As I said last week, let’s dive back into Kafka’s “Description of a Struggle,” specifically the “Fat Man” section (PDF, pp. 44 to 68), which I believe should get its own dedicated post. Indeed, this is not a straightforward narrative! Kafka introduces a complex, intertwined structure, replicating the story’s surreal and disorienting effect. The tale unfolds like a set of Russian dolls (think One Thousand and One Nights) or a big-fish-eats-little-fish arrangement, each layer exposing a fresh and stranger subplot.
At the outermost layer, we find the frame story we discussed in last week’s post. It centres on the unnamed narrator and his eccentric acquaintance wandering the streets of Prague. However, this frame soon dissolves, propelling the narrator into a phantasmagoric journey where he mounts his friend’s back and alters the cityscape through the power of his mind. But wait, there’s more! This sequence gives way to a new layer—the story of the Fat Man being carried on a litter, who, in turn, relates the tale of the Praying Supplicant, whose tale further fragments into a dialogue with a Drunken Man, creating a dizzying effect of stories-within-stories, all weaving in and out of one another, echoing and distorting each other.
Each subplot appears to function under its peculiar, illogical, nightmarish logic, where characters and occurrences intermingle in a manner that challenges traditional storytelling techniques, producing a sense of endless regression and vertigo, where reader and narrator keep tumbling down a rabbit hole of increasingly bizarre and unsettling visions. So, no, Cloud Atlas wasn’t that groundbreaking; “Description of a Struggle” truly is!
Anyhow, let’s now address the elephant in the room (or rather, the obese gentleman on the litter) and take a closer look at that “Fat Man” section.
The segment opens with the striking image of four naked men transporting a “monstrously fat man” on a wooden litter through dense undergrowth—echoing the motif of the narrator getting onto the acquaintance’s back (see previous section), which possibly also alludes to the legend of Saint Christopher, crossing a river with Baby Jesus (controlling the elements) on his shoulders. At any rate, Kafka doesn’t shy away from the ugly or the absurd. On the contrary, he embraces it. The description of the Fat Man’s physical appearance is almost cartoonishly grotesque: “His folds of fat were so carefully spread out that although they covered the whole litter [they] hung down its side like the hem of a yellowish carpet.”1 The corpulent individual is seated in “Oriental fashion,” allowing brambles and thorns to thrust through his body, unaffected by the pain. This grotesque, larger-than-life figure is reminiscent of a Buddha or bodhisattva figure, seated in the lotus position and establishes the surreal, irrational setting that follows.
The Fat Man then laments how the landscape “disturbs [his] thought” and makes his “reflections sway like suspension bridges in a furious current.” Here, Kafka masterfully conveys a sense of alienation from the natural world—a twist to the traditional Buddhist deities, who are generally linked to nature. The mountain is personified as “so vain, so obtrusive and vindictive,” capable of casting a “jagged shadow” and thrusting “terrible bare walls” in front of the Fat Man.2 Similar to the previous sections (A Ride, A Walk), the whole landscape transforms in response to his speech. Mountains disappear, roads intersect, and everything loses its “lovely outline.”3 In a way, this distorted reality mirrors the characters’ inner anxieties.
This general sense of unease and suffocation culminates in a surreal episode when the bearers transporting the Fat Man on the litter start to sink into a “muddy swamp”, their sweat glistening in the “cool air of this unsettled afternoon.” At the same time, over their heads, wild ducks rise “shrieking, mounting steeply into the rain cloud,” echoing the man’s growing apprehension. Finally, the bearers sink into the river, pulling the litter down in a moment of silent catastrophe.
