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.
