While Kafka's work certainly references specific social conditions, it is not limited to them, but extends into the metaphysical realm through its symbolism. It is therefore correct to say that with The Castle, bureaucracy is scourged and mocked, but the gravity does not lie there.
According to Max Brod, the principles of The Castle are the inaccessible deity and what theologians call divine grace. This deity is expressed through all these specific manifestations of organized power and hierarchy that both tolerates and simultaneously constitutes the tragic aspect of life, the uprooting of people, the painful and often incomprehensible human fate.
Just as the hero K. in The Trial is entangled in the inexplicable guilt and tyranny of invisible forces, so too does the hero in The Castle, uprooted, seek the human community, justice, and divine grace.
