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Kafka shows the nature of judgment through an explorer¡¯s experience in his short story, ¡°In the Penal Colony.¡± The explorer, invited to witness the execution of a disobedient soldier, is introduced to the machine that delivers death to the condemned man. The officer in charge of the execution is a fervent admirer of the machine, and as he enthusiastically explains how the machine functions in detail, he attempts to convince the explorer to support …

…new commandant¡¯s laziness and biased judgment cannot be trusted either. Kafka makes an analogy between the failure of the machine and human lives: as the unjust machine acts to perform justice, imperfect humans try to judge what is right and wrong, and this paradox brings failure and confusion to both machine and human lives. Extending this analogy, Kafka clearly states that there is no true judgment on earth as desmonstrated in the Penal Colony.