The Wasp — 1918 — page 11: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# The Wasp Page Analysis This page contains narrative text rather than a cartoon. It describes a scene of convicted prisoners—"jail-birds"—being transported to the ship *Good Cheer* for transportation to the West Indies. The passage emphasizes the brutal conditions: prisoners in irons, various emotional reactions to their fate, and an armed, intoxicated escort. The text focuses on a character named Burnham, who observes this "pitiful and foul company" with cold indifference from a shop doorway. The narrator describes Burnham's heart as emotionally hardened—"a lump of stone" that could be heated but not melted. He views the cruelty dispassionately, though his interest briefly quickens upon spotting a "known face" among the condemned. The passage appears to critique both the convict transportation system and Burnham's moral callousness.