Symbolizing Futility with a Cakewalk Gone Awry
n the script I’m working on now, I had a scene in which a cakewalk symbolizes futility. But it was too symbolic, so I cut it. I still like the idea, though, so I don’t want to completely waste it.
In case you don’t know, a cakewalk is a carnival game, often played in elementary school. A bunch of pieces of paper with numbers on them form a circle, and you pick a number to start on. The music comes on and you walk in circles over these numbers until the music stops. When the music stops, you stop too. Then the cakewalk master (often a teacher) draws a number, and if you’re on that number, you win a cake. The one time I played this, I won a red velvet cake.
As you might have guessed, there is no skill involved whatsoever. It’s pure luck, and if a school is putting on the event, it may not even be luck, because they might keep playing new rounds until everyone has won a cake (depending on how many cakes were donated and how many kids are playing).
Anyway, in the earlier more symbolic draft of my script, the main characters (considerably older than elementary school age) are in a cakewalk, playing for a red velvet cake. One of them, especially, is excited for this cake because she loves red velvet cakes. Immediately it seems symbolic of something to see them circling endlessly to bizarre circus music for this cake. Especially because death figures heavily into the script. You can’t help but think, “Ah, so life is just an endless circle, right?”
But here’s what really makes it symbolic. Someone walks by the cakewalk, eating a slice of red velvet cake. The character who really wanted to win the cake sees this. She asks him what kind of cake it is, and he informs her that it’s red velvet cake, and that there is a ton more in the dining room where he got it from (without having to walk in circles for it). She’s devastated. The cakewalk is now utterly pointless, so everyone leaves the circle. Not only that, the characters don’t bother to go to the dining room to get the free cake either. They don’t want cake at all.
This really says something about something. I mean, think about it.
3 years ago