"The Cares of a Family Man" (German: "Die Sorge des Hausvaters") is a short story by Franz Kafka, originally written in German, between 1914 and 1917 about a creature called Odradek. The creature has drawn the attention of many philosophers and literary critics, who have all attempted to interpret its meaning; thus, there are numerous analyses of the text. In 1919, the story appeared in Ein Landarzt. Kleine Erzählungen (A Country Doctor), a collection of Kafka's short stories published by Kurt Wolff (Munich and Leipzig). Etymology The story, which is in the first-person narrative told entirely by the family man mentioned in the title, begins by discussing the etymological disparities associated with the word Odradek: Some say the word Odradek is of Slavonic origin, and try to account for it on that basis. Others again believe it to be of German origin, only influenced by Slavonic. The uncertainty of both interpretations allows one to assume with justice that neither is accurate, especially as neither of them provides an intelligent meaning of the word. The narrator hopes that by discovering the meaning of the name, they will be able to clarify its purpose and origin, yet conclude that none of these derivations, either German nor Slavic, can produce a sensible meaning of the word. This indicates that Odradek has no identifiable meaning, and therefore no apparent origin. Plot The story deals with the narrator's attempt to make sense of the only additional character, Odradek, and gives a detailed description of the creature in the second paragraph: At first glance it looks like a flat star-shaped spool for thread, and indeed it does seem to have thread wound upon it; to be sure, they are only old, broken-off bits of thread, knotted and tangled together, of the most varied sorts and colours. But it is not only a spool, for a small wooden crossbar sticks out of the middle of the star, and another small rod is joined to that at a right angle. These details offer the reader the ability to examine and criticize the purpose and necessities of objects for things or people such as Odradek. Odradek is described as an object, yet is also given a “hypothetical humanoid appearance” when the narrator describes the object as being able to stand upright on two points of the star. In the fourth paragraph the narrator states that Odradek has a lingering