Kafka was born into a middle-class Jewish family. His father was a merchant. He was very strict and unkind to his family. Kafka’s stories often have fathers who are very brutal and unkind. Kafka spent most of his life living at home. He never married or became free from his parents. He felt that he had no will of his own. He wrote about people who are dominated by some mysterious power. He found it difficult to make friends, he hated his job and everyone around him. He often felt that he belonged nowhere. He was German-speaking but lived in a Czech-speaking country (Bohemia, part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, now part of the Czech Republic). He was different because he was Jewish, but he did not become part of the Jewish community either. He said that he was a socialist and an atheist, but although he was interested in politics he never took part in political activity. He supported Czechs who wanted to rule their own country and let their culture flourish, but he was not one of them because he himself was brought up in a German culture.