"A book must be the ax for the frozen sea within us"

In this quote, Franz Kafka is utilizing a metaphor to explain the power and value of books. He compares books to an ax, a tool utilized for chopping wood, and suggests that they have the ability to break through the frozen sea within us. This frozen sea represents the barriers and restrictions that we may have within ourselves, such as closed-mindedness, lack of knowledge, or lack of imagination. By reading books, we have the ability to break through these barriers and expand our minds, enabling us to discover originalities, viewpoints, and feelings. Kafka is stressing the transformative and liberating nature of books, and the effect they can have on our inner selves.