The Thief

The probing into the psychology of nonconforming personalities reveals itself

also in The Thief. In this story, a young man shares the discomfort and
embarrassment with his university dormitory roommates as one by one they
admit their shame at having suspected the narrator as the perpetrator of
recent thefts. Readers can hardly avoid sympathizing with the young man as
he reveals his private thoughts about the unfortunate, painful admissions by
others who suspect and distrust him. Then one suddenly discovers that this
sensitive young man, in fact, truly is the thief. In fact, the thief boasts that, with
an outward show of innocence, he can deceive not only roommates and
readers but also himself.

Summary
Ferdinand Kugler dies in a gunfight with a police officer. Numerous warrants
for his arrest are outstanding, and at the time of his death, he is a fugitive from
an army of police officers and detectives. In Heaven, an overworked network
of courts faces the chaotic task of delineating which souls will be allowed to
remain and which will be sentenced to Hell. As a result of the number and
severity of his crimes, Kugler must wait an indeterminate period until his case
can be judged. For the same reason, his case is reserved for a special panel
of three judges rather than a jury.

The defendant must state his name, occupation, and the dates of his birth and
death. Kuglers inability to remember the date of his death bodes poorly with
the judges, intensifying his own naturally contentious attitude. Without further
formalities, the presiding judge summons the sole witness in Kuglers case:
God. Before God testifies, the presiding judge explains why God need not
swear the oath and then instructs him to avoid particulars that have no legal
bearing on the case. The judge also warns Kugler against interrupting the
witness, pointing out that it would be useless to deny any part of Gods
testimony.

God begins with a brief statement on Kuglers unruliness as a child. The

defendants first crime was his failure to express his love for his mother. When
God describes Kuglers first act of larcenystealing a rose from the notarys
garden before...

Themes and Meanings

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Karel apeks brief, simple tale is surprising in its reversal of conventional

wisdom that it is for God alone, not humans, to judge. Presumably, the judicial
system of apeks Heaven is ultimately of Gods design. His apparent refusal to
take more than a secondary role in judging souls presents a God who values
impartiality as highly as mercy. It seems as though Gods assumed capacity
for mercy would only lead him to violate his own code of sin and retribution.
One might ask who better to judge than he who knows all? However, Gods
all-knowing view seems to dictate that the strain of mercy would only
contaminate the fair rationing of justice. He explains to Kugler that if the
judges knew everything, they too would not be able to judge fairly: They
would understand everything, and their hearts would ache.

Kuglers crimes fall into two distinct categories, felonies and misdemeanors.
The crimes of his youth hardly strike one as extraordinary or heinous. It is in
maturity that he commits his numerous felonies. In fact, several of Kuglers
earlier crimes take their motives from basic human impulses or frailties, for
which the average reader may feel sympathy. Although it is Gods place to tell
the complete story, it is the judges to view the crimes and not the criminal.
apek implies a kind of original-sin theory, suggesting that everyone is capable
of the kind of misdemeanors that Kugler has committed, and that everyone is
vulnerable to judgment. The number of Kuglers felonies merely intensifies the
question.

The judges disinterest in Kuglers few good points presents them as less than
impartial. Their desire is to keep their court running smoothly, to hear only
about the defendants crimes, only those matters that have a legal bearing on
the case. In his testimony, God discusses the good and evil sides of Kuglers
character, as though both aspects do indeed have a bearing on the case, but
even he defers to the judges instructions. He finally explains, not without
irony, that humans deserve each other, a sad note on human failure to make
better use of the free will that he has given them.
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The Last Judgment is one of forty-eight short tales that apek wrote
expressing his interest in crime fiction. Looking to the Bible and earlier, crime
narratives have remained a popular and entertaining method for exploring the
diverse capacities of human nature. apeks interest in the genre may not be
unique or innovative in itself, but his unabashed irreverence brings a
refreshingly humorous flavor to the form.

The courts in apeks Heaven are the same in appearance and protocol as
those on Earth. This parody of judicial protocol works with very little actual
exaggeration of the basic court system but merely by transposing the system
into a sublime context; though exceptions, as is the wont of parody, do exist.
Rather than stating a predetermined list of charges, the presiding judge asks
Kugler what he considers himself to be guilty of, to which the defendant claims
total innocence. The use of God as Kuglers trial witness, in knowing more
about the defendant than the defendant himself does, is apeks method of
pointing out the more natural predilection for believing in ones guilt until
proven innocent.

The portrayal of the system is basic enough as to be immediately

recognizable in nearly any culture, during nearly any period of the twentieth
century. Placing the panel of judges, human souls, in a position of authority
causes them to appear bumbling and officious, even, and perhaps especially,
during the storys more...

(The entire section is 402 words.)

