Like Kafka’s other work, “The Metamorphosis”, “The Bucket Rider” also uses a fictional approach. Strange imagination, exaggerated plot and incredible character setting all make readers exclaim incredible, but they are also applauded. His characters have the shadow of each of us. The world he describes is very similar to the world we live in.
The man who was oppressed by the poor life and had to pretend to be a beggar to win the sympathy of others is like a lot of people who are walking on the edge of life and trying to earn a living, trying to maintain self-esteem, but always losing face. Some are slick and some are playful. They are forced to the end by the heaviness and sharpness of life.
Why ride a bucket?
Why was he forced to fly by riding on a bucket in such a ridiculous way? Because normal ordinary people who carry buckets not only have no right to speak, but also are driven away and humiliated. Flying in the air is an ideal lightness and also an illusory dream. Because people speak lightly, they will be easily rejected. I dare not face it because I am nervous.
Fly past, at least you don’t have to face those vicious and mean faces, you can slip away quietly when you are spurned, and you can temporarily escape from the cold world in the air and let yourself go. As a weak person, he can only protect his fragile self-esteem by staying away, avoid the ubiquitous contempt and criticism by escaping, and strive for a little living space for himself by making jokes. Although all this is in vain.
He who rides on the bucket is doomed not to be seen, and he who cannot pay in time is doomed not to be heard. The marginal people of society are in a wrong position with others. They can’t communicate, but they can’t do anything. Their voices are blocked out of the discourse system, unable to penetrate, listen to, and talk. Such aphasia keeps the world at a distance.
There is more than one such diaphragm. In this world, different people and scenes have different barriers. There are always people who are not heard, and there are always people who cannot communicate. Without a confidant, there is no sense of belonging, without the right to speak, there is no sense of security, without being accepted, there will be loneliness, without communication, there will be despair. Such a dilemma can never be lifted. For him, the most pitiful and basic wishes and desires of mankind cannot be solved. In real life, many people’s language demands cannot be satisfied.
In many corners that have been neglected by us, emotions have been lacking to a very serious extent.
About Fiction
Fiction is the legal identity of fiction. Fiction is the soul of fiction, and there is no fiction without fiction.
The novel itself should be an independent world. It is absolutely different from the accessible real world in which we are.
The truth and reality in the novel are different. The truth in the novel is a kind of imaginary and fictional truth, and a kind of true lie. What the novel ultimately wants to express is not a fact, but a reality with aesthetic charm. The truth of art is certainly related to the truth of life, but the truth of art is not equal to the truth of life.
The reader will not care whether the plot in the novel conforms to the facts. What really concerns us is the unfortunate fate of the characters, and what moves us is the re-examination and reflection of the people and things we are accustomed to. For example, in “The Bucket Rider”, some humble people who are ignored by society and family can be reduced to what extent. The power of indifference cannot be underestimated.
What any novelist wants to express is actually a tendency of his own, not just a fact he has witnessed.
