...As a child he had gone out for Halloween as a mummy, a vampire, a blue-and-green-swolen drowned boy, all kinds of sufferings and mutilations and perversions represented by his costumes; and looking around him he saw witches and Frankenstein monsters and scarred warty masks of all the kids running around asking for candy in the dark; and he wondered: Why must we hurt ourselves and drive stakes through our hearts and drown ourselves in order to get candy? Why couldn't we just go out and ask for it?
As a child, the protagonist recalls dressing up for Halloween in various costumes that symbolize pain and suffering, such as mummies and drowned boys. Surrounded by other children in similarly grotesque outfits, he reflects on the bizarre tradition of celebrating horror and injury during a time meant for fun and sweets. The contrast between the festive aspect and the dark imagery leaves him puzzled.
This leads him to question the necessity of embodying such suffering to receive candy. He wonders why there isn’t a simpler way to obtain treats, posing a deeper query about the human inclination to dramatize pain and sacrifice in pursuit of pleasure. The exploration of this theme suggests a critique of how people often embrace struggles and hardships, even in playful contexts, rather than seeking joy straightforwardly.
