human vs. Kafkaesque institution theme
A character encounters a labyrinthine and overpowering bureaucracy so extreme that it beggars belief.
Examples
Eponymous Franz Kafka describes such a bureaucracy in "The Trial" (1925), wherein Josef K struggles to descry what crime he has been charged with, and to meet the various impossible demands made on him by a remote and faceless judiciary.
5 total · 1 choice · 2 major · 2 minor
| Story | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| movie: Brazil (1985) | choice | Sam Lowry, a low-level government employee, was faced with having to navigating a complex government bureaucracy in order to first correct a false arrest, and the to find the girl of his dreams. |
| futurama2x11 | major | Hermes had to navigate through the Central Bureaucracy. |
| tz1985e1x04b | major | Janice's was granted three wishes on paper but couldn't get them fulfilled owing to a series of frustrating administrative hurdles. |
| columbo1971e1x07 | minor | After being made to wait for hours in line, chase forms forms through the building, and then returning to find a seemingly available clerk unwilling to help because he was on his lunch break, left Columbo beside himself, because the situation Columbo encountered beggard his mind. |
| tz2019e1x08 | minor | The story started with an unexplained abduction and the cold hard corridors of a fantastic bureaucracy. |