<Back To Teaching Specific Texts

The Last Judgement
Submitted by Taylor Stoehr (profile)
Title and Author: The Last Judgement by Karel Capek
Genre: Short story (an ironic Czech parable)
Theme: Judgment and punishment
Class type: Men's group, mostly black and Hispanic, inexperienced readers

We use this story for our final class, usually in combination with another story (recently, Tolstoy's God
Sees the Truth But Waits). Our basic text all semester has been Frederick Douglass's Narrative of the
Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, which we read in small segments coupled with
supplementary texts, nonfiction and fiction, matched thematically with Douglass. At the end of the
semester, however, we will have finished Douglass before coming to this final assignment. The thematic
material of the previous week's meeting has to do with "hitting bottom," despair, and forgiveness - themes
that are now picked up, in Capek's story from a different angle. The story raises questions about the right
of any human being to judge another, while at the same time acknowledging that such judgment is
necessary in the modern social order.

In the story, a murderer dies and faces judgment. God appears, not as judge, but as witness, knowing
everything. When the murderer asks why God is not his judge, the reply is that knowing everything about
a man precludes being able to judge him. The story is very short and straightforward, though it has this
rather sophisticated message. It can give rise, in the classroom, to considerable excitement in students
who, after all, have recently been judged, for it brings into a new focus the problems of guilt and
innocence and the nature of judgment and punishment. Sometimes students express anger at society,
sometimes they experience a new sense of compassion, or a new conception of the nature of justice. It's
hard to predict.

Most recently, at our graduation ceremony, one student made a speech while accepting his diploma, and
in the midst of it, he turned to the judges to tell them the plot of this story, and charged them to remember
that they were only human beings too, judging other human beings. This is a good story for getting some
closure on problems of "re-entry" into civil society after having been judged and punished by its
representatives. If you have a judge sitting in on your classes, it's an especially provocative selection.

Transcript of The Thief

Junichiro Tanizaki
He was born in Nihonbashi, Japan, on July 24, 1886
From a young age he was interested in literature and traditional Japanese culture
In 1921 he wrote
The Thief

He had a fascination with both modernized western culture, and traditional Japanese culture, so his
writings were a fusion of those cultures
After WWII, he won many prestigious awards and recognitions including:
The Ashahi Prize
designated a Person of Cultural Merit
first Japanese writer to become a member in the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters
regarded as Japan's greatest contemporary author until his death
On July 30th, 1965, he died of a heart attack
Characters
1: Narrator:
The character that this story is centralized around is nameless, but is very important to the story. The story
is told in his point of view, and he is the thief mentioned in the title.
2: Hirata:
Hirata suspects the main character of being the thief and catches him stealing. Even after the story ends,
the main character in influenced by him when stealing.
3: Nakamura:
This character is the narrator's friend and doesn't suspect him of being the thief like Hirata does.
Nakamura is important because he comforts the main character and is his friend.
4: Higuchi:
Higuchi defends the main character to the judge when the robbery is being investigated. He trusts the
main character and doesn't think he is the thief. He is important because he shows that not everyone
suspected the main character like Hirata did.
Examples of Literary Terms
Foreshadowing:
Higuchi; I think I could be friends with any other kind of person [criminal], but a thief seems to belong
to a different species.
Euphemism:
"A thief belongs to a different species." This uses the words 'different species,' to make the point that
thieves are less than people.
Foil:
Hirata is the narrator's foil because he is honorable and respected, while the main character is shady and a
thief.
Theme
The theme of The Thief is to be honest. The conflict of the story could have been avoided if the main
character had just been honest to his peers in the first place.
Another theme is betrayal. Because the main character stole, he betrayed Higuchi and Nakamura's trust.
By stealing, he lost his friends at the university.
Summary of The Thief
The Thief
by Junichiro Tanizaki
The Thief
starts off with four friends hanging out in their study at Tokyo Imperial University. Hirata, Nakamura,
Higuchi, and the narrator started talking about the robbery that had taken place in the University. The
thief had been seen with a wisteria family crest sewn on his coat, which so happened to be identical to the
one the narrator had. After hearing about this, Hirata had started to suspect the narrator as the criminal,
which stirred a guilty feeling within the narrator. Hirata had never considered the narrator his friend, and
pretty much hated him, so the fact that the narrator had always admired and respected Hirata, meant
nothing to him.

The more the three friends analyzed the robbery, the more suspicious Hirata got. Although Higuchi and
Nakamura trusted the narrator and believed he had nothing to do with it, it didn't help the fact that the
narrator was overflowing with self denial and guilt. The narrator had been in denial so long that he ended
up proving Hirata right, that he was the thief, by stealing from Hirata himself and getting caught by him.
The setting of this story is Tokyo Imperial University in Tokyo, Japan.
Carley and Madison