Norwegian Wood Second Reading Journal

 

         Throughout the whole story, there was no “ordinary” person. From our main character Toru Watanabe to Midori, everyone had flaws. However, considering the problem in what can be called normal and what can be not, maybe Murakami was trying to show how people should just let go of some things.

           From the start to the end, Toru Watanabe wanders from person to person, not able to stick to one. His first acquaintances from the book are Kizuki and Naoko, who have profound influence upon Toru. Kizuki’s death twisted the plot permanently. It left a wound on Naoko’s heart which never healed despite Toru’s efforts and finally bled Naoko also to death. Toru too is greatly affected by his closest friend’s death and Naoko’s suffering, because he cared greatly about both of them. Why Kizuki died is not stated in the book, leaving the readers to speculate. However, the death of Naoko seems clear. To her, Kizuki was her dearest friend, and without him, she felt incomplete. Even Toru was unable to fill the empty spot, because Naoko felt guilty about forgetting her lifetime boyfriend and starting off a new life with a previous third wheeler. Naoko was not able to let go of Kizuki and her attitude let to her demise.

           Contrary to Naoko, Toru and Reiko can be seen as people who finally succeeded to let go of their past and keep living on. They, the living, had to go on. In Toru’s case, when he was obsessed with Naoko, who he was not able to make his, his life did not go on smoothly. He was unable to make ordinary relationships with other people; all he could do was to think of Naoko in the sanatorium. Thankfully, Midori showed up. She, too, was a character with burst of energy unlike other indifferent people. She approached Toru and kept on taking a part of his life, even when Toru hid himself away from other people. Such efforts of Midori was effective and freed Toru from his obsession and guiltiness of Naoko. If Midori was not present in Toru's life, Toru might again be the victim of next suicide. Reiko too was one of the people who were stuck in their past. Her trauma made her prisoner for 8 years. However, this time Toru allowed Reiko to become free and enter the society. Both were able to let go and start off a new life.
           Many people live inside their past, unable to go on further. The more one dwells inside one's own world, the more they are secluded from others. Haruki Murakami taught those people need to become free and take a step.

Norwegian Wood

           This was the first time reading Haruki Murakami’s long novel, although I had read several short stories by him. Based on the impressions on the short stories that I had read, I expected the Norwegian Wood to be quite bizarre but was surprised to find out the first 50 pages of the novel actually quite accurately reflected the psychology of human relationships.

           Although the part that we read was the intro part of the novel, Watanabe describes several of the relationships he had with his ‘friends.’ The three main relationships that he describes are one with Kizuki and Naoko, one with Storm Trooper, and one with Nagasawa. The types of relationships Watanabe have all differ with the varying people he meets. Kizuki is Watanabe’s assumed-to-be best friend and Naoko is Kizuki’s girlfriend. After Kizuki died, Watanabe maintains a guilty dating relationship with Naoko. Storm Trooper is Watanabe’s roommate, but never did once Watanabe mention his real name. Storm Trooper is somewhat unique and possibly annoying roommate, but Watanabe exaggerates the tales about him over the extent to maintain his shallow relationship with others and even Naoko. Nagasawa is a new wealthy friend Watanabe made through similar interest in books, but after seeing Nagasawa’s sexual doings, Watanabe decided not to open his heart for Nagasawa. What seems on the outside may seem different for all three relationships but they have one thing in common: they are not genuine.

           Watanabe himself is not sure what kind of relationship he is having with the people around him. Rather it seems like Watanabe is using the people around him for his own comforts. However, it did not seem like only Watanabe’s problem. People around me and even I sometimes wonder about what kinds of relationship we are sustaining with others. People gossip about others even when they are not that annoying in order to get closer with each other and form a sense of belonging. Similar to Watanabe, people who exaggerated tales themselves believe in them and the vicious cycle continues until someone has a deep scar in their hearts. People hang around together and have fun, but actually they feel that each other is not their true friends and feel alone and lonely even when in the crowd. Generally there are more shallow relationships than true, real relationships.

           Recently, there had been issues about depression and stress that comes from interactions with other human beings. The survey with employees about the greatest cause of stress turned out to be social life with others. Through the advancement of communication, it became easier to people to contact each other, but in the same way, the relationships became shallower. Because people are not true to their close acquaintances and not care that much, people have to worry more about the relationships become more calculated. If only people could be more truthful to themselves and to the people around them, the relationships have the possibility to grow deeper and not one-time happening.

