《加算器》中的人性失落机械天堂(5)
Mr. Zero and his friends is the epitome of the whole society. Though gaining a great profit in the World War I, America suffered a devastating economic and social upheaval during the interwar years. The dehumanization came from the extremely high pressure from work. From 1920 to 1921, some 5 million workers lost their jobs, 100000 businesses went bankrupt and the national economy shrank by 10 percent. Many workers faced wage cuts and layoffs in the depressed industries. In the south, women and children labored in textile mills for up to 60 hours a week for only a few cents per hour. The famers were in deep trouble, with high mortgages, low crop prices, and increased global competition. The workers were so busy working to make a living that they can never stop and think about making a difference. They were born differently, in different appearances and statures, but the capitalist society deprived them of their characters and personalities, and made them the same. It was not surprising because every person did the same repetitive and standardized work every day, but it was terrifying. It was understandable that these workers, other than money, cared about nothing, not to mention personality and persity, but it was destructive. A society, or a species, without persity and creativity is doomed to extinct.
2.1.2 Dullness of Mr. Zero’s Work Which Equals to Death
Scene II depicts Mr. Zero’s work vividly, in an astonishing way. Mr. Zero finds it hard to understand why, instead of a promotion, his boss wants to fire him. But in fact, it is more difficult to imagine how such work and workers can exist for twenty-five years. The so-called work of Mr. Zero and Daisy is to add up numbers. Daisy reads out numbers and Mr. Zero calculates, just like a human adding machine. Though doing this job every day until five thirty for twenty-five years, the two have no communication when working. Each gives parallel monologues of their own. The only intersection is made not through language but numbers—when they make a mistake.
Zero. The doctor’s bill was eighty-seven dollars. [Looking up.] Hey, wait a minute! Didn’t you say eighty-seven dollars?
Daisy. [looking up ]. What?
Zero. Was the last you said eighty-seven dollars?
Daisy. [consulting the slip ]. Forty-two fifty.
Zero: Well, I made mistake. Wait a minute. [He busies himself with an eraser.] All right. Shoot. (Elmer Rice, 1965:9)
In this case, numbers, as capital, overwhelm communication. Their work shows us a pattern where the only genuine cooperation, the only link between people, is numbers, or capital. Social life, then, is subsumed by capital and expressed through the cash nexus. (Charles Thorpe, 2009:271)
The most interesting scene may be scene IV, which consists a long monologue of Mr. Zero on court and only one sentence of the jury’s verdict at the end. During his self-defense, Mr. Zero cannot help but repeat meaningless numbers. Numbers sneak out unconsciously as he speaks. “Eight twenty-seven, eight thirty, eight twenty-nine, eight twenty-seven, eight thirty-two. Eight an’ thirty-two’s forty an’—Goddam them figgers! I can’t forget ‘em.” (Elmer Rice, 1965:22) It is quite a tragedy that numbers have become a habit of his, a part of his life, as the result of twenty-five years’ of repeated work.
Mr. Zero was not alone here. During that time in America, many large landowners mechanized their business to save money, but as a result, many tenants and sharecroppers lost their livelihoods and small famers their farms. A wave of labor unrest struck the United States starting from 1919. In January a general strike virtually shut down Seattle. In September, Boston police walked out because the city refused to recognize their union. But the biggest strike, beginning in September, was among 350000 steelworkers in the Northeast and Midwest, who demanded an 8-hour day (down from 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, the industry standard) and the right bargain collectively. Altogether some 4 million workers—roughly one-fifth of the nation’s labor force, including some 400000 miners across the coalfields of Appalachia¬—participated in the strikes. Despite the apparent prosperity, the American economy exhibited some severe structural weaknesses.
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