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This is a revision work. Here is my professor's comment:

"Regarding this essay’s topic: If historical context is important, which historical event has an impact on your reading of Kafka’s “A Country Doctor”? Lyford’s essay about surrealist masculinities might supply information about such an event. A close reading of the text in light of WWI (as sourced by Lyford) would be one possible avenue you could pursue."

I need to have a more clear thesis, and please add 2 parts of quotation from the attached file, Need to add one citation from Lyford's reading, this reading is attached in file, please check. No outside resources needed!!!!! Only use the 2 attached readings for this assignment. My original work is attached in file. Please check.

I also attached my grading rubric, make sure I did make some improvement.

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Hao 1 Baocheng Hao Colt 360 Midterm Essay Does historical context help or hinder us as readers? While many people may argue that historical context has an impact on the perception of a reader towards any text, it is clear that a number of factors come into play when making a concussion as to whether such contest may hinder a reader. Whichever the case, historical context in many cases tend to have a factual account of the events that took place with accurate evidence and account of all the incidences. On the other hand, the text provided may represent the interpretation of the author and the opinion the author bears in respect to a particular text. Based on the source reading, it can be argued that historical context may help a reader to contextualize, visualize, and interpret a text. Context can be defined as the background information that surrounds a subject. Historical context refers to the events that occur at the time a text is penned. There is a direct connection between a literature piece and its historical context. Generally, authors try as much as they can to reflect the time period they live in and the ideas of their time in their literary work. As a piece of art, stories are colored by the author’s time period which also shapes the way that the reader views the past. Without historical context, characters, memories, and stories are denied their meaning and relevance. The economic, political and social conditions which exist at the time a literary piece is written make up its historical context. In understanding a text’s historical context, readers get to understand the motivations behind certain behaviors exhibited by the characters. Hao 2 In his article "Commentary on an Excerpt from "A Country Doctor", Baker (34), was explicit on the impact of a historical context obtained from a country to the understanding of a reader on what Kafka(150), referred to as "A Country Doctor" in his earlier book. This reading draws an insight into the help a reader can get from the historical context of the actual events that took place before the text was written. In particular, the reading provided an overview of how the subsequent text was adapted from events that took place in the real world. Even though Baker(154), fails to give an illustration of the perception of humanity in respect to historical context the reference to the article as a commentary on an excerpt obtained from the article by Kafka is an indicator of the significance of a historical context to a reader. There are a number of reasons why readers need to take historical context into account when reading texts that engage the absurd. Foremost, historical context is useful for the accurate interpretation of speech and behavior of characters. For instance, in Kafka’s A Country Doctor, there is the statement, ‘I’m not coming with you anyway, I’m staying with Rose’ (Kafka 150). Outwardly, one thinks that the person saying these statements has some close relationship with Rose. However, they are total strangers to each other, and his intention is to harm her sexually. It is noteworthy that texts which engage the absurd exhibit a singularly masculine phenomenon which is evident in Kafka’s text. Authors of texts which engage the absurd are male as are a majority of their characters. In this case, both the writer and the narrator are male. Additionally, the story by Baker(65), comes out as a masculine fantasy involving sexual violence against a female character which is a major concern. Historical context, therefore, helps the reader to decipher what the author might not directly refer to in the plain text. Secondly, there is no way that the reader can sensibly engage a text on absurdity without considering the historical context. It is this consideration that helps one to fully understand and Hao 3 appreciate the literature. When considering this literature, there are a number of things that, with regards to contemporary settings, appear offensive and insensible. However, one can only understand why they occur with an understanding of the historical context in mind. In Kafka’s book, there is the portrayal of the female character Rosa as being sexually available and sexually violated. Considering the centrality of feminism in the contemporary literary sphere, this might not be entertained. However, with an understanding of the historical context of the text, one gets to understand that it is a reflection of society then and how the female was regarded. Historical context broadens the reader’s view