Letter to His Father Summary

Franz Kafka writes that his father, Hermann Kafka, recently asked why Kafka maintains he is afraid of him. Kafka said he will try to answer, but it will be incomplete because he is, as he says, afraid of his father. His father has worked hard his whole life, without asking for thanks, but Kafka feels he should have given him some gratitude instead of hiding in his room with books, and not visiting his father. Kafka wishes his father had been related to him some other way, because then they might have gotten along better. Kafka was a timid child, not enough like the strong, dominant man who was his father. His father wanted to bring him up a strong boy, but Kafka's nature rebelled against his father's methods of instruction. He thinks his father should have...