Kolhaas

As I read Michael Kolhaas I found that it was tedious at times – all the Earls and Junkers that played parts throughout the story. However, I found the story an enjoyable one, despite all the various characters and intricacy of the many levels of hierarchy.

Kolhaas as a character reminded me a lot Cholly, from Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye. Although, the two are not completely similar, both Michael Kolhaas and Cholly evoke a type of empathy, or sympathy towards their character’s dilemma. Morrison decided to dedicate a chapter in her novel to offer background of Cholly’s life, and sort of give reasons for why he became the man he was. Although not meant to justify Cholly’s brutality towards his wife and daughter, Pecola, we as readers are still given the choice to understand how and why Cholly became such a negative and violent person. Kolhaas as well, had reasons for why he did what he did. He led a group of people he convinced to follow him and together they raided a town and caused a lot of havoc, all since Kolhaas did not get the justice he believed he deserved for the pain that was caused him by the Junker Wenzel von Tronka. And so both Cholly and Kolhaas have a background and a reasoning that makes sense to them, for their actions. Yet despite this one similarity, Kolhaas is also quite different from Cholly. While you do feel for Cholly, I did not completely side with him and his actions of abuse towards his daughter.

While reading Kleist’s short story, I found myself rooting for Kolhaas – even sad when he met his untimely end to repent the crimes he committed, all to receive fairness for the ills that were treated him by the Junker Wenzel von Tronka. And because Kolhaas put trust in the Junker when he told him he was to have a permit to cross the border, and leaving his two black horses as collateral, Kolhaas endured many losses - the untimely death of his wife, the later death of his friend and groom Herst, and the unhealthy state of his horses when neglected and used as farm animals. However, despite the violence and damages Kolhaas caused in his fight for justice, I still wanted him to succeed. Kolhaas had his final laugh even in the face of the Junker, having been sent to two years of prison, and having the task of restoring Kolhaas' two "blacks". Even towards the Elector, when Kolhaas strode up to him in his last moments before his execution, and ate the paper within the locket with the contents of important information vital to the Elector. To some, Kolhaas may be a ruthless and unruly man who was wiling to do anything to get what he wanted, but that is just it – he fought hard for what he believed in. And no matter what the cost, Kolhaas, in the end, finally had his horses restored, which was what he had fought for for so long since the beginning.