The cop and the anthem( 警察与赞美诗)

P—policeman T—thief S—shop manager O—old man W—waiter

At the gate of a prison

(P: policeman 1 T: thief )

P: (pulling the thief out of the gate) Ah, Mr. Black! It’s time to say goodbye! T: But officer! I want to stay here in prison. It’s too cold, and I have no place to stay. Let me stay here in prison! (walking into the gate)

P: (pushing him away) Get out! You lazy thief! Go and look for a job! You’ll have some food and a room to live in.

T: But what can I do ? I can’t do anything.

P: That’s your problem. We can’t help you.

( The wind starts to blow hard and the thief trembles with cold.)

Outside a shop

T: Oh, here’s a shop. The shop window is large and bright. I know what to do. (He picks up a stone and throws it at the window. The window is broken.. Then he walks about with his hands in his pocket and whistles)

S: (Running to the window) Hey! What’s happening? Who broke the window? T: I did!

S: What? You? You broke the window?

T: Yes, of course, I broke the window a minute ago.

S: Go away! What do you think I am?

T: I think you are a shop manager and you should catch me! I am the one who broke the window.

S: If you had broken it, you wouldn’t be standing here now! Get out of my way! (pushing him away)

T: (running after him) But I did it ! I did it! (sighing) Oh, he is gone. It’s no use. I have to try again.

Near the chair in a park

(An old man is sleeping in a chair. The thief notices him, walks near him and takes away the bag from him.)

O: (jumping up) Hey! What are you doing? That’s my bag!

T; Yes, your bag . Now it’s in my hand. Go and tell the policeman!

O: (Getting back his bag and catching the thief) Come with me to the police station!

T: Thank you, sir. Thank you.

O: (surprised) What?

T: You know I have no food and no home. And it’s getting colder and colder. So I want to stay in prison. Please help me.

P: (Feeling pity for him) Oh, what a poor man! Let me help you. I have some bread and some money. Don’t be a thief anymore. Poor man, poor man! ( He gives the thief some bread and some money, then leaves)

T: ( worried ) But what should I do ? Where should I go this evening?

In a Restaurant

(W: waitress T: Thief)

W: Good morning, sir!

T: Good morning!

W: Sit down, please. Here’s the menu. What will you have?

T: At first, I’d like a bowl of vegetable soup.

W: (writing down) A bowl of vegetable soup.

T: Then I’ll have some steak and chicken. At last, I’ll have a cup of coffee and a cigar.

W: Steak, chicken, coffee and a cigar. Er, excuse me, but this is a very big meal. Do you have enough money?

T: What?! What did you say? Do you often ask such questions?

W: I’m sorry. I’ll bring your food right away.

(Later, the thief eats up all his food)

W: Was everything all right, sir?

T: The food was very nice. I like it very much.

W: Thank you, sir. Here’s your bill, sir. Twenty dollars, please.

T: Very well, but now, I want to tell you that I haven’t twenty dollars. I don’t even have forty cents.

W: I see, will you come with me, please?

T: (standing up and following the waitress) Of course. The policeman is waiting for me, isn’t he ?

(Two men appear suddenly and walk to the thief )

T: I… I… don’t understand , Who are they?

“ We are the people you are waiting for ! ”

(They give the thief a good beating.)

In front of a church

( The thief stands outside of the church and listens to the music of “Silent Night”)

T: What beautiful music! I often listened to it when I was a boy. Ah! How

different my life is! But look at me now! What am I? Who am I? Oh, I don’t want to be a thief! I want to be a good man now. I’m not old. I’m going to work. I can help the others.

( A blind man appears. The thief helps him walk across the street.) B: It’s very kind of you.

( A lady drops her purse. The thief picks it up and gives it back to her.) (later, a policeman comes)

P: Hey! You! What are you doing here?

T: Nothing, just listening to the music.

P: Listening to the music?

T: Yes, I’m just standing here and listening to the music.

P: Oh, no. Didn’t I see you this morning? Of course! You are the one who was standing near that broken window. I think you broke the window after all!

(The thief runs away quickly. Two other policemen run after him and catch him by the arm..

T: (shouting desperately) But officer! I’ not a thief now! I don’t want to be a thief any more! I’m a good man now ! I’m a good man!

(The music of “silent night” echoes on the stage.)

