Kafka is a mysterious writer, not so much because he himself is a person who cannot be analyzed rationally, but because his works are incomprehensible and inexplicable for many readers. Such a manner of presentation of the writer can fascinate as well as annoy. Kafka protects himself with symbols. Aggravated anxiety and fear of a cruel world force him to do so. On the other hand, he obviously likes to write symbolically, he enjoys the game, and offers the reader to share this pleasure, passing through the text through solving to the joy of recognition.
The novel "Amerika" is about politics in the broadest sense of the word, above all, criticism of a political system called democracy. As in all Kafka’s books his characters embody certain phenomena of life, by analogy with the personification of vices and virtues in medieval fine art. Kafka does this for the convenience of expressing the characters with which his consciousness is saturated.
In "Amerika" the protagonist - Karl - is represented by very young (16-year-old), the embodiment of "green" idealism, due to the lack of experience. He comes from Europe - the Old World - to the New, free and advanced America, as a young man renounces the world outlook of "fathers", starting out in the study of everything new, as if in a fascinating adventure. Of course, he is not alien to fears and doubts, but much more important in his motivation are the hopes for a better future. The past of Karl is overshadowed by a scandal - a connection with a servant who seduced him impudently, and then declared that she was waiting for a child.
Remembering that every Kafka's hero is the embodiment of some idea, one can say that this girl is a political teaching, most likely of a socialist kind, since the "servant" is an indication of the lower class. Flirting with socialism, communication with the "servant" does not pass for Karl with impunity: a "child" is born, in other words, the ideological addiction of the protagonist is manifested by certain actions, and he is sent out of the house far away, so that in an alien land a callow youth gets wise, along the way, and in order not to disgrace parents with their immoral behavior.
In this turn of the plot Kafka's manner is well traced to soldering symbols and vicissitudes of real life: indeed, Karl could be driven out of the house, although for the appearance of the bastard the punishment looks too harsh, but with the use of analogies: Karl could be expelled from the country for anti-government activities, and then "parents" means an authoritarian institution-government.
On the ship, Karl gets acquainted with a worker who is sympathetic and is called to help - his loyalty to the ideals of freedom, equality and brotherhood is evident. Karl's attempt to restore justice does not go unnoticed by a certain gentleman who suddenly declared himself an uncle of Karl. The entire plot with the "uncle" is the embodiment of the policy of the powerful of this world, the party provided with considerable capital, that is, the real American political and economic clan - tells about the efforts of the established system to take advantage of Karl, his young energy, for the benefit of narrow party interests, teach the young man, introduce with influential people (reality is again woven into symbolism).
In the end Karl does not live up to expectations, and he is thrown out like an unnecessary thing. He briefly contacts vagrants, one of who is Irish, the other is French. They act dishonestly with him, behave insolently, they ridicule everything that to Karl is dear, and thus deprive him of the illusions associated with the destitute poor who need help. These poor immigrants, people without a clan without a tribe, in other words, without ideas and views, only think as if to get better in life, and in their presentation better means to mess around, but at the same time to have money.
The hotel, where Karl is going to work, leaving the tramp, personifies the principle of "try, work, grow from the bottom and everything will work out for you." Kafka, of course, "fails" this illusion. Karl brings his humanity, his ability to sympathize, the desire to help, to the detriment of the interests of work, that is, a company that requires full return from its employees.
The next episode is the lackeyness of Brunelnd. This former opera diva, obese, is nothing but idleness, laziness. She is already served by old acquaintances of karl, a Frenchman with an Irishman, and they try to do their best to attach nothing to their "work", or rather commit useless deeds, wasting time and effort.
Along the way, there is a picture of the pre-election struggle, from which poor Karl has been permanently and irretrievably excluded and can only observe it as an outsider. There is a brief acquaintance with a student - personifying the principle of "study, try, work in parallel, do well and you will succeed." The student believes that his training with the available pace will take about twenty years.
Kafka's novel is not finished, but the last episode is devoted to the Oklahoma theater - accurately portraying the blatant, proselytizing American sect, with its large-scale activities, in which everyone can find a place. The similarity is literal, down to the minutiae: the representatives of the sect are renting premises, sometimes whole stadiums (in the novel this is a racetrack), they arrange joint meals and, of course, constantly repeat about how wonderful they are.
Being carried away by ideas of the socialist sense, being carried away by the ideas of the socialist sense, is transported to the democratic goals, having been behind the scenes of big politics, and discarded as superfluous, it is killed at work, it suffers from idleness, which turns out to be more demanding and tedious than any activity, then finds a new embodiment of its dreams in a religious exalted community. All this variety of vital roads offers us the most free "country of great opportunities" - America.
