This is a good-humoured caricature of the enterprise in the poultry ministry. What is done there seems completely foolish and useless, yet it is not mad enough for us to not sense a connection to some kind of reality. The characters use all their energy pursuing personal goals and achieving self-satisfaction. When the battle for a vacant official post is coming up, intrigues are flying around the place. People guard against each other – and against a real or imaginary influence they must have on each other. Just when every decision made is far from practical reality the imaginary goals reach a whole new high. The grotesque is so much more obvious because everyone has grown custom to the norms of this world and therefore takes them deadly serious.
