Amerika: Analysis of Major Characters
"Amerika" is a novel by Franz Kafka that explores the journey of Karl Rossman, a young immigrant from Prague who travels to America in search of opportunity. The story highlights Karl's experiences as he navigates the challenges of life in a new country, marked by his innocence and determination. Initially optimistic, Karl's journey takes a dark turn as he faces injustice, false accusations, and betrayal from those who should support him. Key characters include Senator Edward Jacob, Karl’s wealthy uncle, who offers a glimpse of American privilege but ultimately exerts pressure and control over Karl’s life. Other significant figures include Grete Mitzelbach, a sympathetic hotel manageress who becomes Karl's mentor yet is unable to protect him, and a cast of supporting characters like the Stoker, Brunelda, Robinson, and Delamarche, each representing different aspects of immigrant life and the complexities of human relationships. Through these interactions, Kafka paints a poignant picture of the immigrant experience, filled with both hope and despair, as Karl seeks to establish his identity and achieve his dreams in a foreign land.
Amerika: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Franz Kafka
First published: 1927 (English translation, 1938)
Genre: Novel
Locale: Primarily New York City
Plot: Magical realism
Time: The early twentieth century
Karl Rossman, a fifteen-or sixteen-year-old youth who leaves his native Prague to seek his fortune in America. A sensitive, naïve adolescent who has been treated unfairly by his parents, Karl arrives in America with little money and few possessions but with a strong determination to triumph over circumstances. He is hardworking, eager to learn, and willing to make sacrifices—in many ways, it would seem, the ideal immigrant. His first experiences in America, however, are nightmarish, comically so in their reversal of the immigrant's dreams. Karl sees justice travestied, is himself falsely accused and beaten, and becomes a fugitive, finding a place only among the outcast. After a hiatus in the narrative (perhaps several years), however, Karl regains hope and responds to a poster advertising jobs with the Theatre of Oklahoma (apparently a government project on a fan-tastic scale). In a spirit of rejoicing, Karl leaves on a rail journey across America, secure in the belief that in Oklahoma he will at last realize his dreams for himself in the New World.
Senator Edward Jacob, Karl's wealthy uncle, a proud, stuffy, self-made man. Karl meets this red-faced gentleman with a thin bamboo cane in the ship's office. The owner of Jacob Despatch Agency in New York, he has acquired American citizenship and severed all ties to his European past. Jacob exults in saving his nephew from a life of wretchedness, doing so partly because of pity and partly because of his strong dislike for his own relatives who have set the boy adrift. He takes him into his lavish surroundings, sup-porting and advising him and indulging the youth in every modern advantage. At the same time, he tyrannizes over him, expecting Karl to seek his unconditional approval in every situation. Without a word of warning, he castigates Karl for unintentionally going against his wishes. Convinced that nothing good can come from Karl's family, Jacob disappears from Karl's life just as unexpectedly as he entered it.
The Stoker, a ship employee. A huge, brawny man who confines Karl in a tiny compartment below the decks of the ship in New York Harbor so as to have an audience for his complaints against his superior, Schubal, who, he says, bullies him. Although Karl argues for him before the captain, the Stoker loses his case, because Schubal has fifteen noisy witnesses to support him.
Grete Mitzelbach (GREH-teh MIHT-zehl-bahkh), the fifty-year-old manageress of the Hotel Occidental. Herself an immigrant from Vienna, she benignly takes on Karl as her protégé but finds herself powerless to defend him against the Head Waiter's charges of dereliction.
Therese Berchtold (teh-RAY-zeh BEHRKH-tohlt), an eighteen-year-old Pomeranian girl who serves as Grete Mitzelbach's typist. Having warned Karl to stay away from Robinson and Delamarche, she is grief-stricken at his dismissal from the Hotel Occidental.
Brunelda, a wealthy, fat singer, the former wife of a cocoa manufacturer. She keeps Delamarche in her suburban flat with Robinson as their servant. She spends most of her time lying on a filthy couch in her red gown.
Robinson, an Irishman who attaches himself to Karl and ultimately causes him to lose his job as lift boy. He becomes a lazy drunk who lies on the balcony at Brunelda's flat and attempts to get Karl to perform the housework so that he can care for Brunelda personally.
Delamarche (deh-lah-MAHRSH), a Frenchman who succeeds in the New World by binding himself to Brunelda as her kept man.