Among the many intellectuals who have offered answers to questions of morality, free will, and enlightenment, Immanuel Kant is one of the most stimulating and intriguing. His writings have been used as the basis for the analysis of contemporary writings of every era since their conception and publication. Benjamin's views on law, JK Rowling's ethics, race studies, and basic modern morality were all discussed through the use of Kant's philosophical framework. (Gray, Mack, Newton, Wolosky) Through Franz Kafka's short story, “In the Penal Colony,” I intend to expand this discussion to include maturity in relation to enlightenment through Kant's essay “An Answer to the Question 'What is L 'Enlightenment? '” In which Kant describes two types of enlightenment that I call “personal enlightenment” (that which occurs at the individual level) and “greater enlightenment” (that which occurs at the level of society or community). To begin discussion about mortality, it is necessary to define the moral context. Therefore, for the purposes of this essay, I define the act of regularly torturing people to death without due process of law as an affront to general morality. Discussions of Kant's views on free will would suggest that this is because taking a person's life deprives them of free will (Newton). Even the act of torture, which by definition is an activity in which the participant does not wish to engage, deprives a person of free will. The act of ending a person's life also deprives society of further contributions from that person, which are a key element of greater enlightenment. The lack of due judicial process is more ambiguous and is not the primary focus of this essay. This is one end of the moral question... at the center of the paper... Ace Theory, Forster's Counter, and the Metaphysics of Color." The Eighteenth Century 53.4 (2012): 393-412. Project MUSE. Web. 15 December 2013. .Kafka, Franz and Nahum N. Glatzer. Franz Kafka the Complete Stories. New York: Schocken Books, 1983. Kant, Immanuel, Reiss, Hans and H. B. Nisbet International Bibliography Web. 15 December 2013. Newton, KM. "George Eliot, and free will. 36.2 (2012): 441-456. Web. Wolosky, Shira. "Harry Potter's Ethical Paradigms: Augustine, Kant, and Feminist Moral Theory 40.1 (2012): 191-217 Web Project. 2013. .