rather than limiting them to a snippet of the scene which would subsequently hinder their understanding of what motivates the author to choose certain characters, settings, and interactions between the characters. While arriving at the home of his patient, the doctor finds a child who is in rather good health, and who begs to die. This has been clearly illustrated in Baker(51), that may present accounts are based on historical contexts. Perhaps this is why the doctor's mind is preoccupied with the plight of Rosa until he discovers a wound in his patient, which has worms. There is not only a correlation between the patient’s wound and Rosa’s unfortunate sexual molestation but the communication of how absurdity is presented. Kafka (152), clearly illustrates that the experience of “A Country Doctor is a narration of a historical fact that can be related to what the present society is facing. In this text, the doctor recounts how he is stripped naked. In fact, he is saddened by the fact that the community has lost its ancient beliefs which probably enabled them to care for the sick, and instead look up only to the doctor as the source of hope (Kafka 153). This is also extended to the helplessness that the lady, Rosa, is left in when the old man charges towards her. Understanding how these things can possibly occur requires an understanding of the historical context of the text. Thus, it is with no Hao 4 doubt that historical context from which a text is derived will help readers have a deeper understanding of whatever text they are reading so as to read the text with the objectivity of learning more from the text. Aside from the important role that historical context plays in the reader’s understanding of texts that engage the absurd, it is worth pointing out that the same historical context tries to separate us from the occurrences in the text. For instance, taking an illustration from Baker(53), indicates that historical context is the basis of the present incidences captured in numerous text by authors. Whereas in understanding how the general perception of the feminine could have promoted masculinity and promoted sexual dominance, it for a moment takes the reader away from the reality that the rise of femininity in the contemporary literature is a result of the same perceptions which persist despite the growth of civilization. Secondly, while the historical context derived from these texts does not shield us from the effect of the absurdities, the reader is bound to believe that absurd thinking was an isolated case despite modern trends which mirror the same absurdity. One thus gets the false illusion of a worse period than theirs which promoted evil or absurdities. From this analysis, we determine that historical context plays two critical roles in influencing how the reader interprets a text, and how they relate the text to the contemporary setting. To be specific, many readers have always linked the text they read to the historical context to determine the level of accuracy, exaggeration, and bias expressed by the author of a text. First, historical context helps the reader to understand why the author chooses certain terms, why they decide that characters should interact in a certain way, and how the characters are developed. The background of the text can also be traced from the historical context to help the reader understand the themes, setting, and the general ideas expressed in the text. This way, the Hao reader dissociates the content of the text from the contemporary setting. However, the negative effect of this role is that it superimposes extraneous feelings on the reader which shields them from the existential urgency of the same themes highlighted in the text from within their own surroundings. Works Cited 5 Hao Baker, Clayton J. "Commentary on an Excerpt From “A Country Doctor”." Academic Medicine 90.11 (2015): 1529. Kafka, Franz. A Country Doctor. (1918): 147-156. 6 A Countrv Doctor A COUNTRY DOCTOR 149 hams in that low space, showed an open blue-eyed face. "Shall I yoke up?" he asked, crawling out on all fours. I did not know what to say and merely stooped down to see what else was in the sty. The servant girl was standing ~eside me. "You never know what yel're going to ~nd m your own house," she said, and we. ~th laughed. Hey there, Brother, hey there, SisterI", •.alled the groom, a_nd two horses, enormous creatures _·;h powerful flanks, one after the other, their legs tucked close to their bodies, each well-shaped head lowered like a camel's, by sheer strength of buttocking squeezed out through the door hole which they filled entirely. But at once they were standing up, their legs long and their bodies steaming thickly. "Give him a hand," I said, and the willing girl hurried to help the groom with the harnessing. Yet hardly was she beside him when. the groom clipped hold of her and pushed his face against hers. She screamed _and fled back to me; on her cheek. stood out in red the marks of two rows of teeth. "You ?rute," I yelled in fury, "do you want a whipping?" but m the same moment reflected that the man was a stranger; that I did not know where he 'came from, and that of his own free will he was helping me out when everyone else had failed me. As if he knew my thoughts he took no offense at my threat but, still busied with the horses, only turned round once towards me, "Get in," he said then, and indeed everything was ready. A magnificent pair of