"The Trees"
Humanity is compared to tree trunks in the snow. It appears that with a gentle push we could move them, but we cannot because they are firmly attached to the ground. That too is only apparent. This work uses tree trunks in the snow as a comparison to human beings. They appear to be able to be moved with a gentle push, like humans appear to be able to be moved easily. The tree trunks apparently cannot be moved because they are firmly rooted to the ground, much like humans are rooted to their beliefs and morals and cannot be changed. However, even if trees don't move they are not so firmly rooted, since they eventually fall down —just as humans eventually died.
A comics adaptation of the story, illustrated by Peter Kuper, is included in Give It Up!.
Read more about this topic: Contemplation (Kafka), The Stories
Famous quotes containing the word trees:
“Then now is the chance for the flowers
That can’t stand mowers and plowers.
It must be now, though, in season
Before the not mowing brings trees on....”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“At the heart of all beauty lies something inhuman, and these hills, the softness of the sky, the outline of these trees at this very minute lose the illusory meaning with which we had clothed them, henceforth more remote than a lost paradise ... that denseness and that strangeness of the world is absurd.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)