Poverty and exhaustion
The laborers were “dragging a barge with a rope.” The “slippery” ground on the bank was what made their task even more difficult, for they could hardly move. Every time when one of them slipped, the overseer “hit him.” The four agitators couldn’t miss such a wonderful opportunity “to make propaganda among them.” Unlike others, the young comrade saw not a chance to teach those workers the ABC of communism, but suffering and poverty. “Don’t give way to pity,” one of the agitators said, but it was too late. This imagery evokes a feeling of exhaustion and sadness, since people who work so hard don’t earn enough.
A fool
The young comrade had a compassionate heart; he wasn’t deaf to cries and pleas for help. He couldn’t avert his gaze from suffering and injustice. That was the reason why he tried to help the laborers who had to drag a barge, walking on “slippery” bank. They called him “a fool” and laughed at him, for he tried to do the impossible. They “pursued him for two days” and then pursued him “in the city of Mukden for a whole week.” People wouldn’t let him or his companions “get near the central section of the city.” This imagery is supposed to show the young comrade’s desperation and despair.
Terrible conditions
The textile workers experienced terrible conditions. There was “less and less money in the pay envelope.” Unfortunately for them, they couldn’t leave the factory, for other would come and “take” their places. They couldn’t even strike; in fact, they would have to “fight the soldiers” and risk that little that they had in order to change something. They dismissed the young comrade’s suggestions, for they knew that the soldiers would outnumber and kill them easily. No one wanted “to be first to go hungry” and “set his face against the guns.” This imagery evokes a feeling of fatigue.
