Lily Yates

English 1213

Professor Hammett

Essay 2 - Rhetorical Analysis

March 18, 2023

Word Count: 1016

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            We tend to think of the world and its components as absolute and unchanging. However, taking an absurdist’s interpretation of these components typically is a direct challenge to our modern understanding of the world. Using this as a basis, this begs the question, how would an absurdist, in this case, Franz Kafka, interpret the missing children epidemic? First, he would think about this situation in two ways, the first from an external viewpoint, and the second from an internal viewpoint. The external viewpoint would be the surrounding world, those wondering what happened to the missing child, and the internal viewpoint would be from the child themselves. Kafka’s works tend to focus on the internal viewpoint, for example, in “The Metamorphosis”, Gregor and his view of the world and his situation is the main aspect of the story. Therefore, we can reasonably guess that instead of interpreting the missing children epidemic from an external source such as news outlets, Kafka would interpret it from a more “absurd” and personal side. The absurdist, Franz Kafka, would see the missing child epidemic as an individual and internal story for each case that presented itself.

            Through Franz Kafka’s work in “The Metamorphosis”, we can reasonably deduce that Kafka would view the missing children epidemic as another story, multiple lives thrown into the turmoil of suffering. When a child goes missing, they are typically reported missing on TV stations, the radio, and on other media, as they are the next “big story”. While a missing child may be the next “big story”, they are human and not fictional. Kafka would see this as a detail of what the victim feels, as they could be thinking about how they will be publicized, and whether or not they will be found. In The Metamorphosis, Kafka states,

So why did his sister not go and join the others? She had probably only just got up and had not even begun to get dressed. And why was she crying? Was it because he had not got up, and had not let the chief clerk in, because he was in danger of losing his job and if that happened his boss would once more pursue their parents with the same demands as before? There was no need to worry about things like that yet. Gregor was still there and had not the slightest intention of abandoning his family. (Kafka, The Metamorphosis)

In this passage, Gregor is more concerned about the well-being of his family, when many would assume he would only care about his well-being, as selfishness is human nature. One might guess a child would be concerned about themselves were they to go missing, yet the child’s inner thoughts might prove otherwise. In each missing child case, there is an external story, told by those who assume the child’s thoughts and feelings, while there is the child’s personal recollection of the events.

            Kafka’s internal viewpoint of the missing children epidemic would contain many seemingly unreal and unimaginable factors, adding to the absurdity of the situation. In many of Kafka’s works, Kafka uses unrelated ideas to describe and inspire his writing. According to the “The Dark World of Franz Kafka” video, Kafka’s writing often focuses on the aspect of alienation, which, for many, can be described as unreal and distant from reality. In the book, You’re Not Alone The Journey from Abduction to Empowerment, many of the victims of abduction stated a sense of isolation and unawareness of the outside world. An example of this is, “I was not allowed to talk to others. I could not go to school. I couldn’t even use my real name. We had to change our names and live a lie to make sure nobody would find us.” (You’re Not Alone - The Journey from Abduction to Empowerment). The victim quoted here, Sam, had been thrown into an almost unreal situation in which the victim was denied their identity and forced to live in isolation, similar to Kafka’s character, Gregor, in The Metamorphosis.

Kafka’s external view of the missing children epidemic would be reminiscent of how the media and public evolve a story. According to “When Your Child Is Missing: A Family Survival Guide”, the parents of missing children quoted that, “I had no rational thoughts, they were all irrational.” (Heather Cox) and “Hanging on to my sanity for a minute at a time often took all of my energy. I could not begin to look several days down the road.” (Colleen Nick) both show a very clear theme of Kafkaesque, a nightmarish and unreal situation suddenly becoming reality. The stories within “You’re Not Alone - The Journey from Abduction to Empowerment” highlights how a victim sees the external viewpoint from family members, “I did not realize this at first, but families suffer the experience with you—it’s kind of a ripple effect. It happened to you—and it happened to them. Even in a tightly bonded family, you may feel estranged from everyone around you.” This statement gives an example of how the victim views how others perceive them and their story. The last line in the quote also points out an important aspect of Kafkaesque, alienation, which the author later stated this factor had an impact on family relationships.

The aspects of Kafkaesque most prominent within missing children’s cases would be alienation, unreal/bizarre scenarios becoming reality, and nightmarish things happening to the victims and their families. These aspects are different depending on whether you look at it from an internal or external viewpoint, however, both viewpoints have similar factors and the people involved in each have a story to tell. Franz Kafka would view the missing children epidemic as an individual experience, a different story from each perspective, whether that be the victim themselves or the media reporting the case. The story may change depending on whom you ask, but the reality is, the uncertainty and ever-changing story changing from each perspective makes each and every missing child case an example of absurdism and an unreal situation turned real.