The Surgeon vs. The Officer

After reading "In the Penal Colony" by Franz Kafka, I was particularly struck by its ending. In fact, I read it yesterday and am still mulling it over. The event that stuck out to me the most was the officer's death-- it seemed very similar to the death of the Surgeon...although granted the Surgeon did not outrightly declare his desire to die that way. But in a more underlying and subtle sense, both of them died for what they believed in. It can almost be said that they are both messed up versions of martyrs- even though neither of their causes was respectable, they both felt strongly enough to devote their entire lives to them. The Surgeon lived his life attempting to control the world through classification...of fish, skulls, whatever. Basically, he wanted to play God in the only way he knew how. The officer in the short story worshipped his previous Commandant, and in doing so believed his method of torture to be of the utmost importance to the penal colony. He even says that he was the only supporter of it left and adamantly defended its use to everyone else, even those above him in power.

Like we discussed in class, the Surgeons death seemed well deserved and fitting, and I feel the same about the officer's. Both of their deaths symbolized their greatest passion while at the same time revealing its errors by having the whole system backfire on them. The Surgeon died as a result of his gluttony via Castlereagh and subsequently became a part of his skull classification system and eventually, Cosmo Wheeler's jewel and proof of racial inferiority. Through his death he achieved his goal, but clearly was not alive to revel in it. The officer died by his torture machine, except it backfired and was even more violent and brutal than it was supposed to be. The machine broke while killing him, so both the machine and the officer came to an end that way. The officer believed that the machine was the only way to truly serve justice--and he was right. The machine took care of the problem in the penal colony-- the officer himself and in doing so, destroyed itself. His goal too, like the Surgeon's, was achieved, but only through his death. Clearly both Flanagan and Kafka believe that nature and fate will always serve the necessary justice in the end.