All About the Wonderful Carnival

The last part of Chapter 10 takes place during carnival. Mikhail Bakhtin, a Russian philosopher and literary critic, held opinions on what the terms "carnival" and "grotesque" meant. He outlines that carnival is a social institution and grotesque (grotesque realism) as as a literary mode. He saw the carnival as something in which everyone was considered equal and that those attending a carnival do not merely constitute a crowd; rather the people are seen as a whole. Bakhtin once said, "All were considered equal during carnival. Here, in the town square, a special form of free and familiar contact reigned among people who were usually divided by the barriers of caste, property, profession, and age." Everyone is part of an equal class during carnival according to Bakhtin. He also outlines it as a time in which people can "not" be themselves but instead the unique sense of time and space should cause individuals to feel that they are a part of the collectivity. He also thinks that grotesque and carnival are connected. He says that grotesque is used to describe a bodily change through eating, defacation, and sex. He says that grotesque is the measuring device that shows how a person changes through these three ways. At the carnival, everyone is treated as equal and it seems as though everyone is living in luxury. This is how Bakhtin's definition of carnival relates to the carnival in this chapter. When he talks about the carnival, he says that everyone is treated equally and that people are blinded by the many nice things that happen to them. People become ignorant and happy in the carnival. It may seem like a nice event that everyone can participate in without being treated unfairly, but it means that people cannot be very different if everyone is considered the same and have an equally good experience.