第二篇：警察与赞美诗The Cop and the Anthem (2)

Soapy’ s way of defending his dignity

Appreciation of The Cop and the Anthem

Once we look at the title, we may have a picture that in a stable country, the people, both physical or mental, led a stable life under the guard of the cop and the enlightenment of the anthem. However, inversely, things happen beyond our imagination.

The short story's narrative is set in an unstated day in late fall. Soapy lingered on the lounge by the street with people going and by, thinking how to suffer from the cold winter in the hustle and bustle of the indifferent city. With the spirit of arrogance, Soapy racked his brain trying to find the shelter during the winter as well as defending his dignity. .Accordingly, the self-dignity of Soapy becomes the clue of this story. Then, it comes the question what is dignity? Dignity means the self- judgment after the contrast to the other people. In the story, there is discrimination between Soapy and others. For example, a luxury shop that Soapy once vandalized as well as the noble woman the cop curried favor by helping her cross the road. There are the rising distinctions between various rank people. In the sake for protecting his dignity as one of the lower classes, though with some indecent behaves, Soapy came up with the odd idea.

Lingering on the lounge with newspapers covering his body, Soapy was thinking of the ways that can help him suffer from the frozen winter as well as protect his dignity. The first idea that came to Soap’s mind is the charity. It can provide the homeless people as Soapy with the shelter to overcome the winter. Though Soapy in all likelihood could get the chance of the charity, he refused to concede that he is one of the disadvantage groups. It is his way to protect his dignity. Namely, though the charity can provide the accommodation as well as the food to help the homeless suffer from the frozen winter, Soapy did not quite in sympathy of this kind of solution, for Soapy can feel the discrimination come from the others, thus he confuse to stay this winter in the shelter of the charity. As a homeless people, he dislikes the process of the charity’s judgment on the grounds that his self-dignity refused to accept other’ s giving alms. In his point of view, you finally concede that you are inferior to the other people if you accept the help of charity. In the light of this statement, the legislation was more merciful than the charity as to Soapy.

The jail is the ideal place for Soapy to suffer from the coming winter. However, the premise of being put into the poison is not easy for Soapy to accomplish. Soapy' s ploys include swindling a restaurant into serving him an expensive meal, vandalizing the plate-glass window of a luxury shop, repeating his eatery exploit at a humble diner, sexually harassing a young woman, pretending to be publicly intoxicated, and stealing another man's umbrella.

However, all of these attempts are quickly exposed as failures. The upper-class restaurant looks at Soapy's threadbare clothes and refuses to serve him. A police officer responds to the broken window but decides to pursue an innocent bystander. The diner refuses to arrest Soapy and instead has two servers throw Soapy out onto a concrete pavement. Soapy's failures led to his desired arrest continue. The young woman, far from feeling harassed, proves to be more than ready for action. Another police officer observes Soapy impersonating a drunk and disorderly man, but assumes that the exhibitionistic conduct is that of a Yale student celebrating a victory over "Hartford College" in football. Finally, the victim of the umbrella theft relinquishes the item without a struggle.1

Due to all these events, Soapy reflected of his goal of getting arrested and imprisoned. With the autumn sun gone and night having fallen, Soapy lingered by a small Christian church, suddenly, he immersed himself into the anthem of the church. By the enlightenment of the anthem, Soapy changed his mind of being arrested and imprisoned to the jail. On the contrary, he decided to inverse his fate by his own effort. The anthem served as the match that lights the powder of Soapy’ s heart and waked up his latent possibility. In any cases, the dignity is built up by one’s own endeavor, neither charity nor prison but yourself. He has just built up his blueprint of his tomorrow life. However, the cop came to him and asked him: “What are you doing here?”, by the answer of : “Nothing.”, Soapy was arrested and was sentenced to the prison for three months just as his initial intention.

With the extraordinary ending in satire tone, we can imagine that it will be not easy for Soapy to protect his dignity. During the way Soapy defended his self-dignity as a homeless people, first intending to be arrested and then changing his mind of building his dignity by his own effort, it serves as a reflection of the background of his society. There are rising distinctions between the various classes, rich and poor, eventually lead to the discrimination towards the lower classes. Combined with determinism as well as discrimination, Soapy’ s way of defending his self-dignity seems being trapped into the dead end. However, what we should keep in mind is that we can not abandon our dignity any more than we can abandon the air that we breath.