THE DEPRESSION EPIDEMIC
Rhetorical Analysis
Madison Sparks
Professor Hammett
English 1302
Rhetorical Analysis
March 21, 2023
Word Count:377
Kafka and His Relationship with Depression
Franz Kafka was a man who had a mentally harmful life, which can be seen throughout his personal life and writing. Kafka lived with hardships throughout his life, anxiety and depression being two that he couldn't truly defeat. Along with that Kafka already had issues with his personal life, and it was no secret to him that he had troubles "I have spent all my life resisting the desire to end it" (Franz Kafka). Along with his writing being depressing like in the metamorphosis after Gregor dies, "[decide] to spend this day resting and going for a walk; they not only deserved a break in their work but needed one” (Kafka, The Metamorphosis, 54). We can see Kafka has a lackluster appreciation of life, often resulting because of depression. Because of Kafka's experience with depression, he would see the tragedy that is the social epidemic known as depression.
The effect of depression on Kafka's personal life is prevalent in his diary, such as his feelings of disappointment and self-consciousness. Kafka suffered from many physical illnesses as well as mental ones. But, instead of allowing himself to take time to take care of himself, he felt inferior for not being about to keep up with his work. He wrote about this feeling in one of his diary entries, along with “feeling lost, and holding his head high enough not to drown” (Kafka, The Diaries, 31). Kafka, while being a brilliant writer, felt physically subpar and took other perceptions of him very intensely. "But if I lacked an upper lip here, there an ear, here a rib, there a finger, if I had hairless spots on my head and pockmarks on my face, this would still be no adequate counterpart to my inner imperfection. This imperfection is not congenital and therefore so much the more painful to bear" (Kafka 19). In this example, Kafka is recalling a complaint a woman gave him and then instantly becomes pessimistic. According to the Mayo Clinic located in Rochester, Minnesota, which has been recognized as one of the top Psychiatry hospitals in the nation for 2022-2023 by U.S. News & World Report "Feelings of worthlessness or guilt, fixating on past failures or self-blame" (Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research) is a symptom of major depressive disorder. This theme of pessimistic and worthless feelings continues throughout the account of Kafka's diary. Moreover, this is a trend throughout his stories as well.
One of the most obvious stories that connect with this theme is The Metamorphosis. The Metamorphosis is about a man “transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin” (Kafka, The Metamorphosis, 7). But, instead of caring about his transformation Gregor Samsa is only concerned about work to pay off his parents' debt, so much of his own identity as a person is lost to him, similar to Kafka's own life. Kafka also had issues with his forced dependency because of his ailments. As seen through this line in The Metamorphosis, “punished by his sick body and by his dependency” (Kafka 1). Many people with depression also have issues with feeling like a burden or as if they are not doing enough. According to the Bell Foundation, "Many people that go through an episode of depression feel like a burden to others. Often individuals who live with depression struggle with feelings of guilt. It seems to be linked intrinsically with depression and how someone with this illness perceives themselves" (Why do people with depression feel like a burden.), which is obvious in the writing of Kafka. However, it was not only his work that showed us the effect his depression had his background did as well.
Kafka was born into a Jewish, middle-class family in Germany in 1883, right before the start of rising tension and World War 1. Along with his self-worth, his opinion of the faith he was born into was low. He called Jewish people "poor, ill, and unable to command the language of high culture” (Kafka, The Diaries, 8) and tried to distance himself away from them, using them to lift himself. He associated himself with German media, which like many countries at the time, focused heavily on nationalism. This distance from his faith also caused a strain on his family. "As a child, I reproached myself, in accord with you, for not going to the synagogue often enough . . . I thought I was doing a wrong not to myself, but to you . . .” (Kafka, Dearest Father 1). This strained relationship with a parent has been shown to affect a child's mental health, as explained by Virginia C. Salo, Sara J. Schunck, and Kathryn L. Humphreys "Over and above the association with dispositional empathy, depressive symptoms were associated with reduced levels of parents’ affective empathy toward their own child... For fathers, depressive symptoms predicted own-child specific affective empathy, over and above dispositional affective empathy..." (Salo, V. C., Schunck, S. J., & Humphreys, K. L). However, depression was, and still is, a subject to be kept quiet.
The term depression, according to the Etym Online Dictionary, had the "meaning 'dejection, state of sadness, a sinking of the spirits' from early 15c. (as a clinical term in psychology, from 1905);" (Depression (n.).). As such, it was used when Kafka was alive but, as seen in the past, people that are different are not treated fairly by most. Moreover, the treatments for such an illness were not yet developed enough to be helpful for Kafka as they are today.
Kafka had a life full of the hardships that come with depression and understands the effects modern widespread depression has had. He expressed his feelings of being self-conscious and a burden through his writing, both personal and fictional. But, because of the time in which he lived, he would not be able to speak out about his feelings and receive the help he needed.
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
Work Cited
“Depression (Major Depressive Disorder).” Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 14 Oct. 2022, https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/depression/symptoms-causes/syc-20356007.
“Depression (n.).” Etymology, https://www.etymonline.com/word/depression.
Kafka, Franz, and Hannah Stokes. Dearest Father. Alma Classics, 2017.
Kafka, Franz. Metamorphosis. Penguin Classics, 2016.
Kafka, Franz, and Max Brod. The Diaries of Franz Kafka, 1910-23. Vintage, 1999.
Salo, Virginia C., et al. “Depressive Symptoms in Parents Are Associated with Reduced Empathy toward Their Young Children.” PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0230636.
“Why Do People with Depression Feel like a Burden.” Bell Foundation®, 13 Jan. 2020, https://www.bellfoundation.org.au/why-do-people-with-depression-feel-like-a-burden/.
