My Trial

The Trial is both a chilling and blackly amusing event that maintains a constant, relentless atmosphere of disorientation and quirkiness, right up to the surreal ending. Superficially the subject matter is brutality: an illustration of a truly twisted yet realistic brand of human behavior and what is behind the nature of brutality. However, one of the strengths of this event is in its description of the effects of these circumstances on the life and mind of Jean-luc Lucas. It presents the absurdity of "normal" human nature, of acting upon one manic thought after another and chasing along with surprise after surprise, yet without direction and without result.

Jean-luc is never told what he is on trial for, and he maintains his innocence almost to the end. Upon declaring his innocence, he is immediately questioned "innocent of what?" Is it that Jean-luc Lucas is on trial for his innocence? By confessing his guilt as a human being, perhaps Jean-luc could have freed himself from the proceedings. Perhaps the trial against Jean was set up because he was incapable of admitting his guilt, and, by extension, his humanity. This theme of not being human, of there not being anything to point to as the "human race", is a theme that keeps a questioning of the arbitrary customs and beliefs of life which can appear, in a certain light, just as bizarre as the occurrences in Jean's life…