“The Top” (German: “Der Kreisel”) is a short story 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 ...
, written sometime between 1917 and 1923. It concerns a
philosopher
A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...
failing to understand the world.
Plot summary
A philosopher believes that he could understand everything in the world if he were to understand a single element in it. To this purpose he tries to catch a child's
top
A spinning top, or simply a top, is a toy with a squat body and a sharp point at the bottom, designed to be spun on its vertical axis, balancing on the tip due to the gyroscopic effect.
Once set in motion, a top will usually wobble for a few ...
as it spins, hoping that it would continue spinning in his hand, but it always stops the moment he grabs it.
Interpretation
The top could be seen as a symbol of the spinning earth - the populated world which the philosopher tries to understand. The irony implied herein is that by focusing on the top itself the philosopher ignores the other forces that set it in motion - the children and the string.
Some critics have noted a correspondence between the structure and theme of the story - the spiraling movement of the top is echoed by the spiraling structure of the story, as the sentences are at first of uniform length, then get gradually longer until the last line which is meandering and prolonged, like the top's last staggering spin and final collapse.
Comic adaptation
A comics adaptation of the story, illustrated by
Peter Kuper
Peter Kuper (; born September 22, 1958) is an American alternative comics artist and illustrator, best known for his autobiographical, political, and social observations.
Besides his contributions to the political anthology '' World War 3 Illust ...
, is included in ''
Give It Up!''.
References
Short stories by Franz Kafka
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