crainquebille

an episode of
life in which a poor man is
abused and dismissed.

crainquebille (ginny says it's pronounced crank-bee - but all french-like, see?) is a short story by anatole france (1844-1924).  he was a french writer who won the nobel prize in 1921, and lots of other stuff.  these are first blush thoughts on the story.  it's in a collection i picked up called the bedside book of famous french stories.  published 1945.  great book.

the protagonist, the eponymous crainquebille, is a man who seems to endure a job-like experience when the system of government, the ... way of life ... under which he's lived peacefully for some 60 years snares him in a trap constructed of arrogance, apathy and blind justice.  there is irony.  the phrase that he utters to the policeman which precipitates his troubles (which was never actually said) is the very same that doesn't even get him arrested when he feels he really needs to be incarcerated (to fulfill his most basic needs).

crainquebille haiku:
crainquebille couldn't catch        here is a man who                       the joke is that he,
a break. truly a victim                allows himself to be talked          to the letter, obeyed the
of cruel poverty.                         into jail time.                                law. which then screwed him.

crainquebille is a poor produce vender. he has spent his life loading the cart in the morning and walking through his city (paris) selling his stock to the bourgeois of the city. he is lowly, but happy. or at least, untroubled.  he drinks.  he was ... not gifted with a philosophical mind.   trouble comes to our man when constable 64 singles him out on the busy street, instructing him to move along with his cart.  the constable repeats his order thrice, and is unwilling to hear crainquebille's reply, which is a strong reply, in that he is waiting for payment from the wife of a shopkeeper.  a full on traffic jam ensues, wherein constable 64 accuses crainquebille of harassment.  our man did only repeat the phrase mort aux vaches (mort o' vash) after the constable uttered it, and disbelievingly - for crainquebille had been in no way aggressive or argumentative toward the copper.  he ...uttered words rather of despair than of rebellion. 
mort aux vaches means, according to crainquebelle's lawyer, down to those who sell themselves to the police as spies.  the textual notes indicate that the phrase is ...impossible to translate, and offers: down with spies, the word spies used to indicate the police.  the story offers that this is a trusty insult to any copper you might find.  and constable 64, in fact, morphs crainquebille's rather benign statements into this menacing phrase.  a google search reveals that the expression death to cows / death to pigs originated in the franco-prussian war, the perfect pithy little saying to let everybody know just how much the french loathed the german soldiers. 
so crainquebille is arrested and imprisoned for a fortnight.  that's about two weeks.  the reader understands that he has done nothing wrong.  france reveals to us that the judge renders his verdict on the would-be infallible evidence of the policeman.  the judge must assume the infallibility of anybody who is part of the state.  and does so, finding crainquebille guilty even though a prominent doctor who witnessed the affair and interjected on crainquebille's behalf, testifies that our man did not say any such thing to the constable.  still, the judge finds the lowly produce vendor guilty.  he must so, in the interest of justice.  this is ironic, of course, because we know that justice can be affected by myriad factors.  here, justice ruins this man's life.  when he gets back to his cart, his former customers, so upset that he's been to prison, shun him, and so ruin the fragile mental balance that has kept this poor man pushing his little cart, existing pretty close to the bottom, for all those years. the story ends with crainquebille, cold, wet and hungry, shuffling off into the cold darkness upon the celebrated remark's failure to get him arrested. again. 

there's lots more to say.  in the end, it's a heartbreaker; very cynical.  france infuses ironic humor when he explains the logic of the law and the players that enforce it.  maybe i missed something important.  maybe i'm wrong.  chat me up about it, i guess.  better yet, (re) read the story and choose your own key line(s). here's mine:
crainquebille is the natural child of costermonger, depraved by years of drinking and other evil courses.  crainquebille was born alcoholic.  you behold him brutalized by sixty years of poverty.  gentlemen you must conclude that he is irresponsible.' p. 255
these are the remarks of the solicitor.  cool lines.  he pretty much talks our man into considering himself guilty.  shame.  another character in the story who forces his own worldview onto crainquebille.  i think maybe that's the point of it.  this poor man is forced, because of lack of intelligence and lack of options, to accede to everybody else's realities.  included is madame bayard, the shoe-maker's wife, who stiffs him sevenpence for leeks (the asparagus of the poor) when she witnesses him amidst his little legal turmoil.  important to notice that she doesn't bother to speak up for him.  before today, she, representative, perhaps of the bourgeois denizens of rue montmartre, would simply insult his produce and talk his prices down.  for the money, he was accepting.  after this experience, even the money didn't much matter to crainquebille.  he became a heavier drinker.  the story is like job, i guess, but without a happy ending.  now that might be ironic ...