Metafiction - Bookppet

Bookppet

 

-Metafiction of Alice's short story "Bookshelf, The 100% Perfect Town"-         

 

          “Oh no.”

          These were the two first words that I blurted out as I entered the classroom. There comes my panicking partner, Elana.

           “Hey, Jean! Did you prepare for the puppet show?” she shouted.

           “Of course not!”

           It seems that she too did not prepare. If any one of us had remembered that today was the class puppet show day, we would have gathered together someday before. Sigh. Elana’s face went paler than before as she started to roll her eyes sideways in hopes of finding an unused puppet. Around us, the classmates were busy with their partners memorizing the script with puppets held in their hand. Every puppet was alive, saying out loud with its own voice, dancing inside the hands of its masters.

           “Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by…,” a fierce looking puppet was moaning.

           They must be doing Macbeth. They even had mini swords and mini cauldrons bubbling with some mysterious liquid. This was not a time to stare at other prepared classmates. Elana was beside me biting her nails and not knowing what to do. Think Jean, think! I was trying my best to find a way to produce a play that would not reveal that Elana and I had totally forgotten about it.

           “Now class, shortly after about 10 minutes, we would start our delightful puppet show! I hope you all have prepared and capable of producing wonderful plays,” our English teacher announced, looking around the classroom.

           Is my mind playing tricks on me or is it real that I feel like the teacher knows that I have nothing? Hurriedly I looked about the classroom, when something just caught my eye. It was the list of books that we had studied in class for the past year.

Stumbling Into Happiness – Daniel Gilbert

Aging Well – George E. Valliant

Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen

Walden – Henry David Thoreau

M. Butterfly – David Henry Hwang

Long Day’s Journey Into Night – Eugene O’ Neil

The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald

 

Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad

 

An idea suddenly flashed through my mind. That’s it! Grabbing hold of Elana’s hand, I asked permission of our teacher to go to the library and dashed out of the classroom. After we arrived at the library, we searched for these books, borrowed them and returned to the class. The Macbeth team was now doing their play. Whispering, I told Elana about my plans, and we started into action.

“Next will be Elana and Jean. Come forward.”

Our faces were confident. We can do this.

“We will have a short play about our book list and its diversity!” Elana briefly introduced.

As expected confusion arose on the faces of the audience, but I knew that I was able to astound them.

Knock Knock.

“Hi. I’m Aging Well, and I just moved into the place next door. May I come in?”

“Yeah... I’m Stumbling Into Happiness.”

“Do you go out a lot?”

“No. I stumbled into this town where I’m a misfit, but I’m thinking of stepping out. The people who live here are too problematic.”

“Have you ever talked to them? Why don’t I throw a party at my house tomorrow night, and we might be able to find out why, if there is a reason, they’re the way they appear to be.”

With the ‘puppet’ books in our hands, we changed the set background into a partying house.

“Hi, I’m Aging Well, and I moved in yesterday to help out the landlord with her Positive Psychology lecture. What about you?”

“I’m Pride and Prejudice. I see you’re single. People say ‘a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife’. Are you? My little one isn’t taken yet.”

“Nonsense. You’re obviously stuck in 1813. Simplicity, simplicity! Stay simple, my friend, and you will encounter the true values of the world. By the way, I’m Walden.”

“You do know you’re speaking from the 1830s perspective, right? But I have to admit, simplicity is needed just as much in the 1960s, too. The Orient, the exotic… They can fool you. I’m M. Butterfly.”

“But you must not let go of your dream because of money matters. Embracing yourself from the fear of dying poor is not worth losing your career and causing your wife to suffer from morphine addiction.”

“Frankly, though Long Day’s Journey Into Night has a point, but don’t forget that the era of the American Dream is gone. I’m Gatsby, in case you haven’t already heard of me.”

“What’s your story?”

I nudged the book that was just standing exceptionally quietly in the set with Aging Well.

“Heart of Darkness.”

“Umm… Do you have anything you want to share with us?”

“The world is a dark place. Imperialism ruined the world.”

With the final quote, we closed the small curtain in front of the set. Applause came from the audience. Elana and I exchanged mysterious glances with smiles hanging on our faces.

“That was well done! It was smart of you guys to apply the class material to the show so creatively!”

Almost impromptu, but our show was well-done despite the time spent.

           “Hey, want to go eat ice-cream after school? Let’s have a self-celebration.”

            Elana gave me a happy smile.

            "Sure."

            Impromptu show and an impromtu ice-cream. What a lucky day. 

