# The Tramp explained — Short Fiction > Chapter companion for Short Fiction by Guy de Maupassant. ## What happens The story follows Nicolas Toussaint, known as 'Bell,' a crippled beggar who has spent forty years dragging himself through the same few villages. After two days without food, he steals and kills a hen from Maître Chiquet's farm, is brutally beaten by the farmer and his men, arrested by police, and dies overnight in jail from exhaustion and starvation. ## Themes in this chapter ### Cruelty and Suffering Bell endures relentless physical and social cruelty: his legs were crushed as a child in a 'joke,' he is beaten by Maître Chiquet and the farmhands, and he dies alone in jail after being denied food. ### Isolation and Loneliness Bell has lived his entire life as an outcast, knowing no one, loving no one, and being shunned by the community that eventually lets him starve and die. ### Social Class and Money Bell's extreme poverty and disability place him at the bottom of the social hierarchy, where he is seen as a nuisance rather than a human being in need. ## Character check-ins ### Maître Chicot The farmer who catches Bell stealing a hen, beats him severely, and has him arrested. ## Key lines > He had known better days, in spite of his poverty and his infirmity. At the age of fifteen both his legs had been crushed by a carriage on the Varville high road. Despite his current destitution and disability, he had once been better off. When he was fifteen, a carriage ran over both his legs on the Varville road. _Introduces Bell's backstory and the accident that crippled him._ > He had been nicknamed 'Bell,' because he swung between his two props like a bell between its two hammers. People called him 'Bell' because he swayed on his crutches like a bell swinging between its clappers. _Explains the origin of his nickname._ > The peasant women at their doors shouted at him from the distance when they saw him coming: 'Be off with you, you clod! Why, I gave you a bit of bread only three days ago!' Women would yell at him from their doorsteps as soon as they spotted him, telling him to go away because they had already given him bread a few days earlier. _Illustrates the community's growing hostility and refusal to help._ > He was locked up in the town jail. The policemen never imagined that he might need something to eat, and he was left until next day. But when they came down to question him, they found him lying dead upon the floor. What a surprise! He was imprisoned in the town jail, but the police did not think to feed him, leaving him without food until the next day. When they came to interrogate him, they discovered he had died on the floor—to their astonishment. _Describes the ironic and tragic end of the story._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_23_se/chapters/the-tramp - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_23_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_23_se/chapters