Voshchev's The Foundation Pit

However, these masks are not strong enough to justify his true nature which is much illustrated by the way he got married. The author reports that Gurov got married in his second year of university studies, an act that portrayed Gurov as not fully focused in his studies but rather concerned by fulfilling his sexual lust. Thus his desire to marry was not driven by the will to raise a family as entrenched in the society’s social standards (Sleeper 75). The author’s description of the beauty in Gurov’s wife even before they got married counters all the negative pictures that the character is painting to the audience. Whereas the husband talks of her to be unintelligent, the author describes her as a dignified woman who is feared by her own husband.

Sofia Petrovna follows the life of Sofia Petrovna, a typist who works at the Leningrad publishing house. After the death of her husband and capture of her son, Sofia goes insane. It’s a type of unhinged that demonstrates itself in mirages minutely dissimilar from the deceits those surrounding her voice to guard themselves. Sofia Petrovna proposes an extraordinary and fundamental account of Stalin's Great Purges through simple fictional story arcs. First, there is the vanishing of seemingly innocent people. Sofia looses several people in her life throughout the duration of the novel with almost no warning or explanation. This provides an effective look into

In One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn shows how Soviet prisoners, known as Zeks, are treated while being in the gulag for one day through the eyes of the protagonist and omniscient narrator named Ivan Denisovich Shukhov. Despite being in an environment such as the Soviet Union, where there is harsh tundra and not much food to eat, Shukhov tries to make good use of what he has received while trying to keep himself alive. The purpose of Solzhenitsyn’s portrayal of food is to show its overall significance and that it is used as a means of trade and survival. Over time, the power of food reveals its significance to the Zeks and especially to Shukhov and food allows both groups understanding towards the necessity of food for their vitality and well-being additionally.

Imagery: The author uses imagery to describe the Russian prisoners’ lives in the camps. This imagery makes them look pathetic and frail, causing the reader to feel empathetic and sorry for them. Also we see the same idea of imagery within the hospitals and what happens in them. The description of gore and fear emphasizes the theme of death

It is hard to imagine what living life in constant fear of death and arrest would be like, knowing that any slight slip in actions or speech could result in the end of one’s life as they knew it. Eugenia Ginzburg is an active communist member who finds herself on the wrong side of this situation. Arrested for over exaggerated claims of being a trotskyist terrorist, she is immediately thrust into a spiral of events that will dramatically change her, her ideals, and the entire state of communism. However, while in the prisons and labor camps it is interesting to note how her perceptions of life and reality change, including her affiliation to the state. This naturally begs the question; How do Ginzburg's perceptions of Communism and the Stalinist regime change throughout

Were it a testimony to the rigors and cruelness of human nature, it would be crushing. As it is, it shatters our perception of man and ourselves as no other book, besides perhaps Anne Franke`s diary and the testimony of Elie Wiesl, could ever have done. The prisoners of the labor camp, as in Shukhov?s predicament, were required to behave as Soviets or face severe punishment. In an almost satirical tone Buinovsky exclaims to the squadron that ?You?re not behaving like Soviet People,? and went on saying, ?You?re not behaving like communist.? (28) This type of internal monologue clearly persuades a tone of aggravation and sarcasm directly associated to the oppression?s of communism.

“My own property!” cried Mikolka. “Get in, everybody get in. She’ll pull you all. I’ll give it to her!” As the old hare, struck down in an utmost unbearable fashion, lay down to whimper her final breath, the young Raskolnikov rushes over the frenzied crowd to embrace his defeated friend.

Solzhenitsyn envisioned and captured the persona of the Soviet prison labor camp system by describing as a chain of hidden islands amongst the USSR landscape. Solzhenitsyn sees himself lifting the shroud that the Soviet regime tried to hide the gulags behind by telling his story of his time in the gulags. Reading his book gave the reader the sense of reading a forbidden text, something surrounded in secrecy. Solzhenitsyn develops themes throughout the book. These fetid and morbid “islands” would see millions of unfortunate visitors forced to slave away at one of the world’s largest and fastest infrastructure and industrialization builds in the history of mankind perpetuated by the will of Stalin and his secret police the NKVD. In this beautifully and treacherously written story, Alexander Solzhenitsyn goes from his glory filled days as a distinguished officer to just an exhausted instrument of the Soviet state.

Author Anton Chekhov's introduction of Sergeyena changes Gurov. She does not immediately answer his demands and can be described as “dejected” and “mournful” in his presence, contrasting how Gurov usually feels comforted around

The Death of Ivan Ilyich is quite short, but it is one of the greatest pieces of fiction in any language. In it, Leo Tolstoy examines the hollowness of bourgeois existence. Ivan Ilyich is a successful member of the state bureaucracy. Throughout his life he has carefully adjusted his conduct so as to please his superiors and to arrange a life that runs smoothly and without complication. He is the perfect example of the conforming, “other-directed” man. Only shortly before his death does he discover the horror that lies behind his seemingly successful life.

In Plato’s book, the Republic, in a story that the ancient Greek philosopher shows to his student Glaucon, by using an allegory of peoples that are condemned to live in a cave for all their lives, the philosopher shows how people can be deceived by many images that they see from the distance and when they have not enough information to judge them. The life of the people who lived in the communist Eastern Europe during the second half of the twentieth century resembled very much with Plato’s prisoners. Isolated from the rest of the world, often misinformed about what was going on behind the iron curtain, they were deprived from understanding what was going on with the rest

To further the understanding of the reader, the author takes us back into the Underground Man’s past to show how there was no singular cause of his present isolation rather he has been this way for many years. During the beginning of the realism period of writing, Notes from Underground was considered to be first of its kind. Dostoevsky used his own experiences and the political situation that occurred during that time to bring out the very real character like the Underground Man.

Notes from the underground, is a book about a man who is both physically and mentally confused, unhappy, and lonely. He is a retired government worker who lives in St. Petersburg whose life is consumed with criticizing everything. If the reader is not careful, this book can cause perplexity, because as you read the story you start to contemplate how someone can behave and think as negative as the “unknown man.” Appolon is a worker who resides in the unknown man’s house whom he does not like, but refuses to fire. The narrator’s actions and attitude towards his servant, Appolon, are similar to the story of the man who thinks of himself as a mouse because the unknown man believes human lives like a mouse has no meaning, when challenged or in despair retreat is the best option, and both species routine are the same even if it is not beneficial to either.

In Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Notes from Underground, the author structures the story in an unconventional way. Instead of following a chronological timeline, the story is divided into two parts; the first half is a series of paradoxical ramblings told by a mad narrator, and the second half is the same narrator recalling a series of events that occurred almost twenty years ago. These two parts allow the Dostoyevsky to explore aspects of the human condition from two viewpoints: a deranged person and the average educated man in 19th century Russia. While some may argue that Dostoyevsky’s 19th-century view of the world is outdated, Notes from Underground still portrays aspects of the human condition; such as the paradoxical nature of humanity, our need to feel important, and our prioritization of personal success. As stated previously, the first half of Notes from Underground is written as a series of contradicting philosophical statements by an unhinged narrator.

One of the themes of Tolstoy’s story of The Death of Ivan Ilych is detachment from life, considering that all material things can substitute the true meaning of life: compassion and care for others. “Everywhere in the novel, Tolstoy speaks of Iván Ilych's desire for propriety, decorous living, and pleasantness all while making this his first and most important priority. This motivation is a poor