Rhetorical Essay

Kacie Stegall

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(ENG1213-07) English Composition II

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Professor Hammett

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Essay 2 Rhetorical Analysis Essay

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18 November 2024

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Word count 685

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                          Franz Kafka and Mental Health Struggles

    Franz Kafka was a Bohemian known author from Prague who was born into Jewish family. Kafka used the way he authored stories to imply and suggest how his life was. The way Kafka wrote was a representation of his life and what endured in his life, the abuse he encountered, the conflict with his family, and the mental health issues. He also endured a combination of all these mental health issues that created a great writer. Kafka was not a binge drinker but enjoyed beer, wine, and only really drank while he was eating a meal. 

    Kafka endured many forms of abuse from his father, this could cause someone to start the habit of binge drinking as someone wants to be numb and not think of what their reality was. For Kafka though, “His most joyous — and meaningful — memories of beer were of the drinking sessions he shared with his father. But these memories were also inextricably allied with the twin sites of his childhood humiliation: the dining table and the swimming pool.(Martyris, For Kafka, even beer came with baggage 2016)”        Even though his father abused him mentally and verbally, their most meaningful times were when they were eating a meal and having a drink together, this does not make lead me to believe that Kafka had a drinking problem just wanted to connect with his father some way somehow. 

   The conflict that Kafka had with his family was more with his father than any other members of his family. Kafka and his father had different personalities, which caused them to not get along or have anything in common. Kafka and his father had no common interest, no common language, and the only thing that they did together was drink. “The only time his father had a word of praise for him, wrote Kafka, was when "I was able to eat heartily or even drink beer with my meals. (Martyris, For Kafka, even beer came with baggage 2016. Kafka looked for praise from this father and never received the love or what he needed from his father emotionally. The only times that Kafka felt connected with his father were when they would sit down for a meal together and have a glass of wine or beer. He never resorted to binge drinking and did not think he was ever really drunk as he hated the feeling of not being in control of his body. 

    Kafka had a few struggles that were the result of his absurd writing. He struggled with insomnia, the thoughts of suicide, and later ended but with tuberculosis that caused a lung disease. “I am mentally handicapped; the lung disease is none other than an overflow of the mental disease.” Kafka goes as far as defining lung tuberculosis, from which he is suffering, as spiritual disease. (Felisati & Sperati, 2005)” He had the first thoughts of ending his life due to being dissatisfied with his life, constant sense of fault from his life. There was one time he ever really contemplated it. That was when his sister Ottla had sided with his parents over him, his sister was the only one that was able to communicate with him and understand him. Again, after all Kafka went through, he did not resort to binge drinking. 

         Taking everything into account Kafka could have easily resorted to binge drinking but he did not. He did not like the feeling of being drunk. Binge drinking is when a person has more than two or three drinks in an hour, which gets a person intoxicated. Kafka did not resort to binge drinking even after the abuse of his father, which could have easily led someone to drink. The conflict with his father always and the never feeling like he was enough for his father could have been another reason he resorted to binge drinking or drinking period, but he did not. Kafka’s mental illness and disease at the end of his life could have resulted in him becoming addicted to drinking but it did not, and he remained sober until he passed away. 

                                      References Page

Felisati, D., & Sperati, G. (2005, October). Famous figures: Franz Kafka (1883-1924). Acta otorhinolaryngologica Italica : organo ufficiale della Societa italiana di otorinolaringologia e chirurgia cervico-facciale. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2639911/

Martyris, N. (2016, April 11). For Kafka, even beer came with baggage. NPR. https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/04/11/473158881/for-kafka-even-beer-came-with-baggage