Ivan Fyodorovich Sponka The short story, “Ivan Fyodorovich Shponka and His Aunt”, explicates the life of a man named Ivan Fyodorovich Shponka. We see him briefly in his young years, followed by his life in the army, and his return to the farm where his strong characterized aunt resides. We can see immediately that this man lives in constant cleanliness and dutiful paranoia; these are some of his desires that he wishes to exhibit to others. We can also see his fears, which reside in the confiscation of his masculinity and independence. This short story has many elements that resemble others in the Nikolai Gogol collection. Since Ivan Fyodorovich Shponka was young, his desires were clear and he made sure he reached them. Shponka was always a neat child: “His exercise book was always immaculate, with ruled margin and not a mark anywhere. He would always sit very quietly, his arms folded, his eyes riveted on his teacher. He never hung bits of paper on the back of the boy in front, never made carvings in the desks, and never played at shoving other boys off the benches just before the teacher came in.”(161-162). We can see in the previous quote that he was neat and preoccupied as he was seen by his teacher; he tried to keep the image of an angel. This angel image did not last due to the pancake incident. Shponka was pressured by his classmates to allow them to copy his work in exchange for a pancake. He was caught eating it by his teacher and became upset because of the fact that he lost his angel image. We can compare this to the incident in Gogol’s short story the “Nose”; the main character here loses his nose and instead of a nose he has a flat area: ”Flat just like a freshly cooked pancake”(56). This lose entailed a loss of his masculinity because he was paranoid about his outer appearance. In this case Shponka also loses an image he wanted to keep. Since he is so dutiful and loves to show this off his choice of profession was logical. In the Army he held on to that image of being dutiful and his preoccupation with cleanliness. The idea of having o uniform was very pleasing to him because he knew people would know his stature without him having to exert it. Shponka stays extremely neat because it would show that his life is in a orderly fashion as well.
Throughout history there have been many odd characters. Russian history was not excluded. Grigory Rasputin, who was an assistant to the Royal Russian family, was an unusual man.
Our aim is to portrait the character of Dmitry Dmitrich Gurov, in the context of the story, extracting those elements that are characteristic of the period in which Chekhov wrote the story. True love is a reason for everything, even deleting the laws of life. People's mistakes and weaknesses are part of life and, without contradictions, the world would not have evolved.... ... middle of paper ...
uniform (Riasanovsky, 323)” Nicholas time growing up in Russia had an immense influence on him. He
Alexander Solzhenitsyn carefully and tediously depicted what life is like in a prison. Ivans monotonous life prompts the reader initially to think that Ivans day is a living death of tedious details. Yet, in truth, Ivan i...
The memoir gives a unique perspective of the noblewoman in this period of Russian society. A male-centered society made it difficult for women to shape and control their lives, however it was possible through means of gaining respect. The society respected woman who had a virtuous demeanor. Especially, those who lived with an immoral spouse and still were able to show virtuous characteristics. Anna is able to gain the respect of people higher in authority than her husband receiving special treatment for various requests. Through her marriage, she recognizes that her husband has rights that she doesn’t have in shaping and controlling her life privately and especially publicly. This society causes for women to depend on men completely.
The conflict between good and evil is one of the most common conventional themes in literature. Coping with evil is a fundamental struggle with which all human beings must contend. Sometimes evil comes from within a character, and sometimes other characters are the source of evil; but evil is always something that the characters struggle to overcome. In two Russian novels, Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment and Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita, men and women cope with their problems differently. Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment and the Master in The Master and Margarita can not cope and fall apart, whereas Sonya in Crime and Punishment and Margarita in The Master and Margarita, not only cope but pull the men out of their suffering.