Reading Journal 5: Magic Realism

           Magic realism is by definition "a genre where magic elements are a natural part in an otherwise mundane, realistic environment." Recently, we have read two magic realism short stories by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, The Handsomest Drown Man in the World and A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings. Both deal with somewhat remote town by the sea, where the townspeople encounter an objectively supernatural phenomenon without any surprise. Apparently, to the readers, including myself, the happenings are quite incomprehensible. People treat an old man with a pair of giant feathery wings like a zoo animal. Women seem to have a fetish for a dead giant. Still, the rest of the setting is realistic and natural, probably why the two novellas fall into the categories of magic realism.

             Honestly, I have no definite idea about what "magic realism" really is. What exactly is the boundary between fantasy and magic realism? Take for example, if a thunderbolt-shooting rodent suddenly appeared in the middle of Tokyo and everybody just naturally treated it as a wild animal, would that be a magic realism? There is no sharp answer to the question, but I believe magic realism is more of a strategy than a genre. Magic realism is not a limiting genre of literature, but a device used by the author to effectively convey his or her message through the story.

             In such sense, The Handsomest Drown Man in the World and A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings use magic realism pretty well. The situations present in the story induce a light laugh from the audience - they are absurd as well as strangely understandable. The absurdity comes from the fantasy elements and the comprehension comes from the fact that they stories actually reflect the human lives. Through the combination of both characteristics, Gabriel Garcia Marquez assigned satirical tone to the stories.

             In A Very Old Ma with Enormous Wings, there are several fantasy elements. The main one is the old man with wings, who townspeople assume to be an angel. There are also patients with unrealistic diseases, such as the "poor woman who since childhood has been counting her heartbeats and had run out of numbers," the "Portuguese man who couldn't sleep because the noise of stars disturbed him," and the "sleepwalker who got up at night to undo the things he had done while awake."  There is also the spider woman, doomed for her immature acts. When the angel came, Pelayo and Elisenda both treated the angel as a show animal kept in a cage. People flocked to see the angel as if he was a zoo animal, and patients came to have their ailments cured. However, when the angel did not meet the expectations of the viewers, they moved to see the spider woman. All these happenings are unexpected in the real life, but readers can understand the happening with a help of their imagination, because the fantasy elements act like metaphors of reality. The angel represent a deviational characteristic, something others pay attention to. People take interest as long as that characteristic is fascinating, but at once another appears -such as the spider woman- they instantly change their attention. This is quite true for the human society. People care for something as long as they are interested or that something gives benefits. When it no longer gives interest or benefit, the object is ignored.

             The Handsomest Drown Man in the World too have fantasy elements. First, there is the corpse of a handsome giant and second, the women with seemingly necrophilia tendency. Esteban symbolizes the superficiality of the human society, and the women, and eventually men, are members of the society. The townspeople do not have any basic knowledge about Esteban, yet they are attracted to him and even change the appearance of the whole town in memorial of Esteban. Only through the unnatural appearances, people assume and decide who Esteban is, and treat him god-like. Actually, for majority of times, people judge others on the base of outward appearances, and sometimes such judgments actually take place as a fad. Images are important for every members of the society, and especially the celebrities have their images tagged behind them all the time. The appearance can actually have significant influence on many people and even the person.

             What takes place in both stories depict the real life with the help of metaphorical fantasy elements; both stories use magic realism. While some parts of the story is far from being realistic, as a whole, the overall image of the story is a realistic mirror.

 

Word Count: 722

 

References:

Wikipedia "Magic Realism"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_realism

 

Wikipedia "Gabriel Garcia Marquez"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_Garc%C3%ADa_M%C3%A1rquez#Realism_and_Magical_Realism

Reading Journal 4: The Dead

Yoo Sun Sung / 111064 / 12v3

Mr. Garrioch

World Literature

March 27, 2013

 

Reading Journal: The Dead

 

             James Joyce's The Dead is the final ending of the series 'Dubliners.' The story is quite long with somewhat elaborate depictions of the Morkans' Christmas party. On a superficial level, the story seems to deal with the different people present at the party, especially focusing more on Gabriel and Gretta. However, in depth, The Dead pictures conflicting emotions Gabriel feels and the eventual epiphany he encounters.

