Carnivalisation ‘The Code’ enacts the concept of the carnivalesque in its narrative. Here are two stories, one within the other. The narrator takes us first to the meadow where three people are ‘piling cocks of hay’(Frost 69). One is a town-bred farmer and obviously the owner. The other two are hired men. Suddenly one helper named James thrusts his pitchfork on the ground, marches himself off the field and goes home. The other helper explains the shocked owner that ‘He thought you meant to find fault with his work’. It was going to shower, and the owner said that they should take pains to cock the hay. He took it as an insult and this was sufficient to anger the man because, as the other says: ‘The hand that knows his business won’t be told
Sanders was an old farmer who tirelessly worked in his farm. One reason behind his working was that by doing so he would encourage the workers and thus get more work done out of his hired help, obviously with no extra wages. So ‘no one liked the boss’ (Frost 70). The worker here felt insulted as his employer asked him to work harder when he was already doing his best. The result was that the worker unloaded the entire wagon of hay on his master. He thus gave a befitting lesson to him who questioned his integrity and wounded his sense of self-respect. These two people who hail from working the class community, a lower social stratum, flout the authority of their employers who nurture a pre-conceived idea that the workers are lazy and averse to do work hard. The second worker relates the grim episode with Sanders in a light and casual manner. This comical representation of his dishonor to his boss and thus his temporary displacement or deposition from the social rank resembles the comic subversion of rank and authority in a carnival. The actions of these two workers would raise them to the eyes of the employers and inversely, the employers would stoop to treat them with honor. So when the second worker asked if Sanders discharged him, he answers: ‘Discharge me? No! He knew I did just right (Frost 73). A new social relation thus takes