The Traveler
A European visitor, invited by the new commandant to watch the execution. He travels to see things, he says, not to change other countries' courts.
He wants to see the colony and leave without taking sides. Once he has heard how the court works, he also wants the procedure ended, but on his own terms.
The book
In the Penal Colony
Franz Kafka
Who they are in the book
Spoiler-freeKafka calls him der Forschungsreisende, a traveling researcher. He carries recommendations from high officials and is on his second day on the island (pages 32 and 40).
He is polite, cautious and hard to read. He finds the procedure unjust but thinks a foreigner has no right to interfere, and the story turns on what he will say and to whom.
How The Traveler Is Portrayed
- Sitting down out of politenessOn pages 5 to 8 he has come only out of politeness to the commandant. He walks up and down behind the condemned man, plainly uninterested. When the officer offers him a cane chair, he cannot refuse it.
- Starting to take an interestOn page 12 the officer guides his hand over the cotton wool on the Bed. The traveler is, Kafka writes, already a little won over by the machine. He shades his eyes and looks up at it.
- Asking whether the man knows his sentenceOn pages 16 and 17 he asks whether the prisoner knows his sentence, then whether he knows he was sentenced at all. Told that the man had no chance to defend himself, the traveler stands up from his chair.
- Weighing whether to interfereOn pages 32 and 33 he thinks it over. He is not a citizen of the colony or of the state it belongs to. Yet the injustice and the inhumanity are beyond doubt, and he suspects the commandant wants his opinion.
- Saying noOn pages 50 to 52 the officer begs for his help. The traveler hesitates for one breath, looking at the soldier and the prisoner, and says "No." He will speak to the commandant privately and sail the next morning.
- Trying to lift the officer off the needlesOn pages 63 to 65 the machine stabs instead of writing. The traveler sees it is plain murder. He grabs the officer's feet and forces the other two men to hold the head, and sees no sign of redemption in the dead face.
- Leaving by boatOn pages 67 to 69 he kneels to read the old commandant's gravestone and hands out a few coins. At the harbor he keeps the soldier and the condemned man out of his boat with a heavy knotted rope.
The Traveler quotes
You are a foreigner, keep quiet.Du bist ein Fremder, sei still.
This was not torture of the kind the officer had wanted. This was plain murder.das war ja keine Folter, wie sie der Offizier erreichen wollte, das war unmittelbarer Mord.
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