             The flow of the story is quite subtle, without any sudden leaps in the plot or shocking events. The Christmas party is like an ordinary party, except for the fact that it is static in some sense. Or maybe the readers feel that way because the novella follows the eyes and thoughts of Gabriel a protagonist with a twisted mind. He regards himself as royal and educated, above all the others present in the party. Before he makes his speech, Gabriel is worried that the lines from Robert Browning would be "above the heads of his hearers." He becomes sure that "[people's] grade of culture differed from his" when he hears the "indelicate clacking of the men's heels and the shuffling of their soles." Even when Mary Jane plays the piano, instead of feeling the music, he notes how the music is devoid of melody and puts his attention on the young men who left the room. Overall, Gabriel has a pessimistic mindset.

             Such mindset has its own base in the confidence and pride Gabriel has for himself. However, subtle it may be, Gabriel's foundation shakes as he meets person by person throughout the party. The first encounter is with Lily. Gabriel first intention for the conversation with Lily was out of gaiety; however, he made a mistake in doing so and offended her. Instead of trying to explain his original intention, Gabriel just covers up his mistake by suddenly giving a coin as a Christmas present. This shows that Gabriel did not have much successful relationships with other people. He may be regarded as a kind, honorable man such as "aunt's best nephew," but he lacked true human contact with others. He was unconfident in his ability to truly convey his feelings to Lily. The same event happens right after, when Gabriel goes on a dance with Miss Ivors. Miss Ivors jokingly calls Gabriel as "West Briton," because he writes an editorial for The Daily Express and further interrogates Gabriel about his future trip. Gabriel apparently fails to explain his true feelings or acknowledge them and ends up going to the extreme, saying he is "sick of [Ireland]." As people act differently from what he expected, Gabriel begins to notice the difference between himself and others.

             The behaviors portrayed in The Dead indicate that Gabriel is stubborn and has his own ways of living. His main speech also gives a peek about what person Gabriel is. He does not want to "linger on the past" and be depressed by the sad memories that infest on it. In the same sense, Gabriel pursues new nations rather than his Irish heritage. What Gabriel did not recognize is that Gretta - his own wife - is the foil character of himself; later, Gabriel realizes that Gretta lingers on the past memory and love for Michael Furey. Here, as he looks through the snow, Gabriel meets his ephiphany, realizing that past and present are not that different. Through his epiphany, Gabriel gets one step closer to Gretta , overcoming his stubbornness.

 

----------------------------------------

 

            

             When I first read The Dead, I had quite a hard time first diving into the story, since quite a lot of characters suddenly emerged all at once. There was quite a difficulty in keeping the track of who is whom and who did what. It was during the second time that I was able to fully understand what was taking place in the story.

             Actually, I just understood the story superficially when I read it. It was after the discussion that I realized the story dealt with epiphany. I did know that Gabriel went through a change in heart, but that it was called the epiphany I knew later. Epiphany, by definition, is an experience of sudden and striking realization. I first "saw" this specific word when I watched the movie adaption of the musical Sweeney Todd. "Epiphany" was the title for one song. To recount the summary a little bit, the barber goes through an epiphany when he fails to kill the judge for vengeance. I never looked up the concise definition of epiphany, but I just liked the word itself linked with the song. In my personal sense, I believe people experience epiphany when their long-held belief is overturned by a certain event or situation. In this sense, Gabriel did experience epiphany, because his long-held belief for the past and present was overturned by his wife, one of the person that Gabriel would have considered a similar counterpart of him.

             I am not sure if I had truly experience epiphany. The world is vast and there exists various people. After meeting all the diverse individuals, I had changed or moderated my beliefs, but I do not remember a time when I completely flipped my long-held thoughts due to someone other's influence. If I had one, it would be so shocking enough for me to immediately recount the incident. I do not know when or by what I would experience epiphany, but I hope it would lead me in a better course.

            

Araby 5 sentence paragraph: revised

           From a distance, James Joyce's "Araby" might appear as a simple, typical Bildungsroman in which the narrator spiritually matures. After all, when the nameless narrator arrives at Araby, he goes through significant emotional change; he loses a significant part of his previous excitement and feels vanity toward his love for Mangan's sister. Instead, he feels anger at his incompetence to buy anything and at the society that made him so. On a superficial level, "Araby" seems to focus on the maturation of the young and naive narrator, who suddenly tastes bitter reality. However, on the other hand, "Araby" contains more than enough details to be much more than only a story of a maturing child. James Joyce not only elaborated on the inner feelings and love of the narrator, but also devoted much of the story to the description of Dublin and Araby, the two places which symbolize the dull, insipid reality of Ireland at the time. The actual appearances of the places show sharp contrast with the shining images of Mangan's sister and the fantasized Araby that the narrator had romantically formed in his mind before arriving. Contrary to the North Richmond Street being "blind" with houses of "brown imperturbable faces," Mangan's sister was "defined by the light" in the narrator's eyes. The exotic image the narrator formed of the bazaar was shattered as he saw the stalls that were "closed" and "in darkness". The story focuses more on the settings than the characters, whose names were infrequently revealed. Therefore, it is perhaps more accurate to assume that "Araby" is an extended metaphor dealing with the discrepancy between the reality and the ideal, which people frequently encounter in their lives. In this sense, the "anonymous" narrator is a representative of a young child entering the adult world where one's hope, love, and expectations for something new become vain in front of the grey reality.