Point blank, we move one level down and find the Fat Man (not fat anymore/yet) in a church, witnessing a Supplicant’s unconventional prayer. Strikingly, this scene foreshadows the conversation between Jospeph K. and the priest inside the cathedral at the end of The Trial. However, the Supplicant’s head-banging ritual is not merely a farcical and disquieting spectacle. It may symbolise his struggle (another one!) to transcend the confines of his own mind and engage with a higher power, or simply an attempt to draw the attention of other human beings, a silent cry for help, for love: he tells the Fat Man, he needs to “let myself be nailed down for a brief hour by those eyes.”4
The Supplicant then (on another level down) speaks to a drunkard on the street, mistaking him for a French nobleman (?), and says, “I am twenty-three years of age, but as yet I have no name.” This weird lack of a name implies a lack of identity, perhaps a sensation of drifting through life without a defined place or purpose. This theme of namelessness recurs throughout Kafka’s works, reflecting his characters’ struggles to establish their identities amidst a world that is indifferent or hostile to their existence. Kafka’s own sense of displacement—being a German-speaking Jew in a catholic, Czech-speaking country—likely inspired this motif, which will resurface in his later works, such as The Trial and The Castle, where the protagonists’ identities are reduced to just “Joseph K.” or even the single initial “K.”
Ultimately, the “Fat Man” segment culminates with him floating down the river “like a yellow wooden idol which had become useless.” He is reduced to a rejected object at the mercy of vast, impersonal forces. At its core, “Description of a Struggle” grapples with themes that would define Kafka’s later works: the individual’s futile struggle and the blurring of the line between dream and reality.
In essence, all these bizarre events seem to materialise out of Kafka’s unrestrained imagination, and therefore, the narrative appears to illustrate the boundless power of language: how it shapes situations and transforms them at whim, often capriciously and without constraint, in any conceivable manner. And yet, paradoxically, language itself appears to disintegrate, as the characters’ conversations frequently devolve into incoherent babble devoid of intelligible content. As a result, the text mirrors the broader issue of expression and communication in a reality where conventional systems of significance run wild and ultimately fall apart.
Kafka viewed “Description of a Struggle” as a literary crucible, where he could experiment with the themes and techniques that would shape his unique writing style. In his diary, he later would express his resolve to face “this tremendous world I have inside of me”, even if it meant tearing himself apart. What “Description of a Struggle” reveals is one of Kafka’s initial endeavours to unleash that monstrous world within him, which involves self-sacrifice and tearing oneself apart. The result is a captivating insight into the young writer’s mind, posing questions that would continue to plague him in later life. It resembles a fractured mirror, distorting images of Kafka’s anxieties and obsessions.
“Description of a Struggle” is undeniably original, but it also shows the influence of some of Kafka’s contemporaries. Stach notes that “the influence of Hofmannsthal is apparent, because one passage makes direct reference to Hofmannsthal’s ‘Lord Chandos Letter,’ the theme of which is skepticism about language; and the appearance of the fat man carried through the river ‘in Oriental fashion’ could have been inspired by Japanese art.”5 However, Stach also emphasises that Kafka was “still isolated at this time, working in secret, and indifferent to the erosion of his immediate cultural milieu.”6 He was already exploring his own unique style rather than conforming to the literary trends of the time:
Kafka made no attempt to follow in the footsteps of the great writers; instead, he experimented from the outset with his own diction, unsure of whether it could function as literature, and whose aesthetic possibilities he had to tease out himself for lack of suitable models.7
What is the point of all this, then? There are no clear answers when it comes to Kafka. Yet, “Description of a Struggle” does force readers to confront their preconceived notions, particularly regarding storytelling, literature and, more broadly, the structures of meaning. It is a crucial part of Kafka’s literary jigsaw, with its eerie, nightmarish imagery—a precursor, in many ways, to the distinctive voice that would later define Kafka. At any rate, this experimental work provides a rare insight into the creative process of a writer who would significantly influence the trajectory of modern literature.
A couple of parting freebies. Firts, an experimental indie short film inspired by “Description of a Struggle”. Released in 1993, it was directed by Tony Pemberton, who also stars in it alongside the delightful Parker Posey:
Second,
’s terrific article on Kafka’s diaries and sketches (fresh out of the oven):But what about you? Does “Description of a Struggle” enhance your understanding of Kafka, or do you find it too opaque to be valuable? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.
ComStor, Schocken Books, p. 25.
Ibid., p. 26.
Ibid., p. 27.
Ibid., p. 33.
Stach, The Early Years, 2017, loc. 5484.
Ibid., loc. 5525.
Ibid., loc. 5495.