I. Introduction

It is pointed out that both Kafka's creative work and his life experiences exhibit an "unfinished" state. His three major novels were left incomplete, and his works feature fragmented narratives and other qualities that evoke a sense of being unfinished. His early death left behind a large number of unpublished manuscripts, and he even requested the destruction of unpublished works, reflecting his anxiety regarding this "unfinished" state. Kafka's life and his writing reflect each other; life themes such as marriage and father-son relationships repeatedly appear in his works. He "lived for writing," immersing himself entirely in literature. He was extremely stringent with his own creative output, hesitant to publish, and his life was similarly filled with unfinished matters. Using *The Stork in the Attic* as an example, the article analyzes how it refracts the three dimensions of the core dilemmas in Kafka's life, aiming to clarify that the "incompleteness" of his works is a profound imprint and necessary manifestation of his life experiences on the textual level.

II. Fragments in the "Octavo Notebooks": *The Stork in the Attic*

It delves deeply into the concept of "fragments" in Kafka's works and their manifestation in his writing, particularly using *The Stork in the Attic* as a case study to analyze the isomorphic relationship between its unfinished nature and Kafka's life experiences. Kafka's "fragments" often formed due to interrupted creation, possessing qualities of rupture and incompleteness, reflecting the predicaments of his individual existence. However, the compilation and integration by later editors, while enabling the widespread circulation of his works, obscured their inherent fragmented and open-ended characteristics. Taking *The Hunter Gracchus* as an example, its original form consisted of scattered narrative fragments; Brod's integration caused it to lose its original fragmentary essence. Kafka's "Octavo Notebooks" constitute a loose, open textual system where writing is non-planar and fluid. His creative impulses were often constrained by the space available for writing, with story lengths sometimes dependent on the remaining space on a page. Kafka's method of writing was "starting from the middle," which naturally endowed his works with the open-endedness of being "unfinished." During the writing period from 1916 to 1918, Kafka's literary writing was closely intertwined with his personal life experiences. In the spring of 1917, he became re-engaged to Felice Bauer; during this period, he engaged in intensive writing in the "Octavo Notebooks," and his works reflected his anxiety about marriage and profound uncertainty about the future. The fragment *The Stork in the Attic*, written in pencil, features an absurd plot yet profound implications. It reflects Kafka's anxiety about marriage and his sense of uncertainty towards the future, epitomizing the unfinished nature of his works. It also serves as a crucial sample for exploring the intrinsic connection between his textual forms and life experiences.

III. "The Stork's Egg": Anxiety About Marriage and Procreation

It delves deeply into the anxiety about marriage and procreation reflected by Kafka in *The Stork in the Attic*. In 1917, Kafka re-established contact with Felice Bauer and planned to become engaged again, once more facing the expectations of the Jewish middle class for an individual to start a family and establish a career. The stork imagery in the text is closely linked to marriage and procreation. In European culture, the stork symbolizes bringing babies and faithful companionship; its legend omits the process of sexual union, blurring the boundary between human and animal, embodying humanity's transcendence over the animal body. Kafka focuses on the stork's "egg." This imagery exists in a liminal state between animal and object, diluting taboo associations of sexual acts, reflecting his ambivalence and anxiety regarding sexual matters. On one hand, due to a lack of sexual education, he both desired and felt ashamed of intimate relationships; on the other hand, he both yearned for and feared the noble significance of family. The narrative strategy of *The Stork in the Attic* is profoundly meaningful. The first-person narrator bypasses the union of marriage and directly "possesses" a giant egg. The appearance of this imagery forces the narrator to examine everyday notions of marriage and procreation. Kafka wavered in his attitude towards the path of marriage and procreation; devotion to literature and fulfilling family responsibilities were irreconcilable. He deeply perceived the nature of social discipline underlying the institution of marriage. Through *The Stork in the Attic*, he critiques the inherent paradoxes of the marriage system and sexual norms, allegorically depicting the space of tension between marriage as a disciplinary mechanism and individual freedom, echoing his own real-life experiences of repeatedly becoming engaged and breaking off engagements.

IV. "Imprinting" and the False Contract: The Absurd Origin and Dual Dilemma of the Father-Son Relationship

It delves deeply into the profound impact of Kafka's complex relationship with his father on his literary creation. Using *The Stork in the Attic* as an example, it analyzes how Kafka reconstructs and explores the legitimacy of power, the contingency of identity, breakdowns in communication, and intergenerational responsibility within the father-son relationship through methods of transformation and refraction. In the text, although the protagonist "I" lives in solitude, he forms an absurd relationship of instructor and instructed with a fledgling bird based on the theory of "imprinting," suggesting an individual's instinctual dependence on authority during life's most vulnerable moments. Simultaneously, the contract "I" makes with the fledgling bird reflects the power dynamics under the metaphor of patriarchy, and the situation where a child in a parent-child relationship might be "pet-like" and "instrumentalized." Through two-way reflection, Kafka presents the dilemmas of both positions within the parent-child relationship, revealing the anxieties of power imbalance and impeded communication in the father-son dynamic. This anxiety exhibits a profound internal isomorphism between his literary creation and his real life.

V. Stork-Like Bird and the Stork's Beak: Two Sides of the Coin of Life Experience and Literary Writing

It delves deeply into how Kafka's *The Stork in the Attic*, through its unique literary techniques and symbolic elements, reveals the complex relationship between life experience and literary writing. The article points out that Kafka creatively rewrites the European legend of "the stork delivering babies" in his work, transforming the traditional symbol of new life—the stork—into an existence that provokes bewilderment, thereby subverting the traditional understanding of life's origin. Through the ambiguous image of the "stork-like bird," Kafka creates a unique literary space between certainty and ambiguity, leaving the metaphors for life continuation and parent-child relationships in an unstable state. Furthermore, the section analyzes the detail of the "stork's beak," linking it to the common name for a pantograph (drawing instrument), revealing the function of literary writing as a mechanism for filtering and transformation—it can magnify the details of everyday life, as well as shrink and soften the harsh aspects of life. Through this mode of writing, Kafka expresses both his confusion at life's critical junctures and offers a signal of reconciliation. The article further explores Kafka's extreme dedication to literature and the accompanying self-doubt, pointing out that his literary writing exhibits a state of suspension—neither completely "life" nor entirely "death," but rather an unfinished state between the two. This unfinished nature is not only a characteristic of his works but also an expression of his life experiences. Finally, the section, through analyzing the contract and feeding details in *The Stork in the Attic*, reveals the failure of language when facing a disordered reality and the paradoxical nature of Kafka's attempt to grasp life experiences through literary writing.

VI. Conclusion

It points out that Kafka's literary creation is intimately connected to his life. The unfinished nature of his works forms an isomorphic relationship with his unfinished life. Using *The Stork in the Attic* as an example, its narrative interruptions and ambiguous symbolism construct an open textual state. Core propositions such as Kafka's anxiety about marriage and procreation and the tensions in father-son relationships are eternally suspended. The unfinished nature is a necessary manifestation of the core of his life within the text. His works are not direct copies of life experiences but rather a poetic alchemy. Kafka regarded writing as the core of his existence, with incompleteness becoming a continuation of life. The unfinished state of his works serves as a metaphor for the dilemmas of modern existence, constituting a positive form of creation. It reveals the deep-seated dilemmas of the modern subject, turning "unfinished" into a path toward "greater authenticity."