A Tossed Coin Comes Back as a City
Monseigneur needs four servants to serve his morning chocolate. On the road home, the Marquis's coach kills a child in the street. He tosses a coin to Gaspard and treats the death as a bill paid. The crowd's grief does not register as grief. It registers as delay.
Key Insight
Oppression often looks like inconvenience to the man in the coach. The coin is not payment. It is proof that a life did not count.
“It has died in a moment without pain.”Explore full theme analysis
