The Three Sages and "I,": No Bread, You Say Cake? The Possession of Rage Chapter

There was no bread for school lunch.
The shelves at my usual convenience store were empty, too.

The teacher said,
"If there's no bread, why don't you eat cake?"

I exploded.

An unfamiliar rage welled up inside me.
It was the rage of a boy who, on cold, shivering cobblestones,
bared his teeth and cried out in hunger.

With a sound like the world creaking,
three shadows emerged from the darkness.
The philosopher who sowed the seeds of revolution—Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
The queen who lived in beauty and misunderstanding—Marie Antoinette.
The critic who carves out the true meaning of words—George Orwell.

I(in a possessed voice)
"Have you ever been hungry?
Have you ever shared a crust of bread with your mother in the winter in Paris?
Cake? Don't mock me! Rot!"

Rousseau(narrowing his eyes, quietly)
"I understand. There is righteousness in your anger.
When society forgets 'natural solidarity',
that is where the fire of revolution is lit."

Marie(filled with sadness)
"…My name was used as a 'symbol'.
Whether I truly said 'let them eat cake' or not
may no longer be the point.
But—I must admit that your anger stands upon my ignorance."

Orwell(speaking calmly)
"Anger eventually finds words.
'Hunger' becomes 'rebellion,' and 'rebellion' changes its name to 'justice'.
But be careful.
Those who hold the words rewrite history.
When you shake your fist at the word 'cake',
whose meaning is it?"

My fist was trembling.
And the anger is warm.
But it is also frightening.
"What... am I angry at?" At the cake? At the teacher? Or,
"at my own voiceless self?"

The next day, I brought a piece of paper.
On it, I wrote:
"I have no bread.
But it's not cake I want, I want you to listen."
The teacher read it, was silent for a moment, and then said,
"Yes, I'm listening." I am still angry.
But now, that anger is—anger that has found words.

Orwell(writing in his notebook)

"The 'anger turned into words' by a single boy
shakes the world more quietly and deeply than any revolution of the past."

"There is no bread. There is no cake.
But the 'hunger' and 'question' that exist between them—
that is what truly moves people."