Bucket Rider

Franz Kafka's The Bucket Rider seems to be commenting on the limited control of man as he tries to survive in a world that seems to be governed by chaos. This is evident by the fact that the man only wants coal but is denied in the end by the woman and is left to freeze to death. The world does seem to act around some order for the man could get coal if he had money, but its a chaotic one where his lack of money causes another human being to let him die. I thought it was interesting that Kafka was able to convey this limited control of man right in the very first sentence. The sentence is "Coal all spent; the bucket empty; the shovel useless; the stove breathing out cold; the room freezing; the trees outside the windows rigid, covered with rime; the sky a silver shield against anyone who looks for help from it." From this sentence one is presented with a series of unfortunate events that the man has to deal with. The long sentence and use of semicolons works to link these unfortunate circumstances to suggest that these events are linked together, albeit in a chaotic sort of way. The fact that as the sentence progresses, the scenarios get worse until the man is faced with mother nature itself, serves to suggest that he never stood a chance and that there was no way to avoid the position he has found himself in. In this way, Kafka is able to comment, in one sentence, on the futile nature of man as he tries to struggle to survive in a world governed by chaos.