God Sees the Truth But Waits

The Russian short story, God Sees the Truth, But Waits, is a very effective tale. It has all of the elements that make a short story effective. It has developed settings, and it has developed characters. It has an interesting plot, and has as a part of that a set of fascinating conflicts. Its point of view is consistent, and it has a theme, although that theme is not necessarily easy to recognize. These elements of the story shall now be demonstrated.

The story's setting is fairly simple. None of the story has a clear time clue, but there are statements that show how much time has elapsed. The story takes place sometime before the introduction of automobiles into Russia, and before the end of the reign of Czars in the country. All of the scenes are in Russia. The story starts out at the home of the main character. The weather is probably clear, as the husband is getting ready to travel to the marketplace, and that is significantly harder to do during rainfall, if not impossible. The mood is happy and sad at the same time. Later in the story, the scene shifts to a campsite. The relative time is unknown for this scene. The weather is probably clear, and the mood seems bright but is actually frightening. The third scene happens to be a prison. The mood has shifted to gloomy, but the time and weather conditions are completely unknown. Finally, there is the prison camp. The relative time is twenty six years after the beginning of the story, and the location is Siberia. The mood ranges from cheerful to neutral to angry, with some hope thrown in between. Those are all of the settings, but a scene needs characters if there is to be a story.

There are several characters in this short story. There is Ivan Dmitrich Aksionov, a merchant and t...

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...could be written. However, to tie it together and strengthen the effect it has, one or more themes must be added. In this particular story, there are several themes. The title and elements of the story warn one to practice patience, as the truth does not always come out immediately. The text warns people not to judge a book by its cover, as both the protagonist and the antagonist end up having their demeanor marked as worse than it actually is.

With the proper settings, characters, plot, conflicts, point of view, and themes, one can build a fantastic story. However, this does not mean that it is easy to do so. The integration of each element is surprisingly difficult, though it is not as difficult as some would lead you to believe. The story, God Sees the Truth, But Waits, does a masterful job of combining these elements into a meaningful and powerful short story.