The Wasp — 1921 — page 29: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page presents a dramatic dialogue between two characters: **Gen.** (General) and **Mel.** (likely Melanie or another character). The General describes living in constant fear of assassination—a servant with "dark, cavernous eyes" at a dinner party haunted him with the possibility of sudden violence. The General reflects on imagining "the ugly face of Murder" and what his own assassination might look like. When Mel asks what made the assassins choose him, he responds: "There was no choice. It was the drawing of a number." This appears to satirize **arbitrary state violence or conscription**—the random selection of victims by those in power. The General's paranoia and the lottery-like selection system suggest commentary on either political persecution or mandatory military service, critiquing how the ruling class wielded power without individual justification.