DECEIT AND INTENTIONAL MISDIRECTION IN MIRCEA ELIADE`S THE OLD MAN AND THE BUREAUCRATS…
DECEIT AND INTENTIONAL MISDIRECTION IN MIRCEA ELIADE`S THE OLD MAN AND THE BUREAUCRATS…

Summary/Abstract: In the novella The Old Man and the Bureaucrats…, Mircea Eliade reveals a hypothetical way of engaging in the fight against communism or any other totalitarian system. Teacher Fărîma manages to infiltrate the Secret Police machinery and attempts to use it in order to achieve a certain objective. This apolitical intellectual deliberately enters this new world to search for something specific. His endeavor, all the stories he narrates are organized in a certain way meant to reach the desired goal. The fact that the objective of his quest is not mentioned anywhere leads us to believe that this is an experiment. The narrative act turns him into a skilled manipulator; he always avoids recounting the events he is asked about. Observing that he manages to maintain the interest of the audience even without providing information, Fărîma feels that he can succeed in his experiment, that he can manipulate the public. Face to face with no. 1 and no. 3 of the Secret Police, Fărîma ceases to be a skilled manipulator and relates the dream that provides the key to the unfolding of events. At the end, we find the old Fărîma continuing his search, asking the daily question/password - what time is it? – waiting for the appropriate response. Although there is some possibility that Fărîma has continued his search on his own, the last part of the novella tilts the balance in favor of the hypothesis according to which Fărîma has at least the consent of the Secret Police, or he even operates on its behalf. And if at the same time Fărîma manages to pursue his personal interests, the result is the expected one, and his manipulation technique has paid off. Furthermore, if Fărîma succeeds in achieving his objective, he will continue to manipulate the institution he infiltrated using the most original techniques: imagination, intelligence and disguised innocence.

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