In America Karl Rossmann is 'packed off to America by his parents' to experience Oedipal & cultural isolation Here ordinary immigrants are also strange & ' America' is never quite as real as it should be Kafka a Czech writing in German never acutally visited America; so as Max Brod commented 'the innocence of his fantasy gives this book if advanture its peculiar colour' Both Joseph K in The Trial & K in The Castle are victims of anonymous governing forces beyond their control Both are atomised estranged & rootless citizens decieved by authoritarian power Whereas Joseph K is relentlessly hunted down for a crime that remains nameless K ceaselessly attempts to enter the castle & so belong somewhere Together these novels may be read as powerful allegories of totalitarian government in whatever guise it appears today