Chekhov Gymnasium

The unauthenticity of society In today’s society we focus a lot on authenticity and being authentic. We go to great lengths to make sure we are and everything we have is genuine. Unfortunately, in order to achieve this, we sometimes lose the very essence of what we were trying to achieve. John Cheever’s famous work, “The Enormous Radio” demonstrates just that. In this essay I will be focusing on the inauthenticity of society as illustrated in “The Enormous Radio”. I will argue that that the…

The title of the text is, “The Bath: What We Talk about When We Talk about Love.” It is written by Raymond Carver and the primary characters are Scotty, his mom, Mrs. Ann Weiss, his dad, who was referred to mostly as the father in the story. The story concerns a boy called Scotty who will soon celebrate his 8th year birthday. In preparation for the birthday, his mom went to the baker’s shop to order his spaceship chocolate cake, which will be ready on Monday morning before the birthday starts…

“Paul’s Case: A Study in Temperament” by Willa Cather and Margaret Atwood’s short story, “Death by Landscape,” focus on how the protagonists are isolated from the world, the people around them, and how they handle conflicts. There are similarities in how the protagonists are isolated and involved in conflicts or struggles, and although both protagonists experience a suicide situation, their endings are different. Paul, the protagonist in “Paul’s Case,” lives his short life fully, whereas Lois,…

•Point of View--"The Lottery" In “The Lottery” the point of view at first can be hard to find, but with a good evaluation it can be found. The author Shirley Jackson uses third person to create the story line of her short story. The narrator does not tell the characters feelings, or what they may or may not be thinking about. The narrator simply explains how the lottery takes place in the small town. The whole story could have been completely different if Jackson used the opinion of one of…

morality, where white is right and black is wrong. However, the complication arises at the area between the white and black: the grey. The grey area possesses no absolute verdict, for one can be both morally right and wrong. Russian realist Anton Chekhov implements such perception as he colours the story with white, black, and grey. An exploration of “The Lady with The Dog” serves to examine his employment of colour in addressing the issue of morality, specifically regarding the characters’…

Flannery O’Connor produced a short story—one that almost allows the reader to have free admission into their own objective thoughts—titled “The Lame Shall Enter First” (1965). However, the 3rd person narration is interrupted an unsettling number of times by one of the main character’s biases; O’Connor cannot help but include Sheppard’s own thoughts and feelings throughout the tale. In these instances, the opportunity is lost for the reader to draw their own conclusions on the narrative’s events.…

At the end of Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral”, The narrator and Robert sit down to draw a cathedral of their own. To us this may seem like nothing, but within the story, it’s has large significance. Throughout this story we are made to feel like the narrator is just a rude and judgmental kind of guy. At each twist and turn in the story he is always there to add a harsh comment, usually towards his wife’s blind friend. One specific time can be noticed during a conversation with his wife about the…

Blindness and disability is a strong theme in literature. Raymond Carver penned the 1983 short story Cathedral in an anthology of the same name. The story centers on an unnamed narrator, who has a strong sense of dislike towards a blind friend of his wife’s. Throughout the visit of Robert, the blind man, the narrator learns more about himself and passes on a message of tolerance and understanding to the reader. Carver’s work was later published in Best American Short Stories, 1982. The majority…

“Fat” by Raymond Carver is the first short story in a collection called Will You Please Be Quiet, Please. Carver intrigued me because of his unique style of writing and captivated me from the first short story I read. This short story is a conversation between the narrator and her friend Rita, as she serves a fat man in the diner where they both work. The story, whilst seemingly is a ‘slice of life’ everyday mundane observation, slowly becomes more uncomfortable and unsettles dark secrets that…

Leo Tolstoy pulls no punches when the story of The Death of Ivan Ilyich begins. The revelation that Ivan Ilyich has died was met with dismay and shock for all of the wrong reasons. Colleagues and “friends” became concerned for his death not because of the loss of his life, but for the inconveniences and changes it would cause for them. The lack of sincerity surrounding Ivan became very clear in the opening scenes of the story, and we quickly start to realize that Ivan lived a “false” life.…