Mikhail Lermontov's Characters And Russian Society

Men often died on the front for the hollow meaning behind excessive pride which led them to perform inhumane acts. The war no longer became about protecting or expanding a country’s land, but protecting a country’s soldiers from death. After being enlisted, the men lost their identities as individual, “coins of different provinces,” and became, “melted down, all to bear the same stamp” (272), of war life. These nationalistic forces targeted and tortured one another, losing sight of the similarities between all men. Advanced nations had, “so many airmen… so sure of themselves they would give chase to single individuals as though they were hares” (286). Remarque commonly portrayed the soldiers’ fight as a losing race against annihilation. Even recently, in February 2017, two Indian men were shot in a bar by an American, yelling, “Get out of my country!” This xenophobic American shot two Indian individuals in the name of his country. Nationalism, sometimes expressed as fanatic patriotism, is apparent through this inhuman act. He thought that the United Sates, his own country, was too good to share with others (Gowen and Lakshmi). Throughout the novel, increasing popularity of nationalism provoked soldiers to demonstrate the inhumanity of mankind’s

Most significantly, the isolation of the characters forms the grim mood. The noseless soldier is a misfit among the three other soldiers. He wears a “black silk handkerchief” on his face, because he does not have a nose (455). His separation from the other soldiers suggests a sorrowful mood. The narrator feels isolated from the other soldiers, because he thinks that he is not the heroic type. He believes that his being wounded is an accident (455). He also does not see himself as a “hawk”

Artist Leonid Afremov was born on July 12, 1955 in Vitebsk, Belarus. He is a Russian-Israeli known for using palette knives to spread oil paint across the canvas. Growing up his parents noticed at a young age that he was gifted in art. In college, Afremov took as many classes as he could that had to do with the subject of art. He also took many private lessons from local famous artist. He became more knowledgeable about many artist such as Picasso, Monet, Dali, and etc. Afremov learned about many art movements. One of the movements that caught his attention was the 19th century French Impressionism. The French Impressionism is based less on detail but driven more by color and brush strokes. He hardly shows his work in galleries

Chapter 2 sums up the war in a different fashion, showing the contrast between the uselessness of past knowledge and the “raw and emotional skills necessary” in the trenches (20). The duties imposed on the camp by Corporal Himmelstoss symbolize the hours of work and duties done before enlistment that mean nothing during the war. Being “put through every conceivable refinement of parade ground soldiering” shows how schoolbook tasks were diligently performed only for fear of how society would perceive the boys if they were to do otherwise (26). Himmelstoss himself is the embodiment of previous responsibilities that only make the men “howl with rage” at present (26). The death of Kemmerich goes hand in hand with the death of innocence, Kemmerich’s shiny boots being the small glimpse of hope that keeps the men going. Baumer receives saveloy, hot tea, and rum from Muller for salvaging the boots. In return for giving Muller a sense of hope, Baumer receives a more needed sense of comfort and satisfaction. His hunger, one “greater than comes from the belly alone” (33), is thus satisfied. Chapter 7 directly reinforces this transition from an old life into a new one. Baumer “feels an attraction” to the

The workers in the cities worked for very long hours in awful conditions, which stressed problems in the basic infrastructure of Russia and its underprivileged economic. Russia was in a mess: there was social unrest as workers grew increasingly angry with their atrocious working

Young women in particular face serious forms of abuse during this time. The author describes on multiple occasions when she was assaulted by Russian soldiers. While she describes how horrible this makes her feels, she knows that having the Russian officers around her does protect her in certain ways. She is the companion of Russian soldier by the name of Anatol. He and other soldiers

Even though the soldiers join the war as naive youths, the war rapidly changes them and they develop into young men. Surrounded by death, the boys are bound to foresee the fragility of their own lives and are stripped of the carelessness and brazenness of youth. The dreadful horrors around the boys bound them to consider a world that does not accommodate to their childish and simplistic view. They want to only see a separation between what is right and what is wrong, they instead find moral doubt. Where they had wanted to see order and meaning, they only found senselessness and disorder. Where they wanted to find heroism, they only found the selfish instinct of self-preservation. These realizations destroyed the innocence of the boys, maturing and thrusting them into their manhood.

