卡夫卡在他的第一个长篇小说《美国》中 ,采用了狄更斯的笔法 ,对西方文化的演进历程及其本质特征 ,进行了一次深刻的检讨。年轻的主人公卡尔·罗斯曼被放逐美国的经历 ,形象地概括了两千年来西方基督教文化发展的基本过程 ;小说第七章关于“俄克拉何马露天剧场”大招聘的场面和卡尔应聘过程的描写 ,可以很自然地使人联想到20世纪初处于普遍的信仰危机中的西方文化的种种症状 ,特别是第一次世界大战爆发之际的混乱情景。卡夫卡通过卡尔放逐“美国”的经历的描写来隐喻西方文化 ,旨在对作为西方文化关键词的“自由”概念进行深入的反思 :人的自由 ,本质上是与人的放逐同体共生的 ,人类因欲自由而遭放逐 ,被迫的放逐使其获得了有限的自由 ,而彻底的自由则意味着彻底的放逐 In his first novel “The United States,” Kafka used Dickens’ method to conduct a profound review of the evolution of Western culture and its essential characteristics. Karl Roseman, the young protagonist, was banished from the United States and vividly summarized the basic process of the development of western Christian culture for two thousand years. The seventh chapter about the big recruitment of “Oklahoma Amphitheater” and the application of Carl’s Candidate The portrayal, naturally, reminiscent of the symptoms of Western culture in the universal crisis of belief of the early twentieth century, especially the chaotic scene of the outbreak of the First World War. Kafka metaphorized Western culture through the description of Carl’s banishment of “American” experiences in order to deeply reflect on the concept of “freedom” as a key word in Western culture: human freedom is essentially symbiotic with human exile , Human beings are banished for want of freedom, and forced exile gives them limited freedom, while total freedoms mean total exile