Inside, the building branches vertically and horizontally into hallways, offices, windows, courtrooms, and waiting rooms… it’s easy to get lost. The building’s labyrinthine architecture is, in a way, a replica of the U.S. immigration system. And, as in any labyrinth, some find their way out and some don’t. Those who don’t might remain there forever, invisible specters who go up and down elevators and wander the hallways, imprisoned in circular nightmares. (Luiselli 35-36).
Luisilli’s equivocation of the physical architecture of the building to the US immigration system is incredibly apt, and her evocation of the labyrinth reminds me of Franz Kafka’s The Trial and the Greek myth of the Minotaur’s Labyrinth. This specific passage has many parallels with Kafka’s novel. Josef K, the protagonist of The Trial, must both physically and mentally navigate the court system when he is accused of committing a crime. However, (spoiler alert) he is thwarted at every turn, and after a year of trying the escape the impossible labyrinth, he pays a couple of people to murder him. In the novel, and in Luiselli’s explanation of the building, both authors understand that the physical architecture mimics a bureaucratic system that is trying to confuse and exhaust the victim — they are “imprisoned in a circular nightmare” (Luiselli 36). A more cynical reading would suggest that Luiselli evokes the Minotaur’s Labyrinth when she compares the system to the Labyrinth. Young Athenians were sent into the labyrinth as sacrificial victims to be devoured by the minotaur. This comparison would suggest that the children were always meant to lose, and they never stood a chance — the game was rigged from the start.
Luiselli acknowledges the victims of this obfuscated system. She recognizes them as ghosts, spectres — perhaps suggesting that they are dead or sent to their death because of the decisions made in the court. Alternatively, Luiselli could also be referring to all the people that have already died on their way to this building; the people trying to navigate the nightmare world that is their real life.
Hi Mandy, this is a really interesting observation! Though I haven’t read The Trial, the passage also struck me as a fitting comparison. In particular, the idea that the labyrinthine system was built to eliminate any chance of someone getting through it is jarring, and the image of the Minotaur waiting to devour those who are able to navigate the labyrinth is even more so. One difference I noticed, however, was in the fate of the “specter” children that Luiselli describes. Not only are they likely to remain lost within the labyrinth, but many are essentially trapped inside of it—held hostage by ICE or some other migrant detention center, unable to wander. Conversely, some may be essentially tossed out of the labyrinth, left without the chance to enter again, and can only return to their home country, where conditions are likely to have grown worse.