It is obvious from the opening chapter that this novel will center on the war and the effects it has on a young group of soldiers, none of them more than twenty years of age. They are all friends and former classmates of Paul Baumer, the narrator and protagonist of the book; they have enlisted in the German infantry because their teacher, Kantorek, had painted for them a glorious picture of fighting and saving the homeland from destruction during World War I. In this first chapter, Baumer and his friends are away from the front lines, relaxing a bit after two weeks of fierce fighting. As each of the young men is introduced, it is apparent that they are tired, hungry, angry, and disillusioned over the war.

This essay will interpret the story, “The Wife of His Youth”, through critical lenses and certain literary movements such as regional realism, modernism, and naturalism. The analysis will be based on the contrast in views of the stories purpose and underlying message the author is trying to convey. The modernist literary movement exemplifies the disparity between previous norms and sudden reform on social status and class. This paper will analyze how the symbolism in the story and the political issues during that time period coincide.

The stories of Anton Chekhov mark a focal moment in European fiction. This is the point where 19th realist caucus of the short stories started their transformation into modern form. As such, his work straddles two traditions. The first is that of the anti-romantic realism which has a sharp observation of external social detail. It has human behavior conveyed within tight plot. The second is the modern psychological realism in which the action in typically internal and expressed in associative narrative that is built on epiphanic moments. In consideration of the two sides, Chekhov developed powerful personal styles that presage modernism without losing traditional frills of the form. This essay will discuss the Chekhov's portrayal of women.

The two stories of “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver and “The Lady with the Dog” by Anton Chekhov focus equally on the grand theme of change. In “Cathedral”, the story concentrates on the main character, referred to only as the narrator. He is portrayed as a close minded and unaccepting man, but as the story goes on we see a drastic change in his thoughts and actions. The story is told in first person point of view, giving readers a first-hand account of how and why the narrator changes as the story progresses. In addition, “The Lady with the Dog” focuses on the change of the main character as well. Dmitri Gurov is described as an unfaithful husband, bored with his life and just looking for change. We see this change take place with a third person (central consciousness) point of view, giving us access to all of the main characters thoughts.

Hadji Murat, Tolstoy's second book with the Caucasus as its setting can be considered a work of historical fiction that is a beautiful tale of resistance, and a window into not only the Caucasian War of the mid-nineteenth century, but also the culture of the Russian Empire during this period. As a work of fiction the reader must be wary of depictions of actual persons such as Tsar Nicholas I, whom Tolstoy was not enamored with, to say the least, but many insights about the period and its people can be gleaned from the story. The novel is one of great contrasts between Chechens and Russians and also of what life was like during this time.

The book I chose to do my book report on is "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich". The book is about the most forceful indictments of political oppression in the Stalin era Soviet Union. It is a captiving story about the life in a Siberian labor camp, related to the point of view of Ivan Denisovich, a prisoner. It takes place in a span of one day, "from dawn till dusk" (pg. 111) . This book also describes his struggles and emotional stress that he must going through.

When Nikita Khrushchev seized control over the Soviet Union he kicked off what is known as the “Thaw” began. This period in time when citizens were forced into labor camps where millions of people were sent for crimes against the country that included practicing certain religions, having communications with foreign persons, and talking out contrary to the government. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich was a controversial short novel published in 1962 that was fiction, but based in reality about the “gulag” (Solzhenitsyn PG#) prison system that Joseph Stalin, the dictator who ruled the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1952. During Stalin's rule of fear, millions were arrested and shipped off to gulags. One Day in the Life of Ivan

Heroes come in many shapes and sizes, throughout time many of them have risen and fallen. A hero is characterized as someone that is a leader to his people, they reflect societal views, and yet they have a major flaw that often causes their downfall. During the 20th century a revolutionary man rose from his years of exile to lead the Bolshevik party into power, his name, Vladimir Lenin. Lenin stands as a prime example of a leader that reflects Russia’s social values, and as a flaw for his outspoken nature suffers from a near-death assassination.