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I have some preliminary reactions to my first reading of the book.
Even though it deals with an individual in conflict with a state, I don't think it is in the least political. The place and time of the story and the nature of the political and legal system involved are too vague for this to be satire. There is nothing specific enough to be satirized.
The Trial has a dream-like quality in which events don’t follow a realistic logic. If the book is about something it is about Joseph K’s thoughts and emotions, particularly his anxieties.
I think it needs to be experienced and not interpreted. I don’t think it is an allegory. It can’t be reduced to some succinct and specific meaning.
We can all relate to it because we have all had experiences that in some way resemble it. We were all children who had to follow rules that we didn’t understand. We all have faced or have known those who have faced life-threatening illnesses (or other catastrophes) that strike without reason, like Joseph K’s unexpected arrest. At the most general level, we all have to make decisions, including very important ones, without having adequate information to make them wisely.
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