On this day 142 years ago, on July 3, 1883 (May 29, 1883), the Austrian writer Franz Kafka was born. Franz Kafka (July 3, 1883 - June 3, 1924), a 20th-century German novelist. The writing is clear and imaginative, often in allegorical style. The underlying allegory is unique, and there is no (or never) conclusion. The unique approach has led to the recognition of Kafka as a pioneer in various genres of writing in the 20th century. Kafka was born in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic (then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire), to a Jewish merchant family. He was the eldest son of the family and had three younger sisters (and two younger brothers who died prematurely). Since childhood, he has been interested in literature and drama. He entered the University of Prague at the age of 18, studied chemistry, literature, and law, and obtained a doctorate. After graduation, he worked in an insurance company. He was engaged many times, but never married. He died of tuberculosis at the age of 41. In 1904, Kafka began to publish novels, and his early works were influenced by Expressionism. One night in 1912, he wrote a short story "The Judgment" overnight, establishing his own unique style. During his lifetime, he published a single volume and collection of seven novels. After his death, his friend Max Brod (Max Brod) disobeyed his last words and sorted out the manuscripts for him. He published three novels (none of which were finalized), as well as letters and diaries, and wrote a biography for him. Kafka was an amateur writer who wrote in German. Together with the French writer Marcel Proust and the Irish writer James Joyce, he is known as the pioneer and master of Western modernist literature. Kafka was unknown during his lifetime and struggled alone. As time went by, his value gradually became known to people. His work caused a shock in the world and formed a "Kafka" craze around the world, which lasted for a long time. Later critics often overemphasized the dark side of Kafka's work and ignored its bright and interesting aspects. Milan Kundera tried to correct this in "The Betrayed Will" (Lestestamentstrahis). In fact, according to Browder's recollection, Kafka liked to read his works aloud in front of friends, and when he read proud passages, he could not help but laugh. Kafka's works were not many in his life, but his influence on later literature was profound. According to the American poet Auden: "His relationship to our time is most similar to that of Dante, Shakespeare, Goethe and their times." Kafka's novels reveal an absurd irrational scene, personal, melancholy, lonely emotions, and use symbolic techniques. The Surrealist remnants of the 1930s and 1940s regarded him as a colleague, the absurdists of the 1940s and 1950s pioneered him, and the American "black humor" of the 1960s held him up as a model. Kafka was born into a Jewish merchant family in Prague. His father was rude and tyrannical. He ignored his son's studies and life, and only occasionally reprimanded him - he wanted to raise his son to be a strong and capable young man, but the result was counterproductive. Kafka always had an irremovable fear of his father in his heart. The resulting sensitivity, cowardice, and withdrawn and melancholy temperament made Kafka's book a spiritual portrayal of the capitalist society of that era: alienation phenomenon, difficult loneliness and sense of crisis, insurmountable absurdity and fear. In Kafka's "Metamorphosis", due to heavy physical and spiritual oppression, people lose their own essence and become alienated into inhumans. Another short story, "The Hungry Artist," describes the manager holding hunger strikers in iron cages for forty days to perform. By the end of the performance, the hunger striker was too skinny to support. He was later hired by a circus to keep his cage close to the animal farm so that tourists could see him when they went to see the animals. But people forgot to change the day card, and the hunger strikers went on an indefinite hunger strike and finally starved to death. The hunger artists here have effectively become animals. Other novels reveal the absurdity and irrationality of the real world, such as "The Verdict" and the famous "Village Doctor". Here, reality and non-reality factors are intertwined. Through these absurd details and mysterious mists, the moral here is that human beings are suffering from very serious diseases, which have made the body hopeless. Some diseases of human society cannot be cured by doctors, and the doctors here eventually become homeless.