The City Coat of Arms

The short story details the creation of the Tower of Babel and related support and planning work.^[2] The narrator notes that the massive scale of the project creates so many logistical and societal complications that it becomes impossible for civilization to ever achieve the original plan, or to even seriously believe in the plan. Various defeatist concerns cause the people to focus on building the surrounding city rather than the tower. Different groups and nationalities then fight over their place in the city. A few generations later, the people recognize the tower is senseless, but the project continues on because everybody is too deeply involved to be able to leave. The narrator explains that the songs and legends in the city express a desire for the city to be destroyed by a giant fist, which the narrator says is the reason why the city has a fist on its coat of arms.

The story can be interpreted as Kafka's criticism of the layers of bureaucracy that follow projects, as well as his reaction to the changing city he lived in at the time.^[3] Kafka lived in Prague, which had a large tower constructed by many workers and large funds yet was condemned.^[4] While some scholars have noted the story's relevance to elements in the Torah,^[5] others have noted Kafka's use of realism, utilized by earlier writers such as Stephen Crane.^[6] Kafka noted the piece in at least one of his letters, and wrote that it was inspired by his study of the Midrash and the rising pollution he noted in Prague.^[7]