Secondhand Time Essay

Svetlana Alexievich compiled Secondhand Time by amassing numerous stories about life in the Soviet Union and Russia, which were collected from former Soviet citizens of various backgrounds. The Nobel Prize winning book remarkably portrays the human condition in a way that only real stories of human life can. On the surface, Secondhand Time displays Russian life as pessimistic and death centric, however when one views the book from a deeper level they can see that Russians are driven by love, hope, and pride. Secondhand Time manages to create significant appeals to emotion and allows relatable and true stories of the Soviet Union and its collapse to be shared. Alexievich grants readers an opportunity to see how the collapse of the Soviet Union and the resulting economic instability impacted the daily lives of individuals, and offers an explanation to how those individuals dealt with the massive change and what they relied on to keep moving forward. The citizens of the former Soviet Union …show more content…
One way the Russians rationalized themselves was a fixation on their own mortality. Several times throughout the book, it is made exceedingly clear that death plays a huge role in how Russians live their lives. For the prideful Soviets, death was the ultimate display of love and dedication one could show for their country. For Russians going through personal or societal struggles, death was an escape from suffering and the great equalizer of all people. As Marina Isaichik, a woman who had endured many losses, states, “We’ll all die… And everything will be alright.” Though this quote appears dark, it offers somber beauty of the acceptance that all life ends with death. Russians realize that no matter the struggles that they face in life they should keep pushing forward because death, the great equalizer, will make everything alright in the