamura as acting like clockwork for survival, but deviating to find the beauty in what he loves. In Kafka's own words, it's a "purely mechaical explanation of that complex machine in the story, as sort of a substitute for explaining the situation we're in." Kafka relates himself particularly to that machine in his description of his genes as being an inescapable truth. In this metaphor, his genes are the clockwork that determine his actions.

This description relates to the reader how powerless Kafka must feel against his fate. I've read enough so far to understand the prophesy that his father has told him. Machines are designed to be unfaltering, uniform, powerless without a driving force. In understanding these principles, we understand why being physically free from his family, he feels he can never outrun his fate.

I would be very keen on reading Franz Kafka's 'In the Penal Colony' to gain more insight into Kafka's character. I find this would be most surprising as he ran away from home to outrun his fate somehow; it seems strange that he would choose a name that reminds him then that he cannot outrun his fate. Franz Kafka's style is also quite similar to Haruki Murakami in its use of magical realism. As in metamorphosis, they don't focus on how a strange event such as turning into a cockroach or mackerel raining ffrom the skies comes to pass. They focus instead on the reactions of the people around the events. The tone is somewhat different, in that Kafka's style is far darker with a sombre tone. It's beautiful, however again, I wonder why Kafka Tamura would feel such strong connection to the writer that he would take on his name.