Ivan Ilych begins by introducing the reader to the announcement of Ivan Ilych’s death, and assessing the subsequent events. Tolstoy allows the reader to understand the piece by leading with the Ivan’s life. Therefore, throughout the text, the audience knows and understands the outcome of the plot’s events, making the reader able to connect the work with it’s conclusion and reinforcing the overriding themes. Furthermore, this work reflects strong literary style, which is able to further promote the weight of the text, as well as reader engagement. Tolstoy’s charismatic, yet dark, narrator achieves a persona of honesty and insight, speaking beyond the story and highlighting the opinion of the author. Yet beyond the reader’s initial interpretation of the text and evaluation of forefront components, Tolstoy takes advantages of complex and simplistic metaphors to propel his themes and ideals. Infact, the entire life of Ivan Ilych plays as a metaphor which reflects the simplicity of conformity and negative, yet necessary disillusionment to Russian society. Aspects of the characters’ life, such as the seemingly elegant house which Ivan Ilych spend a great deal of effort to improve and design, proves to be no different than any other of its class, a concept
Being one of the greatest Russian writers of 20th century, Aleksander Solzhenitsyn had a unique talent that he used to truthfully depict the realities of life of ordinary people living in Soviet era. Unlike many other writers, instead of writing about “bright future of communism”, he chose to write about everyday hardships that common people had to endure in Soviet realm. In “Matryona’s Home”, the story focuses on life of an old peasant woman living in an impoverished collectivized village after World War 2 . In the light of Soviet’s propaganda of creating a new Soviet Nation, the reader can observe that Matryona’s personality and way of life drastically contradicted the desired archetype of New Soviet Man. Like most of the people in her village,
Hansen, Bruce. “Dostoevsky’s Theodicy.” Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University, 1996. At . accessed 18 November 2001.
The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy shows reader how not to live their everyday life. Of course we have to work day in and day out to provide for our families, but there comes a time when your work life should be put on hold. No life is ever perfect, we must make the best out of what we can accomplish. The Death of Ivan Ilyich teaches us about three themes: the right life, your mental “phony” life versus reality, and the unavoidable death to come.
This paper seeks to review the themes found in the book entitled Heart of a Dog, which has been authored by Mikhail Bulgakov. In summary, the themes of the book are a satirical representation of the state of affairs in the Soviet Union under the leadership of Joseph Stalin. The book was written during the era in which censorship was in full force throughout the country. Mikhail was therefore forced to write his book in a satirical and subtle manner in order to himself from the dictatorial leadership (Bulgakov, 1988).
This man is the absolute opposite of everything society holds to be acceptable. Here is a man, with intelligent insight, lucid perception, who is self-admitted to being sick, depraved, and hateful. A man who at every turn is determined to thwart every chance fate offers him to be happy and content. A man who actively seeks to punish and humiliate himself. Dostoyevsky is showing the reader that man is not governed by values which society holds to be all important.
Education was not the only defining factor of Brodsky’s youth that contributed to his developing identity. Wars, starvation, media lies, and other hardships tormented the Soviet Union during his youth. Brodsky remarks that “all this militarization of childhood, all the menacing idiocy, erotic tension...had not affected our ethics much, or our aesthetics--or our ability to love and suffer.” This is indisputable, as Brodsky’s mere writing of these passages serves as proof of his unhindered conscience. However, whereas many students would go on to lose this ability of artistic expression, Brodsky would fight to retain it, thus marking him as a rather atypical youth. Furthermore, he capitalized on the lunacy and menacing idiocy of his militarized childhood to help catalyze the formation of the very identity he strove to protect. Unlike many others, Brodsky was not made inhuman by the experiences of his childhood, but they helped to shape the path for greater realizations later in
Ivan Dmitritch, a character in the short story “The Lottery Ticket” by Anton Chekhow, is unstable. In moments of believing he won the lottery, Ivan became materialistic. He fantasized about his “new life [and how] it will be transform[ed]” (pg 199). Ivan imagined all the things he desired instead of appreciating what he already had. This in fact shows that he is unstable as all he determines about is the rich life and not distinguishing that he isolated himself from the person who loves him the most; his wife. As a result of isolation, Ivan became paranoid. While Ivan continues to dwell about the rich life, reality hits him as he ponders about all the hardships, such as all the relatives coming and “begin[ning to whine] like beggars” (pg 201).
“Mother” is a masterpiece of Maxim Gorky where he depicts a revolution against the bourgeois society. Being greatly influenced by the thoughts and philosophy of Lenin, Maxim Gorky is greatly shocked and frustrated by the ignorance, poverty and sufferings of his country people. He wants to establish the equal rights of the people in the society. In this novel Pavel is a character portrayed with a revolutionary spirit and Maxim Gorky shows his philosophy and dreams through the character of Pavel in this novel.