Reading Journal 3 : The Araby

World Literature

Mr. Garrioch

March 6th, 2013

12v3 111064 Yoo Sun Sung

 

Mini Essay : The Araby

           From a distance, James Joyce's "Araby" might appear as a simple, typical bildungsroman, or coming-of-age story, of the protagonist. After all, when the nameless narrator arrives at Araby, he goes through significant emotional change; he loses all of his excitement and love for Mangan's sister he had before and feels anger at his incompetence. On a superficial level, "Araby" seems to focus on the maturation of the young and naive narrator, who tastes the bitter reality. However, on the other hand, "Araby" contains more than enough details to only be a story of a maturing child. James Joyce not only elaborated on the inner feelings and love of the narrator but also devoted much of the story to the description of Dublin and Araby, the two places which symbolizes the dull, insipid reality. The two cities shows sharp contrast with the shining image the narrator forms in his mind. The North Richmond Street was "blind" with houses with "brown imperturbable faces," while Mangan's sister was covered with light in the narrator's eyes. The exotic image the narrator formed of the bazaar was shattered as he saw the empty, dark stalls. The story focused more on the settings than the characters, whose names were not even revealed. Therefore, it is perhaps more accurate to assume that "Araby" is an extended metaphor dealing with the discrepancy between the reality and the ideal, which people frequently encounter in their lives. In this sense, the "anonymous" narrator is a representative of human being, who go through dismay as one's hope, love, and desire for newness are rendered vain in front of the humdrum world.

Reading Journal 2 : Subjectivity

Yoo Sun Sung / 111064 / 12v3

Mr. Garrioch

World Literature

February 27, 2013

 

Reading Journal: The Lady With the Dog

 

             "The Lady with the Dog" is another short story by Anton Chekhov. Considering that Chekhov is a realist writer, I felt how powerful and subjective one's point of view can be. Most of the students that I have talked with felt that The Lady with the Dog was romantic - not as in Romanticism, but as in love - even though the core theme was adultery. Dmitri Dmitrich and Anna

Sergeyevna both have their own wife and husband, but throughout the story they enjoy their secret affairs with each other. I cannot deny the fact that I too have felt that their love story was sweet and young as that of a newborn couple. This aroused a question: why do readers feel affectionate to Dmitri and Anna's story when most people in real life almost consider adultery as a sin to relationships? Probably because the story was in omniscient perspective focused on the inner emotions of the two protagonists.

             To see in the eyes of reality, the actions of Dmitri and Anna are quite unfavorable. Maybe I am accustomed to the social cultures and norms of the Korean society, where people consider marriage to be sacred and the relationship between a husband and a wife a serious responsibility on each other. Since the discussions were placed in Korea, I will assume that the students too are familiar with the Korean atmosphere. An middle-aged man almost in his forties and a young woman probably near in her twenties are having an affair almost every day even when they live far away. I wonder how many people would see with kind eyes about the relationship, especially when the man is known for hanging out with the club women. Still, no reader seriously taunts the Russian man and woman.

             Dmitri and Anna are not living in a world where adultery is acceptable; rather, it can be derived from Anna's frequent reactions throughout the story that the Russian society in "The Lady with the Dog" deems adultery as an unforgivable action. Anna clearly acknowledges this when she refers her as "vulgar, contemptible woman whom any one may despise." The world is as realistic as it could be, but the reactions of contemporary people are so different from what in real life. Clearly, people had substituted themselves into the positions of Dmitri and Anna and rationalized themselves that adultery is possible. Because Chekhov have successfully conveyed the emotions in the omniscient point of view, readers feel as if they are the ones involved in the adultery. They perceive reasons Dmitri and Anna justify as acceptable.

