WINGS THAT FAIL, CAGES THAT PREVAIL: READING KAFKA THROUGH A BROKEN TRAIL

Abstract

The present study investigates the dynamic interplay between human aspiration and systemic entrapment in Franz Kafka’s fiction, focusing on the metaphorical tension between wings and cages and conceptualized as the broken trail. Kafka’s narratives, particularly The Metamorphosis, The Trial, In the Penal Colony, and The Burrow, depict protagonists who strive for liberation yet repeatedly encounter structural obstacles, highlighting the paradox of freedom within modern bureaucratic, existential, and social frameworks. The objectives of this study are to analyze the symbolic failure of wings as representations of human aspiration, examine the persistence of cages as forms of institutional, psychological, and existential control, conceptualize the broken trail as a metaphor for modern disorientation and systemic failure, and explore the contemporary and postcolonial relevance of Kafka’s motifs. To achieve these aims, a qualitative, interpretive research design was employed, incorporating close textual reading and thematic analysis; moreover, secondary sources on existentialism, Weberian bureaucracy, post-humanism, and critical modernity were integrated to support theoretical interpretations. The findings reveal that Kafka’s wings symbolize desire and transformative attempts that are structurally doomed to fail, while cages operate dynamically through procedural opacity, internalized discipline, and diffused authority; furthermore, the broken trail demonstrates that failure is systemic rather than incidental, and Kafka’s motifs resonate strongly with contemporary and postcolonial bureaucratic realities where freedom is deferred, constrained, and manipulated. In conclusion, the study positions Kafka as a globally relevant critic of modern power, revealing how aspiration, movement, and systemic failure co-construct human experience; besides this, it demonstrates that recursive failure and structural entrapment are central to understanding both literary modernity and present-day administrative and technological systems. Based on these insights, the study recommends comparative analyses with other modernist and postcolonial authors, empirical studies of bureaucratic entrapment, and interdisciplinary research on digital and algorithmic forms of structural control.