Kafka was born in Prague to Hermann and Julie Kafka. His famously troubled relationship with his father was the inspiration for many of his stories, such as "The Judgement". Often, the themes and settings of his stories reflect the experiences of his real life. This is why, more often than not, his writing is rather dreary. Kafka experienced intense depression and social anxiety throughout his life, often attributed to his childhood and the double life he had led. While originally attending school for a chemistry degree at Deutsche Karl-Ferdinands-Universität, he switched to studying law after only two weeks. Kafka did not personally care for either law or chemistry, but it did satisfy his demanding father. This led him to work at an insurance company, leaving him little time to write. With this double life of being an upstanding businessman by day and a writer by night, Kafka went into a depression. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, “Kafka was a charming, intelligent, and humorous individual, but he found his routine office job and the exhausting double life into which it forced him (for his nights were frequently consumed in writing) to be excruciating torture…” Not only was his work life unfortunate, but so was his personal life. Kafka was engaged three times but never married. His most famous relationship was that between him and Milena Jesenská.

The actual writings of Kafka are highly praised in literary spaces. His unique style of absurdist literature placed in a mundane environment forces the reader to suspend reality while relating deeply to his characters. His most famous novella, The Metamorphosis, is about a man named Gregor who turns into a giant bug. It explores themes of alienation and feeling not quite human, especially in the case of Gregor, who is quite literally not human. Some of his other most popular works include The Trial and The Castle, which both provide commentary on the state of man: The Trial regarding morality, and The Castle addressing sense of self. Kafka has such a distinct style that it even has its own name. According to Oxford Languages, Kafkaesque is described as “characteristic or reminiscent of the oppressive or nightmarish qualities of Franz Kafka's fictional world.” Like many great authors, Kafka had little recognition for his work while he was alive and instead rose in popularity after 1945.