Big I, Eye, Aye.

My thesis statement for Kafka’s The Trial is:

The Trial progresses from existentialism to nihilism. While Josef K. is on trial, the novel reflects or is anchored in existentialism. This changes in the last portion of the book, where it is then anchored in nihilism.

Existentialism
I’ve found slightly different definitions of existentialism, which annoyed me.
From my go-to site (wikipedia):  
“Existentialism is a philosophical movement that posits that individuals create the meaning and essence of their lives, as opposed to deities or authorities creating it for them. It emerged as a movement in twentieth-century literature and philosophy, though it had forerunners in earlier centuries. Existentialism generally postulates that the absence of a transcendent force (such as God) means that the individual is entirely free, and, therefore, ultimately responsible. It is up to humans to create an ethos of personal responsibility outside any branded belief system. In existentialist views, personal articulation of being is the only way to rise above humanity’s absurd condition of much suffering and inevitable death.”
Whereas this site http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/lit/chap10.htm defines it as:
“A philosophical movement embracing the view that the suffering individual must create meaning in an unknowable, chaotic, and seemingly empty universe.”

Nihilism
From Merriam-Webster.com (which always reminded me of great-aunts, don’t you agree?):
“-a viewpoint that traditional values and beliefs are unfounded and that existence is senseless and useless
 -a doctrine that denies any objective ground of truth and especially of moral truths”
From wiki again:
“a philosophical position which argues that Being, especially past and current human existence, is without objective meaning, purpose, comprehensible truth, or essential value. Nihilists generally assert some or all of the following:

• there is no reasonable proof of the existence of a higher ruler or creator,
• a “true morality” does not exist, and
• objective secular ethics are impossible; therefore, life has, in a sense, no truth, and no action is objectively preferable to any other. “

I know, what a shinyhappy essay this is going to be!

The Trial was a strange book… I didn’t think much of it while I was reading it, but once I was finished I really enjoyed it. And I finally appreciated how depressing it was.

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