Reading Journal: The Student

Ye Ji Park / 111053 / 12v1

Mr. Garrioch

World Literature

February 13 2013

Reading Journal: The Student

- Universal Truth Of Empathy -

“I know this is so childish and immature, but I can’t stop envying my roommate. She looks so superior to me; she is pretty, she studies real hard, she knows so much about music…”

“Need to work harder. Stop sleeping until 11 a.m. Stop going to Sosa. And just stop doing computer!!!”

From my old diaries, I frequently find out the stories that reveal my failures and weaknesses. Thinking back, I realize why I used to keep those stories secretly in my diary and avoid telling even to my closest people; I was afraid that they would laugh at my dilemma. I was anxious that they might scorn my troubles, saying that it is not a worry-worthy problem, and not empathize with me.

Anton Chekhov
Author of The Student

People sometimes need someone who would understand and empathize with their concerns. Anton Chekhov points out such universal necessity of empathy in his short story The Student. Ivan Velikopolsky, a student of the clerical academy, stops by the garden of two widows on his way to home. He starts to narrate what happened to St. Peter at the night of the Last Supper to Vasilisa and Lukerya. As the student tells the story – St. Peter denying Jesus three times – Vasilisa “suddenly gave a gulp, big tears flowed freely down her cheeks”, and Lukerya’s face “became stained and heavy like that of someone enduring intense pain”. Returning from the garden to his house, Ivan realizes that the Vasilisa’s tears and Lukerya’s anger is not originated from his eloquent rhetoric but from their secret empathy with St. Peter’s betrayal.

Chekhov is renowned as one of the greatest realism writers; Maksim Gorky even claimed that Chekhov “[is] killing realism” by writing so realistic pieces that no one would be able to write an ever more accurate representation of reality. The Student is not an exception from Chekhov’s lists of realistic writings. Common characteristics of realism in literature, such as chronological plot development, third person narrative, or common imagery, are employed in The Student. Chekhov, however, uses two more special attributes to emphasize this work’s realism by underlining that empathy is a universal theme.

The first attribute is Chekhov’s comparison of widows and Peter. Vasilisa and Lukerya are widows, poor (that they need to "[wash] a caldron and spoons" by themselves), and not pretty (Vasilisa is “tall, fat old woman” and Lukerya is “a little pock-marked woman with a stupid-looking face”). On the other hand, Peter is a Saint remembered and praised throughout history. At first gaze, this comparison – insignificant, impoverished widows understanding admired holy man – looks quite unrealistic. However, considering that one characteristic of realism is to convey universal truth, it may be explained that Chekhov intentionally uses this seemingly unreal comparison to emphasize that empathy is “universal”. Empathy occurs regardless of status, wealth, or other secular factors; the poor, vulgar women can indeed understand and empathize to the serene, respectable saint. In short, an apparently unnatural setting contributes in presenting the reality that empathy is achievable anywhere, anytime.

The second emphasis on university of empathy is revealed from Chekhov’s set-up of Ivan. Some people express their skepticism that the story is not realistic because Ivan’s emotional change is too dramatic. At the start of the story, Ivan feels “desolation”, “darkness”, and “oppression”. However, as he realizes that all people share some kind of experiences and thus empathize with each other, just as if one end of a chain quivers when the other side is touched, he feels “joy suddenly stirred in his soul” that he even "stopped for a minute to take breath". On the surface, such drastic emotional change seems unrealistic, especially because Ivan’s joy is from recognition of a "chain … that when he touch[es] one end the other quiver[es]", which seems very abstract and not directly related to him. However, this doubt is easily refutable when it is realized that to Ivan, the enlightenment is actually quite personal. Chekhov indicates that Ivan’s family background is not that rich; his father lies on the stove "coughing", his mother sits "barefoot" on the floor in the entry, and Ivan is "terribly hungry". Considering Ivan’s status as a student, he must have contemplated about serious issues, such as the omnipresent existence of "poverty and hunger, ... ignorance, misery”. But he would not be able to share his thoughts with his families who are suffering to prepare a day’s meal. Ivan, himself, lacks someone who can understand him. In this perspective, it is easily understandable why Ivan presents such extreme joy when he realizes that all people are related to each other somehow – in other words, that there must be someone who can empathize to him. To Ivan, universal empathy is not a far-distanced, abstract theory, but a hopeful promise that guarantees the existence of soul mate.

My Emotional FB Status :P 

Whenever I put somewhat emotional status on Facebook that reveals a bit of my personal story, I pretend not to pay attention but I must admit that I am satisfied when people click “Like”. “Like” in Facebook is a signal that there are some people who can understand my status, because they have somehow similar experience. Although it is sometimes hard to admit that one needs and secretly wants someone who “Like” my status – in fear that someone might scorn one’s worry and regard it trivial – we must admit that empathy is a universal theme that any man needs, as Chekhov tells in The Student.