Betrachtung (published in English as Meditation or Contemplation) is a collection of eighteen short stories by Franz Kafka written between 1904 and 1912.

It was Kafka's first published book, printed at the end of 1912 (with the publication year given as "1913") in the Rowohlt Verlag on an initiative by Kurt Wolff.

Narrated by an unnamed little child, this short story follows children's thoughts as they experience childhood nighttime escapades.

Later on they go to the train tracks and sing: “When you mix your voice with others you are caught like a fish on a hook.” The night ends with our narrator kissing a boy, and hearing from him rumors of the next village where the residents never sleep.

This story has a tone of innocence, playfulness, and retrospection as the reader is transported into the mind of an eight- or nine-year-old.

Images of big grown-ups, ever-deepening ditches, and youthful recklessness serve to further our impression of this child as an innocent adventurer.

The narrator, snapping out of his funk, suddenly recognizes his companion for a confidence trickster who stands to take advantage of his relative naiveté, and is embarrassed that it has taken him so long to realize this fact.

He has been lulled into a kind of vegetable state by routine and convention; he needs a meaningless piece of work or entertainment just to occupy his sleeping mind.

The narrator claims it is easier to just to “throttle down whatever ghostly life remains in you” and refrain from any sort of human actions.

The passage is written in the first person, allowing the reader to fully connect to the thoughts and emotions of the speaker.

This is ironic because the reader can depict these images in any way they want, but based on the descriptions by Kafka it seems to be that the speaker is alone and him going into the mountains with this group of “nobodies” is him isolating himself from society.

For example, the narrator imagines the bachelor lying sick in a room that is empty of any family to care for him, or having to repeatedly explain to others that he does not have any children of his own.

In a world where he is experiencing a never-ending feeling of dissatisfaction, the businessman lives a mentally desolate life.

He imagines that these secretive individuals are having a far grander time than he is; “They have grown extravagant and are giving a banquet in some restaurant garden, and others are stopping off at this party” (p. 21).

He turns this anticipation, however, to no purpose and he simply decides to walk home and suddenly the tone of the passage swings to slightly depressing and lonesome.

Early in the story, the sky was blue, then the speaker observes a little girl, strolling along with the light on her face, when she suddenly falls into the shadow of a man, briskly approaching her.

This story is told in first person by an unknown narrator as he walks home along a street after a thunderstorm.

This reflection leads him to weigh his past against his future, and he concludes that there is nothing to criticize in his life except for his unjust amount of good fortune.

The tone even becomes slightly melancholic as the narrator fails to find a meaning in his life, despite all his good fortune.

This breach in the shelter of his house allows real life to intrude upon his realm of contemplation, banishing any opportunity for a true reflection.

It describes a man standing on a tram platform, contemplating the uncertainties of his place in the world.

The story focuses on images of the uncertainty of existence and one's purpose in the world, and the tone is contemplative and existential.

The narrator sees the girl “as distinctly as if [he] had run [his] hands over her.” He goes on to describe the woman's physical attributes with incredible detail, from her clothing to her hair.

Since both lack what the other party deems as qualities of a good mate, they "go [their] separate ways home" as to keep them "from being irrefutably aware of [their mediocrity]".

The narrator uses images of envious opponents, successful and unsuccessful gambling friends, and women looking down upon the pride of the winners.

The tone used in the story is that of a wiser, seasoned veteran warning amateurs and rookies of the consequences of their sport.

The story centers around the theme of the consequences and misfortunes that follow a victory, describing how winning does not always bring fortune.

The imagery of “horses ... drag[ing] ... him into the train or their wagons ... towards the harmony of man” show the break of our solitude character's life being ripped through the window he will never cross.

Kafka again uses the image of horses waiting outside of a house, as in his short story The Street Window.

The child is part of the narrator's psyche trying to remind him of a natural and youthful childhood he once had, before he became alienated to the world, as a reference to the first story in Contemplation, Children on a Country Road.