The 'Superfluous Man' By Ivan Turgenev

“How did a battalion of middle-aged reserve policemen find themselves facing the task of shooting some 1,500 Jews in the Polish village of Josefow in the summer of 1942” (Browning, 3)? This question is asked in the beginning of Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 written by Christopher Browning, a historian and famous author. This compelling book tells the real story of the German Order Police throughout the two world wars, specifically World War Two. However, he mainly focuses on one particular group, the Reserve Police Battalion 101. In this group contained lower to middle class middle aged men who were too old to be helpful to the German Army so were put into the Order Police (Browning, 1). He uses this particular battalion to prove his thesis correct. By using the word ordinary,

Throughout life there are moments where an individual must conform to society and the people around them in order to be accepted, however it is the individual actions and how the individual chooses to conform that creates their unique identity and place within that society. Ralph Ellison published the novel that follows a sense of outward conformity and obedience to an established order while at the same time invoking an inward questioning of the roles an individual plays within such an order. The main character is forced to conform to the cliché laws and expectations of the laws and expectations of the society that he lives in, in order to survive and function within them, while he privately goes against these societies in order to define

Viktor E. Frankl, an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist who also had survived the Holocaust, writes “When we are no longer able to change a situation – we are challenged to change ourselves” (BrainyQuote). Frankl survived genocide against his own people and still chose to have a positive outlook on it because he understands that if he did not, he would continually live an unhappy, upset life. Like Frankl, Ivan Denisovich Shukhov, the main character in One Day In The Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, contains a similar outlook to that of Frankl. The novel takes place during Soviet Russia in a gulag in Siberia, or otherwise known as a labor work camp. The whole book is about only one day that Shukhov lives; from 5 in the morning to 10 at night and all that happens in between. In this labor camp, not only are the weather conditions very cold, making it difficult to work in such circumstances, but also the workers are punished and harshly treated if they do not obey the guards. When placed in this environment, it is easy to be discouraged and miserable, but instead of facing the negatives of his situation, Shukhov remains affirmative in his thoughts – which are most important in order to survive not only physically, but also mentally. This stoicism portrayed in the narrative can also be found in Epictetus’s work, The Handbook. In this text, Epictetus discusses how he believes people can live a happy life, despite the hard conditions they are put through

Helping 1,268 people survive is not easy especially when it is during a brutal genocide. The streets, a pool of blood and corpses,were your normal scenery when driving through the country of Rwanda. An Ordinary Man by Paul Rusesabagina is about the Rwanda War between Hutus and Tutsis and the mass genocide that broke out, and how Paul, just an ordinary man with a hotel, saved many people's lives who did not even fathom they would live to tell about the war. Paul Rusesabagina had many past upbringing and experiences that helped him ensure his survival and the survival of others that were in his life, such as how Paul's dad was Hutu and his mom was Tutsi, managing the Hotel Mille Collines,

This paper is about one of the first serial killers in America by the name of Herman Webster Mudgett aka H.H. Holmes. This paper is about his childhood all the way until his adult years, if he had any education and if he did what was it, and it’s also going to describe the way he started killing. The paper is also about his methods of killing, how he got caught for his murders, what happened in trial, and if he got sentenced to time in prison or if he got sentence to death.

At the outbreak of World War One, British women were tied to a life of domesticity in the home. However, as their men headed out to the battlefields, women had to keep the home front moving. The war created opportunities for women to join the workforce and to fill in the vacant jobs left by the men that went off to fight. The role of women in society became more than just cooking and cleaning. It gave them a more active role rather than passive. Women were essential to the war efforts, yet Britain was so fixated on the fact that there was an abundance of females in the country. The Great War was responsible for the death of several hundred thousand men, many of which were young and unmarried. The loss of these men left women single and/or widowed. Vera Brittain, poet of The Superfluous Woman, was a victim of the war. Like many other women, she felt that her options were now more than ever limited due to her fiance dying in the war.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky paints Underground man as someone who is tortured in his novel Notes From Underground. Despite everything that Underground man says he is lost and has no sense of his identity. When the character of Liza is introduced the reader gains some hope that the Underground man can find love. Although Underground man ultimately pushes Liza away, he really loved her through his own idea of love. Underground man shows this love for her through his first conversation with Liza, his trying to save Liza, and, ironically, through his cruelty towards Liza.

In Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita, Margarita breaks the gender norm that is set by most of the female characters who portray themselves to be defined by men, thick-headed, and shallow. Unlike the rest of the women in the novel, Bulgakov illustrates Margarita as a dominant feminine power who breaks the gender norms through her tenacious mentality, intellectual behavior and compassion. However, it could be argued that Bulgakov induces a level of sexual bias against woman through Margarita despite her accomplishments as a woman; since her courageous character was defined through her unconditional love for the Master. Without the active male figure, the Master, Margarita could not have become a brave and courageous woman, thus restating that all woman are defined by males; the gender associated as a higher authority.

When Mikhail Lermontov wrote A Hero of Our Time, his main character, Gregory Alexandovich Pechorin was arguably the prototype of what was to become the "superfluous man," which would become prominent in so many other Russian novels. As most literature's subtle goals are not so easily discernable, Lermontov subtly used Pechorin to debunk romanticism in an indirect way. He did so in a way that shocks readers out of their ordinary idea of what a protagonist (specifically romantic) should be, because Pechorin is in fact, a superfluous man.

In "The Death of Ivan Ilych" by Leo Tolstoy, he shows how the majority of society is selfish. Tolstoy suggests how even though there is so much selfishness in society, there are some exceptional people who do not follow social conventions and are the prime example of how people in a society should be. This paper will argue that being selfless is important in society and that people should deviate from individualistic behavior and concentrate more on the collective behavior. Through this careful examination it will be revealed that although a person should think about how to advance themselves in the social hierarchy, it cannot be their only goal and people need to combine it with it a more humanistic goal as well.

“Master and Man” by Leo Tolstoy is a story that explores the dynamics between a peasant, Nakita and his master,Vasillii Andriech. Andriech foolishly risks both of their lives, when they venture to another town in inclement weather to secure a business deal. Unfortunately, Andreich's impatience and greed ultimately leads to his demise. At the end of the story Nikita dies and is denied the same bliss that Vasillii Andreich experiences in death; in order to solidify the dichotomy between these two men, demonstrate how Andriech cheated Nakita, and he uses Nakita's lackluster death to amplify Andriech's extraordinary passing.

A man of an interesting imagination, Evliya Çelebi was a Turk born in Istanbul in 1611. His travel account is both long and a comprehensive account of the Ottoman Empire at its greatest extent in the seventeenth century . His obsession with detail and unending curiosity led to his through documentation of the sites that we visited during his travels. Unfortunately, beyond the travel accounts written by Çelebi himself, there is not much other documentation about the life of Çelebi. Despite this, his extensive account does shed light on Çelebi’s personality, and possibly the attitude of other Ottoman Turks during this time period. In particular, Çelebi goes into extensive detail of several important cities that he visited. These

“Nothing has ever been more insupportable for a man and a human society than freedom.” –The Grand Inquisitor” “Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.” - Father Zosima. These two quotes voice the polarized philosophies that impregnate the book, The Brothers Karamazov. Ivan, the second of the three sons, and Zosima, the old monk, are huge commentators on the question, “Is the burden of free will to much for a human to bear?”

Mikhail Lermontov's protagonist, Grigory Pechorin, belongs to that group of literary characters known individually as the 'superfluous man.'; Generally an intelligent, educated individual, the superfluous man would appear to be one who has been either unjustly treated or outcast by society in general. The superfluous man attempts to find a place for himself in the world, but perhaps due to the combination of his talents, upbringing, personality and intelligence, continually finds himself on the outs with his peers.

“How much land does a man need?” is a short narrative, published by Leo Tolstoy in the beginning of 1886. At first sight, its composition seems overmuch simple and does not allow to attribute this piece of art to an outstanding Russian writer. Nevertheless, the story has a profound moral inner sense and rich historical background, both of which deserve further research and explanation. Rejection of greediness, displayed in the novel, constitutes one of the central points of Tolstoy’s religious philosophy.