Man has been given the ability to think for himself and decide the path he has to go that will eventually lead to his fate. It is solely up to him, by the decisions he makes, to decide what actions to take depending on the situation calling for the usage of free will. However, not all of us are able to decide which way to go or what actions to choose because of certain factors that may sometimes be bigger than ourselves. It may be because of a sworn duty or the fact that to decide to act which will benefit us would mean the loss of many others. Such is the case of the doctor in Franz Kafka�s short story, A Country Doctor. The main character is beset with challenges calling for his immediate action. However, the decision to choose to act either way in the following problems presents accompanying frustrations which may result in win-loss situations.
The story opens up with the doctor urgently needing to go to the house of a patient ten miles away. This task is made more difficult because although he himself has a carriage, his horse had died the other night because of over exertion. Rosa, his servant, came back with no horse because no one would lend one in the middle of a snowstorm. Frustrated by the situation, he kicks the door of the pig sty when all of a sudden a groom appears followed by two horses. This should be able to help reach his patient but there lies another incident which he has to act upon. The groom made sexual advances towards Rosa and he has to do something about it for it is not his intention to give her in exchange for the groom�s help. But resistance is futile as the horses galloped away upon the groom�s words. Both the doctor and Rosa are helpless as the groom breaks down the house�s door in pursuit of the servant girl. Upon arriving at the patient�s house, his thoughts continue to be at the fate of Rosa. This prevented him from clearly examining his patient�s true condition, missing the wound at the young man�s hip area which is already infested with worms. It was at this point that the village people came. Remarkably, he was stripped off his clothes and forced to lay by the bedside of the patient. Throughout, his thoughts continue to be at the fate of his servant girl. After assuring the patient that his wound is not life-threatening, he jumps out of bed and snatches his things to return home. On the way back, he feels betrayed by the people he serves. Naked, cold and journeying slowly back home he could have chosen to act either way as problems presented themselves and still remain at the losing end. Between the choice of self-satisfaction and the service for others, his dignity was lost.
The Term Paper on Patient Billing
Patient billing System is very important. These are collections of information’s about a patient’s health history. Doctors and the others personnel of the hospital like nurses write is medical records so that they can used the information’s again when the patient’s come back to the hospital. It is job of patient’s registry records works to make sure that the information is intact and available ...
The story presents a nightmarish effect upon the readers in that it presents a gloomy setting accompanied with frustrations at each challenge facing the doctor. The nightmare-like quality of the story can be attributed to the themes found in Kafka�s work. Though open to different interpretations, the themes of existentialism and symbolism are very much apparent in the story.
As existentialism uses a sense of disorientation or confusion in the face of an apparently meaningless and absurd world, the doctor lacks conscious knowledge of his condition allowing himself to be manipulated by the groom, the family, and the horses. He becomes a tool failing to rise above any manipulative value he has for others (Leiter, pp 337-347).
Moreover, as can be gleaned from his other works such as �Description of a Struggle� and �The Judgment�, his usage of cold and winter serves as existential signs signifying existence that necessitates isolation (Sokel, p. 110).
Kafka, being known as one of the existentialist authors, somehow challenges his readers to find meaning in their lives amidst the apparently meaningless world.
Symbolism can also be interpreted as one of the story�s themes. It can be interpreted that the groom and the horses represent the doctor�s sexual desire for Rosa whose name is interpretative of a woman�s genitalia, whereas the thoughts of Rosa distracting him manifests his battle with desire. The wound in the boy’s side crawling with worms and that he is dying conveys the repellent nature of the sexual thought. The doctor’s attempted escape and the futility and betrayal it invokes is Kafka’s assertion that the sexual damage is betrayal at its most essential level (Guth, pp. 427-431).
The Essay on A Country Doctor Boy Story Injured
A Country Devastation People would never accept the way the doctor in Franz Kafka's "A Country Doctor" performs. The Doctor acts completely unlike a genuine doctor. The whole story is based on a situation that is completely unlike that of an authentic house call made by a real life country doctor. A doctor would never leave one of his employees after being injured, a doctor would not go to tend to ...
Read and taken simply, A Country Doctor presents the irony that the decisions we make has an effect on others. Freedom of choice doesn�t always mean the freedom to choose and act. Although it is true that the choice to do what is good or evil and to choose what is best, or the decision to pick the lesser of two evils depends solely on our exercise of our free will and that as humans, we are free to think and act accordingly and whatever the situation calls for. The inevitable reality is that our lives are somehow connected with others and whatever we choose to do will, one way or another, have an impact to the people around us.
Works Cited
Guth, Hans P. �Symbol and Contextual Restraint: Kafka�s Country Doctor.� PMLA. 1965. pp 427-431.
Leiter, Louis H. �A Problem in Analysis: Franz Kafka�s A Country Doctor.� The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 1958. pp. 337-347.
Sokel, Walter Herbert. �The Myth of Power and the Self: Essays on Franz Kafka.� Wayne State University Press, 2002. ISBN 0814326080, 9780814326084. p. 110.
