blog




  • Essay / Devil's Trill - 672

    “Devil's Trill” Before the Spring Festival of 1973, the narrator's mother brought him her violin; it was a beautiful German model. The narrator received the violin from his great-uncle who bought it from a poor Russian musician for fifty silver dollars. His uncle was on his deathbed when he gave the violin to the narrator, and he gave it to him because none of his sons, our grandsons, played the violin. The narrator aspired to become a musician for much of his young life; he attended music school, but later gave up on his dream. The narrator is now in a political prison camp. Recently one of the prisoners was executed and many prisoners were afraid of being killed. The narrator was taken prisoner by a fellow inmate named Old Cop, and the narrator couldn't stand it. Even though he didn't like him, the narrator tried to be on good terms with the old cop, but he simply ignored him. On the eve of the Spring Festival, the narrator played the violin on his bed and a fellow inmate tried to hide cakes that his wife had brought him. After a while, a crowd of inmates gathered around his bunk to listen to him play the violin. The old cop was annoyed when the big boss of the barracks came to listen to the narrator play, so he told the narrator to get out. As he went out into the courtyard, he began to reminisce about past spring holidays before he was a prisoner and how he had learned to play the violin. He then went into the bathroom and saw some of his friends and started playing the violin for them. They were very happy. Later that night, he went to Big Boss's barracks and they talked about Big Boss' upcoming release and how he was arrested. When the narrator returned to his barracks, he saw the old cop trying to steal one of the inmate's cakes and started fighting with him. He eventually won the fight and was rewarded by one of the officers. He was to be one of the waiters at the festival, a job that the Old Cop should have had. The narrator was excited to receive this position because he would be able to hear rumors from the outside world. Once they arrived at the festival, they had to help the butcher kill another pig because there were more people than expected..