The Refusal

The Refusal (Die Abweisung) is a short story by Franz Kafka. Written in the autumn of 1920, it was not published in Kafka's lifetime.

The story involves the narration of a young boy living in a small town that is fairly distanced from its capital. The boy reflects on how the town's inhabitants humbly submit to orders issued by the capital and are led by the tax-collector, a man with the rank of colonel. The boy goes into great detail describing the soldiers that uphold the tax-collector's law, and how they appear inhuman to the public and seem unable to speak their language. In times of crisis, the town always appeals to the colonel for government aid, and if it is anything serious, it is always refused. The final paragraph describes the narrator's observation that it is due to this situation that '...young people roughly between seventeen and twenty.' begin to feel discontent and find revolutionary ideas because they are incapable of foreseeing the consequences.

References

Kafka, Franz. The Complete Stories. New York: Schocken Books, 1995. p. 263-268.

Works by Franz Kafka

Novels

Der Process (The Trial)
Das Schloss (The Castle)
Amerika

Short stories

1902–12	"Shamefaced Lanky and Impure in Heart" "Description of a Struggle" "Wedding Preparations in the Country" "Das Urteil" ("The Judgement") "The Stoker" "Die Verwandlung" ("The Metamorphosis") "The Aeroplanes At Brescia"

1914–17	"In the Penal Colony" "The Village Schoolmaster" ("The Giant Mole") "Before the Law" "Blumfeld, an Elderly Bachelor" "The Warden of the Tomb" "A Country Doctor" "The Hunter Gracchus" "The Great Wall of China" "A Message from the Emperor" "A Report to an Academy" "A Dream" "Up in the Gallery" "A Fratricide" "The Next Village" "A Visit to a Mine" "Jackals and Arabs" "The Bridge" "The Bucket Rider" "The New Advocate" "An Old Manuscript" "The Knock at the Manor Gate" "Eleven Sons" "My Neighbor" "A Crossbreed" "The Cares of a Family Man"

1917–23	"The Refusal" "A Hunger Artist" "Investigations of a Dog" "A Little Woman" "The Burrow" "Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse Folk" "A Common Confusion" "The Truth about Sancho Panza" "The Silence of the Sirens" "Prometheus" "The City Coat of Arms" "Poseidon" "Fellowship" "At Night" "The Problem of Our Laws" "The Conscription of Troops" "The Test" "The Vulture" "The Helmsman" "The Top" "A Little Fable" "Home-Coming" "First Sorrow" "The Departure" "Advocates" "The Married Couple" "Give It Up!" "On Parables"

Short story
collections

Betrachtung (Contemplation) (1912)
Ein Landarzt (A Country Doctor) (1919)
Ein Hungerkünstler (A Hunger Artist) (1924)
Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer (The Great Wall of China) (1931)
The Complete Stories
The Sons
The Penal Colony
Parables and Paradoxes
Dearest Father
Description of a Struggle

Diaries and
notebooks

Letters

Professional
writings

The Office Writings

Bibliography