Rhetorical Analysis 

Caroline Gorham

Professor Hammett

Rhetorical Analysis

24 April 2023

Word Count: 1113

            Infamous for his literary work in absurd fiction, Franz Kafka based his stories off his personal experiences to capture what loneliness and certain mental disorders felt like. Kafka had a tough childhood surrounded by criticism from his family and friends, which left him struggling with his masculinity and mental health in his adult life, “What makes a man a man is not his mouth, nor his mind, nor yet his morals, but discipline… What we need is manliness.” (Gilman 15). Franz Kafka’s abusive childhood brought about many issues in his adult life, which was documented in a series of journals that would later bring attention to his unhealthy habits, “He began writing in a cold sweat at 10 p.m. and did not stop until 6 a.m. the next morning.” (Gilman 56). Franz Kafka suffered from an extreme case of insomnia. On one hand, Kafka would argue that his sleep deprivation led him to his most creative and successful moments. On the other hand, based on his negative experiences, he would claim that more extensive research needed to be conducted for a better understanding of the cause of insomnia and some potential cures. His battle with sleep deprivation was shown within the characters of his stories and in his personal anecdotes.

            Franz Kafka is arguably one of the most influential and creative writers. The main character in “Metamorphosis”, Gregor Samsa, demonstrates many of the negative side effects of sleep deprivation that Kafka could have struggled with. The mentalities of Samsa and Kafka were similar. Both disliked their jobs, had a negative outlook on life, did not sleep well, and they did not easily wake up in the morning- nor did they enjoy it, “’Oh, God’”, he thought, “what a strenuous career it is that I’ve chosen! Travelling day in and day out.” (Kafka 2).  Kafka made himself extremely vulnerable in his stories, opening up about how harmful his mental condition was. Kafka’s sleep deprivation reeked many benefits for his writing style. Most of his books were written in the late hours of the day, when a majority of the world is sleeping, because he was too afraid to sleep. Franz Kafka’s creativity stemmed from his hallucinations:

“In unusual settings, such as sleep- deprivation, sensory deprivation, or medication or drug ingestion, the brain attends to exogenous and endogenous activities simultaneously, resulting in hallucinations, or wakeful dreaming.” (Mahowald Et. Al. 1).

In a letter to his fiancée, Kafka said that the visions he had every night “shaped themselves into literature”. Ultimately, Kafka’s hallucinations built the foundation for his success, proving his insomnia and sleep deprivation to be beneficial in this scenario.

            After a while, Franz Kafka finally sought professional help for his mental issues. Sleep deprivation is caused by mental health issues as well as causes them, “Forty percent of those with insomnia and 46.5% of those with hypersomnia had a psychiatric disorder compared with 16.4% of those with no sleep complaints.” (Ford Et. Al. 1). It has been found that Kafka did not have the best, most stable childhood. His journals revealed that he was consistently body shamed and being compared to his father. It was also discovered that he never formed an emotional attachment to either of his parents because of his father’s abuse and his mother’s inability and refusal to stop it. Modern research and studies have found a direct correlation between mental health and sleep deprivation and how one effects the other. For example, if someone suffers from a mental health disorder like depression, they are likely to experience some form of sleep deprivation. On the other hand, if someone is not getting the recommended eight hours of sleep at night, they are at risk of developing a severe mental health disorder. In Franz Kafka’s case, he was mentally and physically ignored and abused, which led to the development of several mental health disorders, including anxiety and depression. His self-deprecating and anxious thoughts would not allow him to relax long enough to sleep, and eventually he started to experience symptoms of insomnia (The Diaries of Franz Kafka).

As it was previously stated, Kafka’s insomnia left both a positive and negative impact on his life. Without it, he would not have continued writing, and even if he did, his stories such as “Metamorphosis” and “The Trial”- which reflected everything he was going through- would most likely have not gotten published. He was able to use his sleep deprived hallucinations and abusive childhood and turn them into stories that changed literature forever. On the negative side, his mental health was largely affected. Franz Kafka eventually asked a professional for help, and it unfortunately did not work. All in all, Kafka would most likely been an advocate for finding solutions to sleep deprivation, including therapy and spas.

The level of absurdity in Kafka’s work was something that had never been seen before. The audience was amazed at how well he was able to express what certain disorders felt like. Since he died, several studies have been conducted to prove the connection between mental health and sleep. Kafka often expressed what he knew about his disorders into his writing, “He slid back into his former position. “Getting up early all the time”, he thought, “it makes you stupid. You’ve got to get enough sleep.” (Kafka 2). This quote from “Metamorphosis” reflects how important an adequate amount of sleep is for health:

“Some of the most essential cognitive capacities to survival include the ability to acquire new information, commit such information to long-term storage, and effectively retrieve that information when needed – in other words, learning and memory. A large and growing literature suggests that sleep is critical to learning and memory, and when sleep is hindered, memory processing is correspondingly degraded (Diekelmann and Born, 2010, Goel et al., 2009, Walker and Stickgold, 2006).” (Kilgore 1).

Sleep is vital in intelligence. Based on his own experience, Kafka understood the major impact sleep had on his life, but was unable to change it due to mental health issues.

His unique and unhinged style of writing was predominately from his lack of sleep. Sleep deprivation is a serious issue that has been around for thousands of years. It was not until the publication of Franz Kafka’s journals that the link between his creative writing and mental illness became apparent. It inspired many studies over the link between mental health and the amount of sleep that is needed for a functional day.  All in all, Franz Kafka would say that the negative impact of sleep deprivation far outweighs what good it gave him. Inadequate sleep has too large of an effect on mental and physical health to be ignored any longer.

           

 

           

 

 

Works Cited

Felisati, D, and G Sperati. “Famous Figures: Franz Kafka (1883-1924).” Acta Otorhinolaryngologica Italica : Organo Ufficiale Della Societa Italiana Di Otorinolaringologia e Chirurgia Cervico-Facciale, U.S. National Library of Medicine, Oct. 2005, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2639911/.

Ford, Daniel E. “Epidemiologic Study of Sleep Disturbances and Psychiatric Disorders.” JAMA, JAMA Network, 15 Sept. 1989, https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/378663.

Kafka, Franz, et al. The Metamorphosis. Del Prado Publishers/Ediciones Del Prado, 1915.

Kilgore, William D.S. “Effects of Sleep Deprivation on Cognition.” Progress in Brain Research, Elsevier, 12 Nov. 2010, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/B9780444537027000075.

Mahowald, Mark W., et al. “Sleeping Dreams, Waking Hallucinations, and the Central Nervous System - Dreaming.” SpringerLink, Kluwer Academic Publishers, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/B:DREM.0000005899.59224.17.

“Physical and Mental Conditions and Their Causes.” Franz Kafka, 8 Mar. 2019, https://kafkamuseum.cz/en/franz-kafka/illnesses/physical-and-mental-conditions-and-their-causes/.

Sajeeta, Sandhya, et al. “Adverse Childhood Experiences Are Associated with Adult Sleep Disorders: A Systematic Review.” Sleep Medicine, Elsevier, 21 Jan. 2015, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1389945715000404.