The Student, Anton Chekhov (1894)

 The student, by Anton Chekhov (1894)


Rating: 7.5/10


 I think 'The Student' does not fill the stage 3. The stage 3 is 'Refusal of the call' where hero refuses the adventure because of hesitation or fears. I think in this story, the adventure world is the place where widows are seating around the campfire. But, rather Ivan felt hesitation or fear when he bumped into campfire, he actually wanted to go to campfire because of the cold weather and he didn't want to go back to his house.

 At first, I thought the short story was a bit cliche. Ivan tell the story of Peter in the bible to widows and he learn a lesson when he saw the tears of widow. It seems like a typical story, but after reading this story several times, I thought this story shows Russian Realism really well. Especially, when Ivan felt despair in the cold, thinking about Russia's poverty that will not improve. Also, I loved this part because Ivan felt 'infinite' poverty from a 'finite' life, and after telling the story to widows, he realize that the past, present, and future are connected. For me, this feels like Ivan is crossing the boundary between infinity and finite. This is the reason why I rated this story 7.5 out of 10      

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