Reading Journal _ "The Student"

Andrew Chekhov - "The Student"

A short story basically means, to me, a story that doesn’t stray to irrelevant topics and stays on track, clearly conveying the author’s message. Most of the short stories I read before, such as Guy de Maupassant’s “The Necklace,” were pretty much straightforward and easy to catch the theme. However, with Anton Chekhov’s “The Student,” I had a hard time understanding the meaning of the story, maybe because I was sleepy, but probably because I was confused by the intertwined use of biblical allusions and unexpected descriptions about the weather. Reading it a few more times, I hardly made any progress. Honestly, I even started doubting that this actually was a short story.

But then I remembered that Anton Chekhov was a renowned writer of realism, and so went back to the story and looked for some recognizable elements. What did I encounter? Nothing like I had expected; phrases like “stupid-looking face,” “like a deaf mute,” and “soft, sedate smile” were among the vivid descriptions, all pointing in the different direction of what I had perceived until now as realism. I had originally anticipated expressions that were provided from an objective view, which was exact and detached from emotions or personal opinions. That religion was functioning as the core of the story’s plot and Ivan Velikopolsky’s development as a character only further stimulated my thoughts that “The Student” might be more of romanticism than of realism.

Verisimilitude, or in other words, “having the appearance of truth” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). Realism, according to an online reference, turned out to be quite different from what I had known before. Sure, stories of realism approached the reality using close and comprehensive details and focused on plausible events, but that they put more emphasis on a character rather than his or her environment and actions was a major characteristic that I was unaware of.

Now that I had updated my knowledge concerning “realism,” I noticed the parts of the story that fit into its criteria. Between narrations and conversations, there are highly comprehensive details about the weather and the background. The plot that Ivan is placed in is natural, given that he is the son of a sacristan and a student of the clerical academy; due to his education, Ivan’s developing of insight, contrary to the conversation between Vasilisa and him, is far from awkward. Plus, in sync with the trait of realism that I did not know before, Anton Chekhov firmly places Ivan as his single character and gives him his full attention, rather than having a substantive number of characters to create an interesting plot.

Searching for further information on realism and reading the story some more certainly did help me understand why “The Student” was and is still praised as a quintessential story of realism. Simultaneously, though, it struck me that Chekhov’s style of displaying random details were also in a sense somewhat unnecessary descriptions that could puzzle the reader. In the case of Andrey Shcherbenok’s interpretations in “The Student,” “’Killing Realism’: Insight and Meaning in Anton Chekhov,” they were of no avail to the numerous questions I had that I could not find answers to. His explanations of the connection between Peter and Vasilisa seemed implausible, and I plainly disagreed with his thoughts on how the sonorous rhythm of the story carried Ivan’s insight to a higher level. As for the scene in which Ivan engages in a conversation with the two widows in the garden, why did Vasilisa cry, and why did Lukerya maintain a “fixed an immovable stare” as Ivan told the stories of Peter and Jesus? Why did the story’s narrator suddenly mention that Ivan was “only twenty-two” in the midst of showing Ivan’s enlightenment?

I haven’t yet figured out how to conclude my questions, but I do know how Anton Chekhov’s “The Student” works as a story of realism. Still, I would not call this a perfect short story, because I believe that the best short stories consist of a variety of characters with differing characteristics and conflicts that create an (maybe sometimes not, but most of the time) exciting atmosphere. The reason why I they are more interesting is pretty much self-explanatory; such short stories allow their readers the pleasure of guessing what might happen next.

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p.s. I personally think taking AP Literature & Comp sort of disabled me from becoming aware of my impressions and rather habituated me to look for literary devices... :(