Themes
In this story Franquin highlights the arms trade and how it encourages unnecessary conflict between nations in the pursuit of profit. He also satirises the effect on the local economy with people forced to pedal to move the bus due to fuel restrictions; the lack of food in the shops; and newspapers being worn as clothes. The weapons themselves are also shown as useless: oil barrels are stuck together to appear like rockets and grenades are made from food tins with the contents still inside. One might also in general see a de facto satire over life in then contemporary totalitarian states in especially Eastern Europe, like e.g. DDR. (Both stereotypical Germans and actual spoken German appear in the story.)
Read more about this topic: QRN Sur Bretzelburg
Famous quotes containing the word themes:
“In economics, we borrowed from the Bourbons; in foreign policy, we drew on themes fashioned by the nomad warriors of the Eurasian steppes. In spiritual matters, we emulated the braying intolerance of our archenemies, the Shi’ite fundamentalists.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)
“I suppose you think that persons who are as old as your father and myself are always thinking about very grave things, but I know that we are meditating the same old themes that we did when we were ten years old, only we go more gravely about it.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)