砖匠

     A bit of color for once, all the better to see the red flags with, not to mention the obvious aerial file footage of Warsaw       The story concerns Jozef Malesa, the mason or bricklayer of the title       He was once the darling of the party, the son of two old party activists, a worker of heroic reputation, his own commitment to The Movement unquestioned       He was chosen to be destined for great things, specially educated and pushed forward to positions of responsibility in the Party       Eventually he decides, because of the ethical pressures which he feels from the obstructionism of the bureaucracy from above, he asks to return to be a simple bricklayer       He is disturbed with the way the Party deals with people, especially their lack of direct contact       He thinks workers know better than the leadership many times but that's not the way power flows       He is uncomfortable with the compromises to his idealism       He remains committed to social justice and joins his friends for the May Day rally where his comfort and confidence in his place in society cause him to defer to no man, certainly no rat faced men in overcoats with red armbands       His great pleasure in life moreover is laying brick       He finds the work satisfying and fulfilling which is why he was such an obviously superior worker in the first place