Kafka inverts our usual anxiety about feeling trapped—instead, he suggests the greater tragedy is yearning for purpose we haven't yet found. Most of us assume the cage is the problem, but he's saying emptiness itself is the real prison, that we can be structurally sound yet spiritually waiting. A person might have a stable job, a decent apartment, and reliable friends, yet still feel like an elaborate container with nothing to contain—and therein lies the ache that material security cannot touch.