             Dmitri and Anna is well likely justifying adultery with the fact that they are "miserable" with their current marriage. Most descriptions about Dmitri's wife and Anna's husband are actually depicted in the perspectives of Anna and Dmitri. There are no clear depictions on the characteristics of the spouses, but only the hatred of the two adulterers. It would be hasty to define the spouses as the causes for making the miserable marriage life and unbearable enough for Dmitri and Anna to "reluctantly" have secret affairs, based on only the subjective emotions of the protagonists. Regardless of what seems to be a logical absence, people still sympathize with the two protagonists.

             Maybe if the story was written in the perspectives of Dmitri's wife and Anna's husband, the reactions of the readers would be different. They would sympathize with the spouses and show anger at the two guiltless adulterers having affairs despite the significant age difference. What would Dmitri's daughter feel when she realized that her father was going out secretly with a young woman similar of her age? Anton Chekhov have certainly succeeded in forming a protective shield around his two fictional characters by using their perspectives to move the audience.

             Or simply it could just be that the social norms are changing. The marriage could be no longer seen as an eternal relationship with heavy responsibilities. Maybe people pursue the feelings of love now more than the social stability. I do not have a clue. I only know that I too have felt sweetness in the love story of Dmitri and Anna more than repulsiveness.

Reading Journal 1 : The Student

Yoo Sun Sung / 111064 / 12v3

Mr. Garrioch

World Literature

Feburary 19 2013

 

Reading Journal: The Student

 

           The name of Anton Chekhov was familiar, probably hearing from other literature teachers here and there, but it was the first time actually reading one of his stories. Honestly at first when students popcorn-read the story in class, I did not understand what was taking place. The sudden lengthy allusion of the Bible was probably the reason, but after reading "The Student" several times -as with other stories- I understood the plot, not completely but better than the first time.  I believe that Anton Chekhov purposefully inserted the short well-known excerpt about Jesus and his Last supper, but first I want to focus more on whether the story is based on Realism or not.

           What is Realism? Again, the term itself is familiar. To grasp a better understanding of the story, I looked up the exact definition of the term realism: attempt to depict subjects as they are considered to exist in third person objective reality, without embellishment or interpretation and "in accordance with secular, empirical rules." In the class, some students provided their opinions about how they thought "The Student" was not an example of Realism (maybe they do now), because the student Ivan Velikopolsky's reactions to the woman were maybe too extreme. However, I thought that "The Student" was quite matching with the definition that I looked up. The story does take place in the third person omniscient, focusing on the dialogue between Ivan and the two widows. Other than that, the two factors of setting and the characters' behaviors were also made the story more realistic.

           From the start of the story, Anton Chekhov presents the specific details of the setting, which seemed realistic enough.

 

At the first the weather was fine and still. The thrushes were calling, and in the swamps close by something alive droned pitifully with a sound like blowing into an empty bottle. A snipe flew by, and the shot aimed at it rang out with a gay, resounding note in the spring air. But when it began to get dark in the forest a cold, penetrating wind blew inappropriately from the east, and everything sank into silence. Needless of ice stretched across the pools, and it felt cheerless, remote, and lonely in the forest. There was a whiff of winter.

 

           Personally, I do not think that in order to be realistic, the author has to be stiff with simple unembellished sentences. The similes and the adjectives used in the above paragraph seem to convey the atmosphere of the forest and the swamp appropriately. The elaborate details were not to romanticize the swamp, but to portray the likely thoughts racing through one's mind when passing the forest swamp in early spring. This mind can be seen clearly when the story first narrates the liveliness in the day and sudden emptiness in the night, when most diurnal creatures become inactive. The details of the setting continue throughout the story following the path of Ivan.

           The second aspect of human psychology I was able to see in somewhat awkwardly looking progress of conversation between Ivan and the two widows. Ivan is depicted as a son of a sacristan and a "student" of the clerical academy. For a person related deeply into religions, it is not awkward or unnatural for them to fervently talk about religion and the Bible. People become more passionate about subjects they are well related to. Maybe the reason why we feel that the conversation is weird is because we have few chance to actually discuss about religion or learn it, especially for the atheists. According to "The Student," both Vasilissa and Ivan are familiar with the story of Peter and Jesus, so their conversation and Vasilissa's emotional reaction to the issue is understandable. The story is more realistic, because Anton Chekhov did not forge the natural.

           I still do not really comprehend to the root of the story, most likely because I am not that familiar with the Christ story. Still, from what I had read and within my scope of comprehension, I believe that Anton Chekhov had succeeded in making a Realism short story.