horses, I observed, such as I had never sat behind, and I climbed in happily. "But I'll drive, you don't know the way," I said. :·of course,'' said he, 'Tm not coming with you anyway, I'm staying h J WAS in great perplexity; I had to start on an urgent . journey; a seriously ill patient was waiting for me in a village ten miles off; a thick blizzard of snow filled all · the wide spaces between him and me; I had a gig, a light gig with big wheels, exactly right for our country roads; · muflled in furs, my bag of instruments in my hand, I was in the courtyard all ready for the journey; but there was no horse to be had, no horse. My own horse had died in the night, worn out by the fatigues of this icy winter; my servant girl was now running round the village trying to borrow. a horse; but it was hopeless, I !:.new it, and I stood there forlornly, with the snow gathering more and more thickly upon me, more and more unable to move. In the gateway the girl appeared, alone, and waved .the lantern; of course, who would lend a horse at this time for such a journey? I strode through the courtyard once more; I could see .no way out;· in · my confused distress I kicked at the dilapidated door of the year-long uninhabited pigsty. It flew open and flapped to 1and £ro on its hinges. A steam and smell as of, horses came out £rom it. A dim. stable lantern was swinging inside from a rope. A man, crouching on his 148 150 A COUNTRY DOCTOR A COUNTRY DOCTOR 151 1 with Rose." "No," shrieked Rose, fleeing into the house with a justified presentiment that her fate· was inescapable; I heard the door chain rattle as she put· it up; I heard the key tum in the lock; I could see, moreove~, how she, put out the lights in the entrance hall and in further flight all through the rooms to keep herself from being discovered. "You're coming with me," I said tci the groom, "or I won't go, urgent as my journey is. I'm not thinking of paying for it by handing the girl over to you.'' "Gee· up!" he said; clapped his hands; the gig whirled off like a log in a freshet; I could just hear the door of my house splitting and bursting as the groom charged at it and then I was deafened and blinded by a storming rush that steadily buffeted all my senses. But . this only for a moment, since, as if my patient's farm' yard had opened out just before my courtyard gate; I was already there; the horses had come quietly to a standstill; the blizzard had stopped; moonlight all around; my patient's parents hurried out of the house, his sister behind them; I was almost lifted out of the gig; from their confused ejaculations I gathered not word; in the sickroom the air was almost unbreathable; the neglected stove was smoking; I wanted to push open a window; but first I had to look at my patient. Gaunt, without any fever, not cold, not warm, witl1 vacant eyes, without a shirt, the youngster heaved himself up from under the feather bedding, threw his arms , round my neck, and whispered· in my ear: "Doctor, · kt me die.'' I glanced round the room; no one had heard it; the parents were leaning. forward in silence waiting for my verdict; .the sister hJld set a chair for my a handbag; I opened the bag and hunted among my iri, struments;. the boy kept clutching at me from his bed to remind me of. his entreaty; I ·picked up a pair of tweezers, examined : them in the candlelight and laid them down again. "Yes, ... I thought blasphemously, "in cases like this the gods are helpful, send· the missing horse, add to it a second because of the urgency, and to crown everything bestow even a groom-·: And only now did I remember Rose again; what was I to do, how could I rescue her, how could I pull her away from under that groom. at ten miles' distance, with a team of horses I couldn't. control. The~,\ horses, now, they had somehow slipped the rdns '. ,•e, pushed the windows open from outside, I did not J \ow. how; each of them had stuck a head in at a wind°'' 'and, quite unmoved by the startled cries of the family, stobd eyeing the patient~ "Better go back at. once," I thought, .as if the horses were. summoning me to the return journey, yet I permitted the patient's sister, who fancied that I was dazed by the heat, to take my fur coat from me. A glass of rum was poured out for me, the old man clapped me on the shoulder, a familiarity justified by this offer of his treasure. I shook my head; in the narrow confines of the old man's thoughts I felt ill; that was my' only reason for refusing the drink. The mother stood by the bedside and cajoled me towards it;. I yielded, and, while one of the horses whinnied loudly to the ceiling, laid my head to the boy's breast, which shivered under my wet beard. 'I confirmed what I already knew; the boy was quite sound, something a little wrong with his circulation, saturated with coffee by his solicitous mother, but sound A COUNTRY DOCTOR and best turned out of bed with one shove. I am no world reformer and so I let him lie. I was the district doctor and did my duty to the uttermost, to the point where it became almost too much. I was badly paid and yet generous and helpful to the poor. I had still to see that Rose was all right, and then the boy might have his way and I wanted to die too. What wa5 I doing there in that endless winter! My horse was dead, and not a single pers
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Just what I needed…Fantastic!

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