Dr Zhivago Summary

Russian II Book Review- Doctor Zhivago Of the 20th century Russian literary works we were assigned to choose from, the novel I chose was Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak. This book is set in the early 1900s in the time when Russian citizens were getting acclimated to life in a newly communist Russia. The novel spans many years, following the life of the protagonist, Yuri Zhivago. It begins when Yuri is a young boy and depicts both his mother and father’s demise. He then lives with his uncle, and later goes to a university in Moscow to become a doctor. While there, he meets a woman named Tonya, with whom he marries and has a son named Sasha. Yuri is stationed in a nearby town as a medical officer, where he meets Larissa Antipov; he is very infatuated with her, but he won 't admit it to anyone, …show more content…
On his way home, he is approached by army officials, who force him to serve as an army doctor. Once he 's released from service, he goes back to Larissa. When they return to Varyniko, he discovers that his wife and child have been exiled to Paris. Unfortunately, Larissa and her daughter are in danger because of their association with Larissa’s ex-husband, a war criminal. They must leave while Yuri stays behind at Varyniko. Feeling lonely, Yuri goes to Moscow and encounters another woman, Marina. He ends up having two children with her. He is happy but longs for his life with Larissa. He finds a new job, but tragically, on the way to his first day of work, he has a heart attack and dies. Larissa happens upon the funeral and is inquiring about how to find a child who she had given away to strangers. The story concludes with two of Yuri’s old friends running into a girl named Tanya, who tells them her life story, revealing that she is Yuri and Larissa’s child. Through all the drama in Doctor Zhivago, one theme that is extremely prevalent is people 's place in society, and more specifically, how the changes in Russia during