"On Parables" (German: "Von den Gleichnissen") is a short story fragment by

Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It ...

. It was not published until 1931, seven years after his death.

Max Brod Max Brod ( he, מקס ברוד; 27 May 1884 – 20 December 1968) was a German-speaking Bohemian, later Israeli, author, composer, and journalist. Although he was a prolific writer in his own right, he is best remembered as the friend and biog ...

selected stories and published them in the collection ''

Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer "The Great Wall of China" (original title "Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer", literally ''At the Construction of the Great Wall of China'') is a short story by Franz Kafka. While written in 1917, it was not published until 1930, seven years after h ...

''. The first English translation by Willa and Edwin Muir was published by

Martin Secker Martin Secker (6 April 1882 – 6 April 1978), born Percy Martin Secker Klingender, was a London publisher who was responsible for producing the work of a distinguished group of literary authors, including D. H. Lawrence, Thomas Mann, Norman Dougl ...

in London in 1933. It appeared in '' The Great Wall of China. Stories and Reflections'' (

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Schocken Books Schocken Books is a book publishing imprint of Penguin Random House that specializes in Jewish literary works. Originally established in 1931 by Salman Schocken as Schocken Verlag in Berlin, the company later moved to Palestine and then the Uni ...

, 1946). The piece consists of a narrative on the merit of parables. The debate is about whether they are useful, or merely

folklore Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging ...

handed down from one generation to the next. The

narrator Narration is the use of a written or spoken commentary to convey a story to an audience. Narration is conveyed by a narrator: a specific person, or unspecified literary voice, developed by the creator of the story to deliver information to the a ...

mentions that parables are not necessarily useful; after all, they've been around for many years and yet, despite their "wisdom," people still struggle with the same difficulties. The story ends by claiming that the

text Text may refer to: Written word * Text (literary theory), any object that can be read, including: **Religious text, a writing that a religious tradition considers to be sacred **Text, a verse or passage from scripture used in expository preachin ...

in itself can be interpreted as a

parable A parable is a succinct, didactic story, in prose or verse, that illustrates one or more instructive lessons or principles. It differs from a fable in that fables employ animals, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature as characters, w ...

Analysis

The story was written while Kafka was reading Judaica and was particularly interested in the lore associated with

Mishna The Mishnah or the Mishna (; he, מִשְׁנָה, "study by repetition", from the verb ''shanah'' , or "to study and review", also "secondary") is the first major written collection of the Jewish oral traditions which is known as the Oral Torah ...

.''Parable and paradox''. H Politzer, Franz Kafka -

Ithaca Ithaca most commonly refers to: *Homer's Ithaca, an island featured in Homer's ''Odyssey'' *Ithaca (island), an island in Greece, possibly Homer's Ithaca *Ithaca, New York, a city, and home of Cornell University and Ithaca College Ithaca, Ithaka ...

, New York, 1962 Kafka's

The Blue Octavo Notebooks ''The Blue Octavo Notebooks'' (sometimes referred to as ''The Eight Octavo Notebooks'') is a series of eight notebooks written by Franz Kafka from late 1917 until June 1919. The name was given to them by Max Brod, Kafka's literary executor, to diff ...

are full of parables, many observations about daily life intertwined with poignant twists.

References

{{Kafka Parables Short stories by Franz Kafka Short stories published posthumously