[Heteronym]

Perhaps you’re not reading it wrongly; no Kafka short-story ends with a clear meaning either.

José is a man who lives a lonely life according to a rigid routine and only finds a semblance of happiness is collecting the civil records of famous people. His ordered life is disrupted when he decides to investigate the name of a mysterious woman on a civil record he found by mistake; this may just be the most important adventure that has happened to him and a starting point for a new human relationship in his life. Notice that he doesn’t have any friends, just a boss and work colleagues; and the woman is the closest thing he’ll ever get to really know someone one.

But the denouement of his search shows the impossibility of ever really knowing anyone and that ultimately everyone is alone on Earth; so José resigns himself to his old existence. Perhaps he doesn’t learn anything from his adventure, he remains the same person, which would reflect the saying that prefaces the novel, “you know the name you were given, but not the name you have”.