3. An absurd world

3.1 The distorted reality

The distorted reality is a kind of social background which is often used to describe in the black humor novels. In this novel, the author also depicts a series of distorted reality, which reflects the absurdity of the world and expresses the author’s disappointment about the world.

An important feature of black humor is the emphasis on social madness and the absurdity of the world. It is a kind of humor that makes people laugh and cry. “Black humor” intertwined through tragic content and comedy form. The futile existentialist who shows the world’s absurdity to the dissimilation of human being’s rational principle and the futility of self-struggle after the disillusionment of the principle of human. The world is cold, absurd and meaningless, and life is absurd, painful meaningless too. “When he thought that at last  the trick was about to be consummated the delayed train came in at the station and Joe Kane started to go nonchalantly out at the door. Father made a last desperate effort to conquer the egg and make it do the thing that would establish his reputation as one who knew how to entertain guests who came into his restaurant. He worried the egg. He attempted to be somewhat rough with it. He swore and the sweat stood out on his forehead. The egg broke under his hand. When the contents spurted over his clothes, Joe Kane, who had stopped at the door, turned and laughed.” (Anderson 20) My father tried to entertain his customer with his eggs. He thinks it could establish his reputation. But his customer just thinks his is ridiculous. He thinks my father is abnormal. The customer is the symbol of the out world. For the absurdity of the outer world and the coldness of absoluteness, all human struggles are futile. It’s meaningless. Even people’s selections are so small and humble in the face of the laws of society. The world is disorder and absurd. The reality is no longer reasonable. The world is no longer familiar and orderly. People lose their own purpose and significance. This gives rise  to the sense that the world is absurd. The absurdity is the final analysis of the contradiction between man’s reasonable expectations of the world and the world itself, which does not exist in this way. Absurdity exists in the relationship between man and the world. The basic point of view in of existentialism is that the absurdity does not exist in man. It doesn’t exist in the world. It’s in the common expression of both.

The symbolic meaning of “egg” in this article lies in its implication of the growing golden dream of the American dream. And it symbolize the omnipresent dissident binding force, indicating that the social environment in which people live is an inextricable one. Human beings are falling into it. These ordinary people always encounter an awkward life situation, although they sometimes appear lazy and stupid, but they are not willing to fall; Although they tried to resist, they could never break free from the conspiracy and the strange circle of social contradictions. It just like father, he often drifted between reality and ideals. He wants to resist and escape from American dream, but he failed.

The world which the author portrays is just a copy with the living standard  of Americans during the ages. He uses absurd techniques to show the condition of society and chooses the exaggerated humor way to imply the American reality. Andersen gives a cruel conclusion that the essence of the world is absurd through the content and the unique form of the novel.

3.2 The inescapable trap

The main reason for the absurdity of the world is that society has created so many traps, which people think they have already known very well. But the ordinary people still can not escape from this trap. The absurd world is a huge dark net. No matter which way we choose, it is still a part of the dark side of traps in the world . 《鸡蛋的胜利》的黑色幽默解读(3):http://www.chuibin.com/yingyu/lunwen_206647.html