Spiritual Awakenings

Entry #29
Work: Tolstoy, Master and Man

My first thought with Master and Man was “Oh, God, please, don’t make me read a Russian writer.” I don’t have anything against Russian writers. They produce very tight, very good literature. It’s the feeling I’m left with after reading them. Everything is cold (this is no exception), stark and booze-saturated.

Putting to the side most of what we talked about in class, I’d like to just plain muse on the characters of Nikita and Vassili. I think if you combine them, blend their respective character traits, you’d probably come pretty close to something resembling the average person in today’s society. We all want to/need to make a living, yet we also want to show some care for our environment. We want to be thought of as ethical/empathetic creatures (and some of us actually are that way), but we also have our own agendas. There’s the “American Dream” which drives us to strive for the three bedroom house and the white picket fence, the two-car garage and something to put in it, and at the same time, a little recycling bin in the corner to catch our discarded newspapers and aluminum soda cans so that as we’re gaining all of the materialistic concerns of life, we’re not cluttering up the earth with our out-grown castoffs.

But that’s not what we have in Nikita and Vassili. They have not yet synthesized; they remain the thesis and antithesis. And, though Vassili becomes, in the end, the savior of his humble servant (and perhaps his humble servant becomes much more than just a servant, but a teacher as well), it’s not hard to slip Vassili right into that “anti” slot. Against. Against the good. And, of course, Nikita, for all his faults, occupies the other slot. Yes, he’s a drunk. Yes, his behavior has put him in a position of neglecting his family, but it’s never insinuated that it’s due to lack of love. He’s sick. Tolstoy conveys that, and though we know today that drunkards are sick (albeit with more choices than in the time when the story was written), he understood that and treated it almost tenderly. Nikita is not a bad guy, no matter how far down he’s “allowed” alcohol to take him. And the amazing thing, when stopping by the village, is that Nikita calls upon his will (my guess is that it’s not all his will) to forgo the vodka for the tea.

Vassili is the prime example of having it all and having nothing. He cares nothing for the horse except in what it can offer him. He’d much rather cut it loose. All throughout, Nikita shows compassion and love for the animals. Vassili doesn’t even treat Nikita like a human being, at least until the end. Is this a sign that, even without such a bottoming out that occurs with alcoholism, Vassili suffers from a disease of the soul that is beyond his control, requires a spiritual awakening to draw light into the darkness (often darkness that one doesn’t even realize exists), in order to experience that psychic change, that shift of perspective, that changes all that came before it? Vassili had to face death in order to reach this point. With so many things going on in the world that bring to mind the current teenage/cyber expression, WTF??, I wonder…do we all have to reach that point? I like to think I’ve reached mine, but something tells me there are many more steps to climb on that ladder propped up against the great transcendence.

Till later…