A short analysis of “The Bucket Rider” and “A Country Doctor”

The Bucket RiderThis short story, typical of Franz Kafkas surrealist writing, would bring the reader into nearly false hopes that the speaker would someway get through the dilemma or problem he is in, but ends in frustration and despair. Such false hopes that the narrator would somehow get some sear that she/he desperately needs be created by the magical elements in the story. Somehow wishned to Aladdins flying carpet, the bucket becomes the narrators meanspirited vehicle which safely brings her/him to the destination, the coal dealers cellar. Nevertheless, unlike Aladdin, the speaker shows extreme dependence on the bucket and what it should contain, i.e., coal. We could likely interpret the bucket and the coal as the narrators source of security that ought to be filled up once it goes empty.Probably it could be ones desire for love or (to be Freudian ab reveal it) it could be the libidinal desire for sexual gratification. In one way or another, the characteristics of the bucke t could be likened to human emotions like emotions the bucket flies, and like emotions, the bucket, likened to a steed, could not resist. There could probably be many other interpretations on what the bucket and the coal may represent (as comfortably as what the coal dealer and his wife, and all the other elements in the short story represent) but one thing clear is the ending that eventually, coal would become out and when it does at the point when one is without means (but to beg) to get a new supply, then one would have to end in despair, in the regions of the glass mountains. This is the recurrent Kafka theme that human life is inescapably prevent and riddled with anxiety, riddles that seem not to have any answers.The Country DoctorThis short story stands out for its repeated use in classes in demonstrating Freudian psychoanalysis. A number of psychology and literature professors fancy using this short story to show how a classic surrealist literature could be Freudian. True , the elements of this short story could well be translated in Freudian terms but that I shall not pursue in length. It may be enough for the purposes of this short essay to say that the coif, the doctors alter ego, could very likely represent his id, the hidden erotic position of his personality, and that being a professional could simply be the sublimation of his sexual desires.Such would bring a whole new paradigm in the short story nevertheless, I would want to point out, not how the entire short story could very well demonstrate Freud, but the theme of how frustrating human man could be. The partition doctor is ironically portrayed as powerless to attend to his own needs and desires. Torn by the call of duty, he did not have the power to stop the groom from running after Rose when he explicitly said that he does not have the intention of handing the maid to the groom.It should be mentioned that the groom and the horses magically came from the doctors own pigsty, which made Rose say, You never know what youre going to find in your own house. Such a frustrating existence could very well be seen in the patients house as the doctor once again is caught in the frustrating dilemma of a healthy boy wanting to die, only to be reversed afterwards, i.e., after diagnosing that the boy indeed is sick, this time the boy wants to live. tour in the patients house, the doctor is constantly troubled by the horses, the parents, the sister, and other human beings like the village elders. Again he proved to be helpless when his upper garments were removed from him.He managed to escape but this time his magical horses would not canter but would rather go slow. The doctor, now in among the patients house and his own, gives a cry of despair Never shall I reach home at this rate my practice is done for. every of what he has, i.e., his home and his maid as well as his profession are all now gone, all because he made a geological fault to respond to a false alarm. These e ntire surrealist events point to the meaninglessness of it all, the frustrating existence of the country doctor who is incapable of saving his own self.ConclusionThough there are obvious differences as regards the characters, the use of symbols and elements, etcetera, we could say that the two essays are similar in a number of ways the theme, i.e., inescapability of frustrations and powerlessness in human existence the use of surrealism and magic and the possible use of Freudian paradigm to interpret the elements of the stories. All these we have seen in our discussion above.